Ibn Battuta, a legal scholar from Tangier, went on a hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325. Instead of returning home, he decided to follow Islamic trade routes, traveling over 75,000 miles across North Africa, West Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia over the next two decades. During his travels, he documented his observations of various Muslim empires and kingdoms, including Mali, where the wealthy Mansa Musa ruled over rich gold mines, and the Delhi Sultanate in northern India. Ibn Battuta provided valuable firsthand accounts of trans-Saharan trade networks, cities like Timbuktu and Cairo, and the impact of the Black Death plague during this

1. EXPANDING TRADE
NETWORKS IN AFRICA AND
INDIA, 1000 - 1500Chapter 11

2. MUSLIM TRAVELER
In 1325, a twenty-year-old legal scholar named Ibn Battuta set
off on a hajj pilgrimage from his home in Tangier. In Mecca, Ibn
Battuta made a decision that changed his life: instead of
returning home, he decided to keep going. He followed trade
routes that knitted the entire Islamic world together.

3. SELECTED JOURNEYS OF IBN
BATTUTA

4. INTRODUCTION
In 1325, Ibn Battuta left his home in Tangier to go on the Hajj
Once in Mecca, Ibn Battuta decided to keep traveling
 Traveled the Islamic trade routes and covered 75,000 miles from North Africa to
northern India
When his travels were over, he dictated an account of them

5. RECONSTRUCTING THE
HISTORY OF
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
BEFORE 1000The geography and languages of Sub-Saharan
Africa
The Sahara Desert is 3,000 miles from east to
west and 1,000 miles north and south
Single-humped camels were introduced to
the Sahara from Arabia in the first century
B.C.E.
South of the Sahara is the Sahel, a semi-
desert region
South of that are grassy savannas, then
wooded savannas, followed by rainforests

6. THE GEOGRAPHY AND
LANGUAGES OF
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
There are 2000 different
languages in Africa
Several languages have had
written forms for a thousand
years or longer
Those south of the Sahara had
no written form until after 1800

7. AFRICAN TRADE ROUTES
BEFORE 1500

8. THE SPREAD OF BANTU
LANGUAGES
Glottochronology: analysis of
the history of languages
Multiple waves of language
spread
Likely that indigenous peoples
adopted farming, iron-
smelting, and the Bantu
languages at different times in
different regions

9. SOCIETY AND FAMILY LIFE (SLIDE
1 OF 2)
Sources for pre-1000 sub-Saharan Africa
 Oral histories
 Griots
 Writings by Arab geographers and explorers
Most sub-Saharan Africans lived in villages
Descent from a common ancestor defines a
lineage or clan
Work in the villages was generally divided by
gender
 Men had greater prestige, hunted, worked
metals, fought in the military, traveled for
trade or diplomatic negotiations
 Women tended the crops, gathered fruits and

10. THE KINGDOM OF MALI AND
ITS PRECURSORS IN SUB-
SAHARAN AFRICA
The kingdom of Mali was located in West
Africa centered on the Niger River basin
Straddled the Sahel and the vast
savannah grasslands
Included some of the biggest gold
mines in the world
Sought after by merchants coming to
the area

11. THE KINGDOM OF GHANA, CA.
700–1000Source for studying Ghana is al-Bakri
(d. 1094), in Book of Routes and Realms
Saharan trading kingdoms began as small settlements
where trade routes met
 Sijilmasa, north of the Sahara, began as such a
settlement
 Periodic market then evolved into a town
 Became a kingdom and royal family made money from
taxing traders
Kingdom of Ghana, south of the Sahara, followed a
similar path
 Some of the population had converted to Islam
 The kings of Ghana did not convert but were
welcoming to Muslims
 Muslim geographer al-Bakri describes the natives’

12. JENNE-JENO: A DIFFERENT
PATH TO COMPLEX SOCIETY
Largest urban site was Jenne-jeno located on
Middle Niger Valley
Settlement covered 80 acres – evidence of
complex society
After 400 C.E. iron smelting and occupational
specializations
City declined after 1300

13. EVIDENCE OF PLAGUE?
This beautifully crafted
statue, 10 inches (25
cm) tall, shows a seated
man clasping a leg and
resting his head
sideways with his
mouth open. Is he in
pain? Mourning
someone? Or simply
lost in thought? The
raised bumps on his
back may represent
plague pustules. The
plague might have
contributed to the
demise of the Jenne
state.

