3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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!
6.
7.
8. 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.
9. AFRICANS CONVERT TO ISLAM
4.
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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. Begin Log #3…
3. Describe the Trans-Saharan trade network and its impact on the
spread of Islam in Africa.
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…
