Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
From Timbuktu I sailed down the Nile [Niger] on a small boat, hollowed out of a single piece of wood…I went on . . . to Gawgaw [Gaogao], which is a large city on the Nile [Niger]... The buying and selling of its inhabitants is done with cowry-shells, and the same is the case at Malli [the city of Mali]. I stayed there about a month, and then set out in the direction of Tagadda by land with a large
caravan of merchants from Ghadamas.
—Ibn Battuta (1304–1353)
Learning Objectives
- H: Explain the causes and effects of the growth of Trans-Saharan trade.
- I: Explain how the expansion of empires influenced trade and communication over time.
While the East African Coast had been fairly well populated for many
centuries before the arrival of Islam, few societies had inhabited the Sahara Desert because its arid climate made it nearly impossible to farm. Though nomadic communities did conduct some trade across the Sahara, the volume of trade increased with the arrival of Muslim merchants in the 7th and 8th centuries. When empires such as Mali took over the area in the early 1200s, commerce expanded dramatically. As illustrated in the commentaries of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim scholar and explorer of the 14th century, merchants and traders used caravans to facilitate commerce. Africans traded gold, ivory, hides, and enslaved people for Arab and Berber salt, cloth, paper, and horses.
Sections
Trans-Saharan Trade
Think As a Historian: THINK AS A HISTORIAN: IDENTIfY HISTORICAL PROCESSES BY ASKING “HOW”
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Reflect
REFLECT ON THE TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION
1. In one to three paragraphs, explain the causes and effects of trans- Saharan trade and how the growth of empires influenced trade and communication.
AP Exam Practice
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