The Swahili Coast city-states flourished through Indian Ocean trade during the 12th century, connecting Africa with Arabia, Persia, India, and beyond. This cosmopolitan environment fostered multilingual oral literature in Swahili, Arabic, and other languages, though written records from this early period are scarce.

Swahili oral poetry traditions developed in this period, later recorded in written form, blending African, Arabic, and Persian influences into distinctive coastal literary culture. Trade connections facilitated exchange of literary motifs and forms across the Indian Ocean, enriching East African oral traditions with外来 elements. The multilingual merchant class likely composed occasional poetry in multiple languages, though most such works survive only in later written compilations.