Shirazi era

The "Shirazi era" refers to a mythic origin in the history of Southeast Africa (and especially Tanzania), between the 13th century and 15th century, as recorded in the 15th century Kilwa Chronicle, where many towns were founded by Persians from the Shiraz region "between the eighth and fifteenth centuries".

21st century advances in population genetics have yielded support for the traditional narrative. Although the maternal heritage of the present and pre-modern population is principally of Sub-Saharan lineages, primarily Bantu and Pastoral Neolithic, the majority of the male heritage, in the coastal settlements (Swahili coast), is of Asian origin, with 80–90% of the Asian DNA originating from Persian men. The identified Y-DNA haplogroups found are those most common to Persian-domianted West Asia, with the typically non-African J2, G2, and R1a haplogroups being most frequent in the samples.