Comparatively other unaffiliated African Kingdoms from relative periods bore similar names including Mwenekongo, or Manikongo in Portuguese.

There are several Mutapa origin stories, the most widely accepted told by oral tradition is of the princes of Great Zimbabwe.

[4] Mutota's son and successor, Nyanhewe Matope, extended this new kingdom into an empire encompassing most of the lands between Tavara and the Indian Ocean.

These sertanejos lived alongside Swahili traders and even took up service among Shona kings as interpreters and political advisors.

According to Swahili traders whose accounts were recorded by the Portuguese historian João de Barros, Great Zimbabwe was a medieval capital city built of stones of marvellous size without the use of mortar.

The ceilings of the rooms in the palace were gilt with golden plates alongside ivory chandeliers which hung on silver chains and filled the halls with light.

[11] In 1561, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, Gonçalo da Silveira managed to make his way into the Mwenemutapa's court and convert him to Christianity.

[12] Mutapa proved invulnerable to attack and even economic manipulation due to the Mwenemutapa's strong control over gold production.

[12] What posed the greatest threat was infighting among different factions which led to opposing sides calling on the Portuguese for military aid.

[13] Mutapa signed treaties making it a Portuguese vassal and ceding gold mines, but none of these concessions were ever put into effect.

[14] In the 17th century, a low ranking Mutapa prince broke away from the Empire, invading the neighboring Kingdom of Butua.

In 1684 his forces encountered and decisively defeated those of Mwenemutapa Kamharapasu Mukombwe just south of Mutapa's metro district at the Battle of Mahungwe.

In 1695, Changamire Dombo overran the gold-producing Kingdom of Manyika and took his army east and destroyed the Portuguese fair-town of Masikwesi.

This gave him complete control of all gold-producing territory from Butwa to Manyika, supplanting Mutapa as the premier Shona Kingdom in the region.

[15] It appears neither the Rozwi nor the Portuguese could maintain control of the Mutapa state for very long, and it moved back and forth between the two throughout the 17th century.

Gold from the empire inspired in Europeans a belief that Mwenemutapa held the legendary mines of King Solomon, referred to in the Bible as the biblical port of Ophir.

[16] The belief that the mines were inside the Mwenemutapa kingdom in southern Africa was one of the factors that led to the Portuguese exploration of the hinterland of Sofala in the 16th century, and this contributed to early development of Mozambique, as the legend was widely used among the less educated populace to recruit colonists.

[citation needed] Legacy For several centuries, this trading empire enabled people across a large territory to live in peace and security under a stable government and succession of rulers.

With primary records dating back to 1502, the empire is a "prime testing ground for theories … concerning economic, political and religious development" in pre-colonial Africa.

The Mutapa Empire is an example of a working system of government in Africa and of a flourishing civilization, both of which are often assumed to have been absent before the coming of the Europeans.