1. A region of eastern Africa, comprising Zanzibar Island and several adjacent islands off the northeast coast of Tanzania. Arab and Portuguese traders visited the region in early times, and it was controlled by Omanis in the 1700s and 1800s before being established as a protectorate by Britain in 1890. Zanzibar became an independent sultanate in 1963, but a republic was declared after an uprising in 1964, and Zanzibar joined Tanganyika later that year to form Tanzania.

2. A city of Tanzania on the western coast of Zanzibar Island. Founded in the 1500s as a Portuguese trading post, it was a major center of the East African ivory trade in the 1800s.