Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy (1776 – 1840) was the earliest secular Swahili poet whose name has been recorded for posterity. Muyaka was a proud citizen of the island state of Mombasa, and a master of the mashairi quartet form that serves as one of the major prosodic strains in Swahili poetry. Muyaka has been credited with bringing Swahili verse “out of the mosque and into the marketplace”, and his diverse subject matter included political, domestic, amorous, and social themes. He received some form of patronage from the independent Mazrui rulers of Mombasa, and several of his poems expressed resistance to subjugation by the Omani Empire (which ultimately took place in 1837, near the end of his life). Many of his refrains have become proverbs still in use in vernacular Swahili.