Sultanate of Mombasa

The Sultanate of Mombasa was a Swahili city-state on the coast of what is now Kenya, which broke away to become independent from the Sultanate of Kilwa in 1502 and was governed from the walled port city of Mombasa, whose founding local tradition places around 900 AD. Portuguese forces clashed with the sultanate repeatedly through the sixteenth century, and Ottoman forces briefly captured Mombasa in 1585 before the Portuguese retook it, ruling the city from 1593 until the capture of Fort Jesus in 1698 brought Mombasa under the influence of the Imamate of Oman. The city and its sultanate remained contested between local rulers and Omani Zanzibar through the following two centuries until the British took control, formally receiving Mombasa on 25 May 1887 and placing it under full colonial administration by 1895.