Page 32 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

t h e G h a n a E m p i r e

Sahara and Maghrib (northwest Africa) in the north. The northward Camel caravans continue
trade passed over a network of routes connecting Ghana not only with to be an important part of
the Maghrib, but also with Tripoli and Egypt. trade and travel in West
The geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179–1229), a freed slave of Africa. Camels are known
as the “ships of the desert”
Greek origin who became a Muslim, described Ghana’s commercial
because they can carry
position (quoted in Levtzion and Hopkins): “Merchants meet in Ghana heavy loads over long
and from there one enters the arid wastes towards the land of Gold. distances with little or no
Were it not for Ghana, this journey would be impossible, because the water.
land of Gold is in a place isolated from the west in the land of the Sudan.
From Ghana the merchants take provisions [food and water] on the way
to the land of Gold.”
The trans-Saharan trade southward mostly involved manufac-
tured objects and various luxury goods from the Mediterranean world,
Europe, and North Africa. They included iron products such as knives,
scissors, needles, and razors, brass and copperware, luxury garments of
silk, velvet, and brocade, glass and porcelain beads, other kinds of orna-
ments and jewelry, mirrors, carpets, perfumes, paper, tea, coffee, and

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