14. SUNDIATA AND THE
FOUNDING OF THE MALI
KINGDOM, CA. 1230 (SLIDE 1 OF 3)
Source for Sundiata is an oral epic
called Sundiata
Only written down in the twentieth
century
Oral histories were recorded by a
griot, a storyteller
Ibn Battuta describes a griot as
wearing an elaborate costume and
reciting before the king, called
sultan

15. SUNDIATA AND THE
FOUNDING OF THE MALI
KINGDOM, CA. 1230 (SLIDE 2 OF 3)
Sundiata was the son of a king
and his hump-backed wife
Sundiata was exiled for ten
years by one of his father’s
other wives
Returned to conquer the Sosso
king Soumaoro
Created the state of Mali

16. SUNDIATA AND THE
FOUNDING OF THE MALI
KINGDOM, CA. 1230 (SLIDE 3 OF 3)
According to the epic, states are formed
by conquest of humans or supernatural
forces
Arab historian Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406)
in Tunis recorded the names of Mali
kings and their major events
Army of Mali had independent armies
with local leaders

17. A MODERN HEADDRESS
FROM MALI
When Ibn Battuta visited the sultan of Mali, he described griots
who wore a feathered costume topped by a bird’s head with a
beak. Perhaps he saw something like this bird mask, made in
the twentieth century from the same region of Mali that he
went to.

18. TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE
NETWORKS (SLIDE 1 OF 2)
Ibn Battuta provided details of Mali and
the trans-Saharan caravan trade network
Traveled with the Saharan caravans
along trade routes
In Taghaza, south of the Sahara, Ibn
Battuta described the mining of salt
So little rain fell in the area that the
locals built houses of salt
Salt was so precious in that hot climate
it was used as currency

19. TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE
NETWORKS (SLIDE 2 OF 2)
Ibn Battuta went to Timbuktu, on the
Niger River
People of Mali captured slaves in the
forest to the south
Most were female slaves, valuable as
servants and concubines
Male slaves were often castrated
Slaves and gold were the two most
important trade goods of Mali

20. THE RICHEST KING IN THE
LAND?
Mansa Musa of Mali In 1375, a European cartographer mapped
Afro-Eurasia with unprecedented accuracy. The mapmaker
included written labels that identify the seated figure on the
lower right as Mansa Musa, the richest king in the land because
of the abundant gold in his country.

21. SOCIETY IN MALI
The observance of Islam was
different from Muslim cultures in
other states
Mali society was matrilineal with
descent and inheritance determined
by women
Ibn Battuta objected to the lack of
seclusion of Mali women
Praised attendance at Friday
services and memorizing the

22. ISLAMIC NORTH AFRICA AND
THE MAMLUK EMPIRE
North Africa was divided into three
sultanates
Thousands of pilgrims traveled to
Mecca for the hajj, going through
Cairo
Cairo became was the cultural
capital of the Islamic world in
1261
Rulers of the Mamluk empire

23. THE SULTANATES OF NORTH
AFRICA (SLIDE 1 OF 2)
Tunis, capital of one of the three
North African sultanates, had a
population of about 100,000 in
1325
Major trade port in the
Mediterranean
Sultans collected taxes from the
people and provided military and
police protections and a justice
system

24. THE SULTANATES OF NORTH
AFRICA (SLIDE 2 OF 2)
Legal cases were heard by a qadi, or
“chief jurist”
Assisted by subordinate jurists
Qadis enforced sharia, or “Islamic law,”
based on the Quran, hadith, and
precedent
Jurists heard disputes after Friday
prayers
A qadi’s decisions, called fatwas, were
enforced by the sultan as law

25. THE MAMLUK EMPIRE 1250–
1517 (SLIDE 1 OF 2)
Mamluk originally meant “slave”
In the ninth and tenth centuries, Islamic
rulers in Afghanistan, Egypt, North
Africa, and Spain bought Turks as
slaves to serve in the army
Taken as children, raised as soldiers,
converted to Islam
Mamluks served in high positions in the
Ayyubid Dynasty of Egypt (1171–1250)

26. THE MAMLUK EMPIRE 1250–
1517 (SLIDE 2 OF 2)
In 1250, the Mamluks staged a
coup and took over Egypt
In 1260, the Mamluks became one
of the few armies to ever defeat the
Mongols
Mamluks, who originated in the
Central Asia grasslands, fought in
a style similar to the Mongols

