A dry sea

The largest desert in the world is the Sahara—3.5 million square miles from the Nile River to the Atlantic Ocean. The United States would fit inside of it.

In the Sahara, there are only a few islands where people can permanently settle. It seems like a barrier. Describing the Sahara Desert is like describing an ocean. In fact, the desert’s name comes from the Arabic word sāhil, meaning “shores.” How does our understanding of the Sahara change when we imagine it as a sea, linking people through the exchange of goods and ideas?

From 1200 to 1450, the trans-Saharan trading system reached its peak. Caravans of camels and merchants transported goods across the desert. Trade across the Sahara linked the great kingdoms of West Africa to Eurasia.

Why would someone try and cross the Sahara? The development of extensive trans-Saharan trade routes required valuable trade goods. Additionally, merchants needed a way to move goods across the desert.

The ship of the desert

Like merchants at sea, caravans in the Sahara faced storms and wrecks that could endanger the caravan. Any successful caravan required experienced guides, and the best were Berbers. Some Berbers were pastoralists who lived on the edges of the desert and traveled with their livestock. Like pastoralists in Eurasia, the Berbers were essential to trade. They captained the “ship of the desert”—the camel.

Developments in travel technologies enabled new long-distance trade routes. The introduction of the camel was the most important. Camels are superior to horses for desert travel. The Berbers improved the camel saddle, allowing them to carry larger loads over greater distances. A single camel could carry around 400 pounds of trade goods. Over shorter distances, they could carry up to 1,200 pounds.

Saharan caravans¹ required massive organization. Usually, the merchants making their way north or south across the desert rented camels. Caravans set out during the cooler months, traveling at the coolest times of day. A caravan traveled around 20 miles a day, following water sources.

Pastoralists were essential for the trans- Saharan trade, but they also posed a threat. Some might attack caravans. States and merchants paid ranchers in exchange for safe passage. By the 1200s, it was common for caravans to travel with thousands of camels. Timbuktu in the Mali Empire started out as a stop for caravans and then grew into a major city.

A land of gold: The Mali and Songhai Empires

Many goods were traded, but it was gold and salt that drove the trade. Salt is necessary for human life, but it was in short supply in West Africa. Berber tribes controlled several salt mines, which allowed them to buy goods like gold from West African cities. They could also purchase enslaved people in these cities. Goods and enslaved people were taken to the Mediterranean and Egypt. The trans-Saharan routes reached their peak from the 1100s to 1400s.

The region of West Africa south of the Sahara was home to powerful empires and large cities. Farming societies like the Mali and Songhai empires thrived. These empires depended on trade across the desert. Emperors controlled merchants’ movements and guarded the secret locations of gold mines. The empires became wealthy and large.

Waves of change: The arrival of Islam

Powerful Islamic empires developed, and there were many Muslim merchants. They united much of Afro-Eurasia into one trading system. West Africans converted to Islam, and trade grew.

Arab merchants traded for gold in West Africa. West Africans also traveled north. Many of them were enslaved.² But plenty of West Africans made the journey voluntarily, including pilgrims to Mecca.

Perhaps the most important thing traders carried weighed nothing at all: Islam. Islam was the most important factor in the expansion of trade. After the Arab conquests of the 600s CE, the Berbers converted to Islam. Many West African merchants converted as well. Islam offered a shared system of values. And Arabic was now used in business dealings and provided a common language, making trade easier.

In West Africa, Islam spread first to cities. Most converts lived in cities and were merchants or elites. Since most people did not live in cities, local religions remained important.

New routes

Trade, cross-cultural exchange, and Islam created a golden age for the empires of West Africa. Travelers and scholars moved around the world. Mali ruler Mansa Musa traveled to Mecca in the 1320s. He traveled with tens of thousands of camels and servants, carrying gold. He helped create myths that West Africa was a land where gold grew like plants.

In response, Europeans began exploring the West African coast. During the 1400s, Portuguese sailors looked for a route around Africa to the Indian Ocean trade. They established new sea routes. But large caravans continued to cross the desert right up until the early 1900s.

1 A caravan is a group of people travelling together for protection, often for religious pilgrimage or trade. Caravans were common on the overland trade routes of Afro-Eurasia.
2 Slavery in this era had little to do with race or skin color. West African slaves were usually prisoners captured in war. White people from the Caucasus joined black people from East and West Africa in enslavement in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean markets.