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TRANS = SAHARAN= TRADE= NETWORK=

across Set of connections

Exchange of goods

Sahara Desert

1. It was a link between Africa and the Arab world.

2. This provided the opportunity of the trade of goods, such as gold, and ideas, including religion.

What was travel like along the trans-

Saharan trade route?1. People traveled using camels because they had flat feet to move easily across sand and could retain water (and would not have to be fed often).

2. It took two months to cross the 1200 mile Sahara Desert.

3. It was a difficult trip, but people risked dying of thirst to become rich.

I am the king of Ghana. I, along with the societies of Berbers in the north, keep the Saharan trade routes safe and punish thieves severely!

How did the ideas & beliefs of Islam spread into Africa?

1. Arab merchants came to live in Africa and so their ideas spread.

2. Arab traders brought the first system of writing and numbers to West Africa.

3. The African kings hired Arabs as government officials to help them take care of trade matters.

AFRICANS CONVERT TO ISLAM4. The Arabs in West Africa taught about

the Muslim religion and so many Africans converted to Islam and mosques were built.

5. Mandinke people on the southern Sahara acted as middlemen traders between Arab caravans and Wangara gold miners.

6. Africans converted to Islam because it stressed the belief in the “brotherhood of all believers,” which encouraged trust and peaceful trade between people of different nationalities.

7. However, the Africans kept some of their own traditions, such as a matrilineal form of choosing the next ruler (the next king would be the king’s sister’s son). Women were also still very independent and they still scarred their faces to show clan affiliations.

8. The Africans that converted to Islam observed the hours of prayers, they studied their books of law, and

memorized the Qur’an.

9. Some also took the

3,500-mile

pilgrimage to the

holy city of

Mecca, including

Mali’s king,

Mansa Musa.

Begin Log #3…

The Trans-Saharan trade network was a set of __________________ across the ________________ Desert where people ____________ goods, especially ________ and ________. The Africans traveled in ________ caravans to North Africa and Arabia to trade goods such as….

Islam spread because…

3. Describe the Trans-Saharan trade network and its impact on the spread of Islam in Africa.