27. CAIRO: BAGHDAD’S SUCCESSOR
AS THE CULTURAL CAPITAL OF
THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Mamluks reestablished the caliphate in
Cairo in 1261
A new kind of Islamic mysticism became
popular
Sufis were mystics who taught that
individuals could experience God
directly, with mediation
Cairo became a cultural center
Population of 400,000 to 500,000

28. THE OUTBREAK OF PLAGUE
IN DAMASCUS, 1348
1346 : First new outbreak of the plague
was at Kaffa, a port on the Black Sea
Traveled to Italy and Egypt
By 1348, it had reached Syria, where
Ibn Battuta describes a thousand
people a day dying
Plague losses in Egypt and Syria have
been estimated at 33 to 40 percent of
the population

29. EAST AFRICA, INDIA, AND THE
TRADE NETWORKS OF THE
INDIAN OCEAN
There are three different regions on the
Indian Ocean, with their languages and
states: Indian Ocean trade network
East African coast
Southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula
West coast of India
States made their money from taxing
trade along the ocean routes

30. THE EAST AFRICAN COAST
Travelers on the Indian Ocean used
dhows
Had no deck; travelers slept with the
cargo
Were inexpensive to make and to sail
Kilwa was a major port city near the
Zambezi River
Center for trade of gold coming from
the interior with China, Persia, and
India

31. THE DHOWS OF THE INDIAN
OCEAN
Unlike most other boats, the dhows of the Indian Ocean were sewn
and not nailed together. Boatmakers sewed planks of teak or
coconut trees together with a cord and added a single sail. This
boat design was so practical that it is still in use today.

32. GREAT ZIMBABWE AND ITS
SATELLITES, CA. 1275–1550
South of Kilwa was the state of Great
Zimbabwe
Before 1000 C.E., most people of
Zimbabwe lived in small villages
Walls of Great Zimbabwe do not
resemble any Islamic buildings;
evidence that there was no Arabic
influence here as on the coast
There was no written language in Great
Zimbabwe

33. THE DELHI SULTANATE AND
THE HINDU KINGDOMS OF
SOUTHERN INDIA
In 1324, Muhammad bin Tughluq took
over the Delhi sultanate (1210–1526)
Delhi sultanate had been created by
Mamluk slaves from Afghanistan
Tughluq conquered most of India, his
army in search of plunder
The most important Hindu empire was
based at Vijayanagar

34. THE DELHI SULTANATE

35. THE RUINS OF GREAT
ZIMBABWE (SLIDE 1 OF 2)
Located near
Masvingo,
Zimbabwe, the Great
Zimbabwe site
contains several
large ruins and
many smaller stone
structures whose
original purpose is
undocumented and
therefore still not
well understood.
The ruins cover
almost 1,800 acres.
The site was first
settled before 1000,
when the first stone
structures were
built, and continued
to grow through the

36. THE RUINS OF GREAT
ZIMBABWE (SLIDE 2 OF 2)

37. QUTB MINAR
One of Delhi’s most recognizable landmarks, Qutb Minar is a
high tower with inscriptions from the Quran written on the face
of red and tan sandstone. To the right stands a 23-foot (7 m)
iron pillar, originally from the courtyard of a Jain temple, that
dates to at least the 300s, if not earlier.

38. CHAPTER 11 TIMELINE
EVENT APPROXIMATE DATES (CE)
West Africa: Kingdom of Ghana 700 to circa 1000
For Comparison: United Abbasid caliphate 750 to 945
India: Chola dynasty in south India and Ceylon Circa 850
East Africa: Earliest settlement at Great Zimbabwe
site
1,000
North Africa: Al-Bakri's Book of Routes and Realms 1,068
North Africa: Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt 1171 to 1250
For Comparison: Ibn Jubayr's pilgrimage 1183 to 1185
India: Delhi sultanate in north India 1206 to 1526
West Africa: Mali kingdom in western Sudan 1230 to 1450
North Africa: Mamluk empire in Egypt and Syria 1250 to 1517
For Comparison: Mongols depose caliph 1258
East Africa: Great Zimbabwe kingdom 1275 to 1550
Lifetime of Ibn Battuta 1304 to 1368
India: Hindu Vijayanagar kingdom in south India 1336 to 1614
North Africa: Ibn Khaldun's world history 1377
For Comparison: Ming Chinese voyages reach
Indian Ocean
1405 to 1433