Sub-Saharan Africa

Bentley, Ziegler, and Streets-Salter wrote how the spread of Islam, from the Middle East to the sub-Saharan Africans societies in west and east of Africa, brought many changes. These changes were manifested because of trade; with trade came cultural and political changes. Furthermore, sub-Saharan societies changed, when many of the wealthy dealers and the presiding leaders adapted the Islamic faith. Moreover, trade, religion and politics, helped Muslim sub-Saharan societies to have a closer connection with the rest of the world. However, the most significant impact on sub-Saharan Africa was the arrival of Islam. After the eighth century, Islam reached West Africa by traveling in two different routes: to the west by the use of camel caravans,

Department of Arts of Africa conveys that, “between the eighth and ninth centuries, Arab traders and travelers, then African clerics, began to spread the religion along the eastern coast of Africa and to the western and central Sudan”; this helped with the growth of new societies. The first group of people that converted to Islam was the Sudanese merchants. These traders would introduce the religion of Islam throughout sub-Saharan Africa. With the introduction of the camel, traveling across the Sahara was accomplished much faster, than before. Muslims in North Africa recognized the value of trading across the Sahara. By the late eighth century, the Muslims had established commercial relations with societies in sub-Saharan West Africa. During their Sahara travels, they discovered Gao, a trading center,

al. 292); this helped significantly with the affairs between the Muslim traders of North Africa and the Muslim nomads from the Sahara. Bentley et. al, adds that the converted kings and merchants didn’t totally forget about their own religion, “rather, they continued to observe them for purposes of providing cultural leadership in their societies” (295); moreover, the diversity of religion (Muslim and Christianity) helped keep politics, and religions to be the central aspect of African societies. Moreover, Guisepi emphasizes that the kings that did switch to Islam had more influence and the greatest power, in which it helped with the development of more Muslim