[5] Larger towns such as Tumbatu developed as a result of this extensive trade in the early second millennium CE, and archaeological investigations have uncovered large amounts of imported ceramics and glass beads at the site, attesting to the extensive trade networks existing between African urban areas and other Indian Ocean ports.

It is surrounded by a reef, making it somewhat isolated from the rest of Zanzibar, even though its southern shore is only 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Mkokotoni on Unguja Island.

Islanders who belong to the Shirazi ethnic group claim descent from Persian royalty that reputedly arrived in the ninth century.

These kinds of oral traditions are common along the entire Swahili coast, and may be reflective of more recent colonial and post-colonial developments in East Africa, which emphasised race and tribal difference, as more recent archaeological and linguistic evidence indicates local African origin for the Swahili culture and settlements.

Nevertheless, it inspired Dutch maritime anthropologist and ethnohistorian A. H. J. Prins to visit the island by dhow from Zanzibar and identify the ancient Shirazi port city's ruins in June 1957.