Editing Comoros (section)

=== Settlement ===
[[File:Dhow.jpg|right|thumb|A large [[dhow]] with [[lateen]] sail rigs]]
[[File:Vanilla plantation in wood dsc00190.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[vanilla]] plantation]]

According to [[mythology]], a [[jinn]]i dropped a [[Gemstone|jewel]], which formed a great circular inferno. This became the [[Mount Karthala|Karthala volcano]], which created the island of Ngazidja (Grande Comore). [[King Solomon]] is also said to have visited the island accompanied by his queen [[Queen of Sheba|Bilqis]].

The first attested human inhabitants of the Comoro Islands are now thought to have been [[Austronesian people|Austronesian]] settlers travelling by boat from [[Island Southeast Asia|islands in Southeast Asia]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=113 |issue=24 |pages=6635–6640 |author1=Alison Crowther |author2=Leilani Lucas |author3=Richard Helm |author4=Mark Horton |author5=Ceri Shipton |author6=Henry T. Wright |display-authors=etal |date=2016 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1522714113 |pmid=27247383 |pmc=4914162 |bibcode=2016PNAS..113.6635C |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=The Comoros show the earliest Austronesian gene flow into the Swahili Corridor |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=102 |pages=58–68 |author1=Nicolas Brucato |author2=Veronica Fernandes |author3=Stéphane Mazières |author4=Pradiptajati Kusuma |author5=Murray P. Cox|display-authors=etal |date=2018 |issue=1 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.11.011 |pmid=29304377 |pmc=5777450 |doi-access=free}}</ref> These people arrived in the area no later than the eighth century AD, the date of the earliest known archaeological site, found on [[Mayotte]], although settlement beginning in the first century has been postulated.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Country Study: Comoros |publisher=US Department of the Army |author=Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program |date=August 1994 |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/kmtoc.html |access-date=15 January 2007 |location=Washington, D.C. |editor=Ralph K. Benesch |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070112164802/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/kmtoc.html |archive-date=12 January 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Subsequent settlers came from the east coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the [[Persian Gulf]], the [[Malay Archipelago]], and [[Madagascar]]. [[Bantu languages|Bantu]]-speaking settlers were present on the islands from the beginnings of settlement {{Chronology citation needed|date=October 2024}}, probably brought to the islands as slaves.<ref name="Walker, Iain 2019">Walker, Iain. "Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea: A History of the Comoros." Hurst Publishers. 2019.</ref>

Development of the Comoros is divided into phases. The earliest reliably recorded phase is the Dembeni phase (eighth to tenth centuries), during which there were several small settlements on each island.<ref name=spear>{{cite journal |author=Thomas Spear |title=Early Swahili History Reconsidered |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=33 |issue=2 |year=2000 |pages=257–290 |doi=10.2307/220649 |jstor=220649}}</ref> From the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, trade with the island of Madagascar and merchants from the [[Swahili coast]] and the [[Middle East]] flourished, more villages were founded and existing villages grew. Settlers from the Arabian peninsula, particularly [[Hadhramaut]], arrived during this period.