Sijilmasa and the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade
Sijilmasa y el comercio transahariano de oro y sal
- Date
- c. 800 · confidence medium
- Place
- Sijilmasa, Rissani, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco
- Credited to
- Midrarids, Berber and Arab merchants
- Field
- Movement
What it is
An oasis city founded around 757, the northern terminus of the camel caravans that crossed the Sahara to exchange salt and manufactured goods for gold and slaves from the western Sudan. Its mint supplied gold to the medieval Mediterranean world.
Trans-Saharan trade existed earlier (Garamantes) and intensified with the camel and Islam; the c. 800 date is a convention around the founding of Sijilmasa in 757-758.
What it led to
- gold for the Fatimid and Almoravid dinar and for the Mediterranean economy
- the rise of the Ghana, Mali and Songhai empires through the gold trade
- spread of Islam and Arabic script to the Sahel