The Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros, is an archipelagic country made up of three islands in Southeast Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city is Moroni. The predominant religion of the population—and the official state religion—is Islam. Comoros proclaimed its independence from France on 6 July 1975. The country has three official languages: Comorian, French and Arabic. The Comoros is the only country of the Arab League which is entirely in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also a member state of the African Union, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Indian Ocean Commission.
At , the Comoros is the third-smallest African country by area after São Tomé and Príncipe and Seychelles.Walker, Iain. "Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea: A History of the Comoros." Hurst Publishers. 2019, p 8-9. Although its population was estimated in 2026 to only number 944,388, the Comoros ranks as one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The sovereign state consists of three major islands, namely Grande Comore, Anjouan, and Mohéli, and numerous smaller islands, all of the volcanic Comoro Islands with the exception of Mayotte. Mayotte voted against independence from France in a referendum in 1974 and continues to be administered by France as an overseas department. France has repeatedly vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions that would have affirmed Comorian sovereignty over the island. Mayotte became the overseas department and a region of France in 2011 following a referendum which was passed overwhelmingly. However, the Comoros continues to claim the island, with backing from the AU and UN.
The Comoros were likely first settled by Austronesian-speaking Malagasy peoples, Bantu speakers from East Africa, and seafaring Arab traders. From 1500 the Sultanate of Anjouan dominated the islands, with Grande Comore split between several sultans. It became part of the French colonial empire during the 19th century, before its independence in 1975. It has experienced more than 20 coups or attempted coups, with various heads of state assassinated. Along with this political instability, it ranks in the medium quartile on the Human Development Index. In 2023, the Comoros had the least income inequality among its peers regionally, though poverty remains widespread especially in rural areas. Between 2009 and 2014, about 19% of the population lived below the international poverty line of US $1.90 a day by purchasing power parity.
Etymology The name "Comoros" derives from the Arabic Jazr al-Qumr (), "Islands of the Moon". Alfred Gevrey, a colonial judge who worked in Mayotte wrote in Essai sur les Comores (1870) proposing that Qumr may have referred to a general southern region where Arab sailors would have observed the bright Magellanic Clouds (as elaborated by Yaqut al-Hamawi from inquiries with Zanj peoples), later fixed to the entire Mozambique waters.
History
Settlement
According to mythology, a jinni dropped a jewel, which formed a great circular inferno. This became the Karthala volcano, which created the island of Ngazidja (Grande Comore). King Solomon is also said to have visited the island accompanied by his queen Bilqis.
The first attested human inhabitants of the Comoro Islands are now thought to have been Austronesian settlers travelling by boat from islands in Southeast Asia. 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.
Subsequent settlers came from the east coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, the Malay Archipelago, and Madagascar. Bantu-speaking settlers were present on the islands from the beginnings of settlement. Walker, Iain. "Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea: A History of the Comoros." Hurst Publishers. 2019.
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. 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.
Medieval Comoros and European contact According to legend, in 632, upon hearing of Islam, islanders are said to have dispatched an emissary, Mtswa-Mwindza, to Mecca—but by the time he arrived there, the Islamic prophet Muhammad had died. Nonetheless, after a stay in Mecca, he returned to Ngazidja, where he built a mosque in his home town of Ntsaweni, and led the gradual conversion of the islanders to Islam.
In 933, the Comoros was referred to by Omani sailors as the Perfume Islands."Saudi Aramco World : The Islands of the Moon". saudiaramcoworld.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 2023-12-06.
Among the earliest accounts of East Africa, the works of Al-Masudi describe early Islamic trade routes, and how the coast and islands were frequently visited by Muslims including Persian and Arab merchants and sailors in search of coral, ambergris, ivory, tortoiseshell, gold and slaves for the Arabic slave trade. They also brought Islam to the people of the Zanj including the Comoros. As the importance of the Comoros grew along the East African coast, both small and large mosques were constructed. The Comoros are part of the Swahili cultural and economic complex and the islands became a major hub of trade and an important location in a network of trading towns that included Kilwa, in present-day Tanzania, Sofala (an outlet for Zimbabwean gold), in Mozambique, and Mombasa in Kenya.
The Portuguese arrived in the Indian Ocean at the end of the 15th century, and the first Portuguese visit to the islands seems to have been that of Vasco da Gama's second fleet in 1503.Walker, Iain. "Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea: A History of the Comoros." Hurst Publishers. 2019, p 49-50. For much of the 16th century, the islands provided provisions to the Portuguese fort at Mozambique, and although there was no formal attempt by the Portuguese crown to take possession, some Portuguese traders settled and married local women.
