By 1100, all regions of Madagascar were inhabited, although the total population remained small. Societies organised at the behest of hasina, which later evolved to embody kingship, and competed with one another over the island's estuaries, with oral histories describing bloody clashes and earlier settlers often pushed along the coast or inland. An Arab geographer wrote in 1224 that the island consisted of a great many towns and kingdoms, with kings making war on each other. Assisted by climate change, the peoples gradually transformed the island from dense forest to grassland for cultivation and zebu pastoralism. Oral traditions of the central highlands describe encountering an earlier population called the Vazimba, thought to have been the first settlers of Madagsacar, represented as primitive dwarfs. From the 13th century Muslim settlers arrived, integrating into the respective societies, and held high status owing to Islamic trading networks.
By 1100, all regions of Madagascar were inhabited, although the total population remained small. Societies organised at the behest of hasina, which later evolved to embody kingship, and competed with one another over the island's estuaries, with oral histories describing bloody clashes and earlier settlers often pushed along the coast or inland. An Arab geographer wrote in 1224 that the island consisted of a great many towns and kingdoms, with kings making war on each other. Assisted by climate change, the peoples gradually transformed the island from dense forest to grassland for cultivation and zebu pastoralism. Oral traditions of the central highlands describe encountering an earlier population called the Vazimba, thought to have been the first settlers of Madagsacar, represented as primitive dwarfs. From the 13th century Muslim settlers arrived, integrating into the respective societies, and held high status owing to Islamic trading networks.