The island's over 280,000 inhabitants are predominantly descended from Arab and African ancestors. Agriculture on the island is generally limited to areas lower than 2,000 feet in altitude. Above this altitude is the remnants of a dense tropical forest (in the south) and an area of grassy plain (in the center and north).

European sailing ships stopped for provisions at Ngazidja as early as 1570 when the island was ruled by 12 sultans. Although each was independent of the others, they generally recognized a principal sultan, whose rights and responsibilities were primarily conciliatory in inter-regional disputes, and accorded him or her the title of Sultan Thibe. There was frequent conflict over the right to use this title, especially after the Europeans appeared on the scene, as these latter generally assumed that the title indicated sovereignty over the entire island.

The best documented of the conflicts between sultans is the long and complicated struggle between the rulers of the towns of Bambao and Itsandra during the nineteenth century. This eventually led to the establishment of a French protectorate over the island and the ceding of Ngazidja to France.

The beach at Itsandra, Ngazidja

Moroni is an ancient city in the Comoros. It's name and the islands' name can both be found in the Book of Mormon, the sacred text of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the book, an angel named Moroni revealed to Joseph Smith the location of golden tablets upon which the sacred text is based. The location of the golden tablets was a hill near Palmyra, New York, called, "Cumorah". Is it just a coincidence that both the name of the hill and the name of the angel who revealed the location to Joseph Smith are similar to the names found in the islands of the western Indian Ocean? Or, is there a historical connection between them?

It should be first noted that 'moroni' has a meaning in the local languages spoken in the western Indian Ocean. The word can be translated into English as: "at the place of fire." It is constructed of the root 'moro,' which means "fire" or "heat" and the locative '-ni,' which has the meaning "at the place of". Thus, it is a meaningful name constructed from the morphemes of the local languages reflecting the fact that Moroni is a community located at the base of an immense, active volcano. Secondly, it should be noted that the word 'Moroni' can be found on European maps as early as the middle of the 18th century. The name, 'Comoro', also has a meaning in the local languages. It is composed of an old Swahili locative 'ko-' and the word 'moro.' It's meaning is also "the place of fire" and the name can be found on ancient Arabic maps.

The present evidence suggests that the most likely explanation for the extraordinary similarity between the names in the Book of Mormon and in the Islands is that a historical relationship exists between the two. The names in The Book of Mormon probably resulted from an awareness by Joseph Smith of their existence. American pirates and whalers had visited the islands as early as the seventeenth century. Seamen returning home from their adventures in the western Indian Ocean probably told interesting tales about these exotic islands. Thus, by the time The Book of Mormon first appeared in the 1820s, the names were already known in the U.S. The appearance of "Moroni" and "Cumorah" in the sacred text is probably a result of Joseph Smith having heard of these distant places in the Indian Ocean.

The Old Friday Mosque, Moroni