By the end of the 16th century, local rulers on the African mainland were beginning to push back and, with the support of the Omani Sultan Saif bin Sultan, they began to defeat the Dutch and the Portuguese. One of his successors, Said bin Sultan, increased Omani Arab influence in the region, moving his administration to nearby Zanzibar, which came under Omani rule. Nevertheless, the Comoros remained independent, and although the three smaller islands were usually politically unified, the largest island, Ngazidja, was divided into a number of autonomous kingdoms (ntsi).
The islands were well placed to meet the needs of Europeans, initially supplying the Portuguese in Mozambique, then ships, particularly the English, on the route to India, and, later, slaves to the plantation islands in the Mascarenes.
French colonisation
In the last decade of the 18th century, Malagasy warriors, mostly Betsimisaraka and Sakalava, started raiding the Comoros for slaves and the islands were devastated as crops were destroyed and the people were slaughtered, taken into captivity or fled to the African mainland: it is said that by the time the raids finally ended in the second decade of the 19th century only one man remained on Mwali.Walker, Iain. "Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea: A History of the Comoros." Hurst Publishers. 2019, p 254. The islands were repopulated by slaves from the mainland, who were traded to the French in Mayotte and the Mascarenes. On the Comoros, it was estimated in 1865 that as much as 40% of the population consisted of slaves."Comoros – Early Visitors and Settlers ". Library of Congress Country Studies
France first established colonial rule in the Comoros by taking possession of Mayotte in 1841 when the Sakalava usurper sultan (also known as Tsy Levalo) signed the Treaty of April 1841, which ceded the island to the French authorities.Ottenheimer, pp. 53–54 After its annexation, France attempted to convert Mayotte into a sugar plantation colony.
Meanwhile, Ndzwani (or Johanna as it was known to the British) continued to serve as a way station for English merchants sailing to India and the Far East, as well as American whalers, although the British gradually abandoned it following their possession of Mauritius in 1814, and by the time the Suez Canal opened in 1869 there was no longer any significant supply trade at Ndzwani. Local commodities exported by the Comoros were, in addition to slaves, coconuts, timber, cattle, and tortoiseshell. British and American settlers, as well as the island's sultan, established a plantation-based economy that used about one-third of the land for export crops. In addition to sugar on Mayotte, ylang-ylang and other perfume plants, vanilla, cloves, coffee, cocoa beans, and sisal were introduced.
In 1886, Mwali was placed under French protection by its Sultan Mardjani Abdou Cheikh. That same year, Sultan Said Ali of Bambao, one of the sultanates on Ngazidja, placed the island under French protection in exchange for French support of his claim to the entire island, which he retained until his abdication in 1910. In 1908 the four islands were unified under a single administration (Colonie de Mayotte et dépendances) and placed under the authority of the French colonial Governor-General of Madagascar. In 1909, Sultan Said Muhamed of Ndzwani abdicated in favour of French rule, and in 1912, the protectorates were abolished and the islands administered as a single colony. Two years later, the colony was abolished, and the islands became a province of the colony of Madagascar.
An agreement was reached with France in 1973 for the Comoros to become independent in 1978, despite the deputies of Mayotte voting for increased integration with France. A referendum was held on all four of the islands. Three voted for independence by large margins, while Mayotte voted against. On 6 July 1975, however, the Comorian parliament passed a unilateral resolution declaring independence. Ahmed Abdallah proclaimed the independence of the Comorian State (État comorien; دولة القمر) and became its first president. France did not recognise the new state until 31 December, and retained control of Mayotte.
Independence to present
The next 30 years were a period of political turmoil. On 3 August 1975, less than one month after independence, president Ahmed Abdallah was removed from office in an armed coup and replaced with United National Front of the Comoros (FNUK) member Said Mohamed Jaffar. Months later, in January 1976, Jaffar was ousted in favour of his Minister of Defence Ali Soilihi.
The population of Mayotte voted against independence from France in three referendums during this period. The first, held on all the islands on 22 December 1974, won 63.8% support for maintaining ties with France on Mayotte; the second, held in February 1976, confirmed that vote with an overwhelming 99.4%, while the third, in April 1976, confirmed that the people of Mayotte wished to remain a French territory. The three remaining islands, ruled by President Soilihi, instituted a number of socialist and isolationist policies that soon strained relations with France. On 13 May 1978, Bob Denard, once again commissioned by the French intelligence service (SDECE), returned to overthrow President Soilihi and reinstate Abdallah with the support of the French, Rhodesian and South African governments. Ali Soilihi was captured and executed a few weeks later.