Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Trans Saharan Trade Route
225
Marrakesh
Trans Saharan Trade Route
Stavan, Aayna, Gian
Travel
What is Being Traded
Currency
Timbuktu
Mali and Timbuktu
You will see the lavish mosques and influx of gold throughout the city. You will hear the artisans working and trading with the merchants traveling on their camels from the trade roads. The languages of Malinke and Mandinka will ring in your ears. There, the smells of rice, millet, and fonio will entrap your senses as you taste the rich flavors of these foods shortly after. Meanwhile, you will see merchants trading salt for gold and Muslim scholars learning and worshipping at various mosques around the flourishing city.
Details
- Located in West Africa, it was at the center of desert and water, thus, it was an ideal trading center
- Important city in Mali empire which had Mansa Musa who distributed mounds of gold around Egypt and the Middle East and spread the idea that Mali was an empire of gold
- Built on gold and salt trade
- Was a center for Muslim scholars and religious study
- Islamic influence and was home to three major West African mosques: Djinguereber, Sankore, and Sidi Yada
- Sankore served as both a mosque and Sankore University where it taught Islam and its teachings
- There were tribes and cultural groups throughout the empire and they were a part of the Mande peoples who spoke similar languages and practiced similar cultures
- The people in the city were divided into castes where farmers were highly respected, then came artisans, and also fishermen, scribes, civil servants, soldiers, and slaves
- Malians in Timbuktu ate rice, millet, fonio -- a type of fine cereal that is eaten with meat, fish, or vegetable sauce -- and kola nuts
Marrakesh
Details
Immediately upon arriving in Marrakesh, your vision will be flooded with waves of red sandstone as the color dominates the “red city.” You will hear the bustling sounds of merchants trading on the trans-Saharan trade route as they prepare to ride their camels on the salt roads down to Timbuktu. You will witness the grandeur of the Koutoubia mosque in the city as it stands out as one of the most important landmarks. You will smell the lavish spices like saffron, Talaouine, mint, olives, orange, lemons, cinnamon, cumin, paprika, fennel and many more as the Morrocan meals are cooked. You will taste lamb, chicken, couscous, and vegetables while in the city. You will hear the rushing of water as the irrigation systems maintain the city’s gardens and agriculture. You hear the Moroccan Arabic and see Muslims going to worship at mosques. Occasionally, you will also hear and witness the political turmoil happening within the city as it falls into a state of decline.
Details:
- It was an Islamic city with lots of mosques, Marrakesh is nicknamed the “red town” because of the use of red in a lot of its buildings
- The Koutoubia mosque is one of Marrakesh’s most important landmarks
- The Salt Roads connected Morroco/Marrakesh to Timbuktu
- Ate Morrocan cuisine, including lamb, chicken, couscous, and vegetables, as well as lots of various spices
- Used irrigation systems since the 11th century
- Lots of Muslim influence with lots of mosques and spoke in Arabic
What is Being Traded
Pictures
- Gold for Salt
- The language of arabic
- Islam
- Copper
- Ivory, cloth, silver, tin, lead, perfumes, bracelets, brooks, stone + coral beads
- Animal hides, civet musk, spices, ambergris, shea butter
- Horses, books, swords, chain mail
- Bartering
Primary Source
Ibn Battuta's Experience in Gao
“Then I traveled to the city of Kawkaw (Gao). It is a big city on the Nile, one of the best of the cities of the blacks. It is one of the biggest and most fertile of their places, with much rice. milk, chicken and fish. In it there are inani pumpkins which have no rivals. The transactions of its people in buying and selling are carried out by means of cowries—as is the case among the people of Mali.
How Would They Travel
Most of the travel was done through camels and caravans, Camels are useful since they can travel long distances through deserts. Camels have special hooves that allow them to walk long distances through the desert sand. As well they store large amounts of water in their body fat which means they do not need to drink for a long time which is useful when traveling through a desert. Caravanserai where inns along these major trade routes that acted as rest stops for merchants
Map
Map of the Trans Saharan Trade Route
Currency
Merchants would barter and try to lower the prices of goods being sold in the Trans Sahara Trade Route. For trade, it would go as normal trade goes, they would give something and eventually get something. Often salt from Northern Africa would be traded for gold from Mali. There were forms of credit and the development of money economies in the trade route. In the fourteenth century, they would use cowrie shells (a new currency from Eastern Africa) but gold and salt stayed as the strongest ways to trade for items. Mainly, things would be paid for/bought with salt or gold. Additionally, slaves were widely used as currency along the trade route.