Page 33 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

E m p i r E s o f m E d i E v a l w E s t a f r i c a

The Land of Gold

the early arab geographers who wrote about the end of the 10th century, the anon-
about Ghana described it as an exotic land ymous author of Akhbar al-Zaman claimed
of mystery and wealth. that became the that traders would secretly slip into the king-
essence of Ghana’s reputation in the muslim dom of Ghana where “all the earth . . . is gold.”
world. some arabic writers had fantastic He said they would build fires, melt the pre-
ideas about gold just lying around, waiting cious metal, and steal away with it. the same
to be picked up and carried home. classical author mentioned a traveler in Ghana who
“found. . . places where stalks of gold were
writer ibn al-faqih al Hamadhani (d. ca. 912)
growing” (quoted in levtzion and Hopkins).
said, “in the country of Ghana gold grows we know such tales continued to be told
in the sand as carrots do, and is plucked at for a long time, because in the 14th century,
sunrise.” (quoted in N. levtzion and J. f. p. syrian historian and geographer al-Umari
Hopkins’s Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for (1301–1349) was still describing two kinds of
West African History). plants that had roots of gold.

sugar. Horses from North Africa were one of the most important items
moving south. So were cowrie shells, which were used as currency in
West African markets.
Salt, dates, and copper were traded northward out of the Sahara.
From the forest region went gold and kola nuts. From the savanna went
slaves, elephant and hippopotamus ivory, ostrich feathers, wild and
domestic animal hides, and gum arabic (obtained from acacia trees and
used in the manufacture of ink, textiles, and drugs).

THE CITY OF AWDAGHUST
During the period of Ghana’s greatest power in the late 10th and early
11th centuries, one of the most important commercial cities under its
control was Awdaghust. This city was about 125 miles northwest of
Kumbi Saleh. Abu Ubayd al-Bakri (d. 1094), an Arab scholar living in
Islamic Spain, described it as a large, crowded town with well-built,
handsome houses. The buildings sat on sandy ground below a big
mountain that had absolutely nothing growing on it.

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