West Africa
East Africa
Muslim World
The Desert
Primary Sources
100
West African storyteller/historian.
What is a griot?
100
Modern Ethiopia is descended from this ancient kingdom.
What is Aksum?
100
The final prophet, and founder of Islam.
Who was Mohammed?
100
The third largest desert on Earth. It is about the size of the United States.
What is the Sahara Desert?
100
This Middle Eastern traveler provides historians with many of the primary sources related to sub-Saharan Africa.
Who was Ibn Battuta?
200
The idea that non-human things have human souls.
What is animism?
200
This natural "highway" allowed for Ethiopians to interact with many different civilizations, including Greece, Rome and Egypt.
What is the Nile River?
200
An Islamic state, run by a leader who considered himself "successor" to the Prophet.
What was a caliphate?
200
This was the primary reason for human travel across the desert in northern Africa.
What is trade? (or Trans-Saharan trade)
200
"I happened to be in this city at a time when a load of salt sold for eighty ducats. The king has a rich treasure of coins and gold ingots. One of these ingots weighs 970 pounds." Where was Leo Africanus when he wrote this?
What is Timbuktu?
300
This product was controlled by West African kings who traded it to merchants from North Africa and the Middle East.
What is gold?
300
What ancient Ethiopian artifact is being shown here? VISUAL CLUE #1
What is a stele?
300
This Christian denomination has its headquarters in the primarily Muslim nation of Egypt.
What is the Coptic Orthodox Church?
300
These are three characteristics that describe the Sahara Desert.
What are: little/no rainfall; little/no vegetation; extremely hot temperatures during the day; almost no animal life, especially mammals.
300
"At Iwalatan a load of salt brings eight to ten mithqals; in the town of Malli [Mali] it sells for twenty to thirty, and sometimes as much as forty.The negroes [sub-Saharans] use salt as a medium of exchange, just as gold and silver isused [elsewhere]; they cut it up into pieces and buy and sell with it." What was the author describing? (vocabulary word)
What is Trans-Saharan trade?
400
Artifacts produced by this West African culture prove that there was civilization in Africa long before Roman culture existed. VISUAL CLUE #2
What is Nok?
400
This royal family ruled Ethiopia for over 600 years, and traces their lineage to the Hebrew Bible.
What is the Solomonic Dynasty? (or House of Solomon)
400
This vital product was transported across the Sahara Desert by North African and Middle Eastern merchants.
What is salt?
400
They are a nomadic group of people from northern Africa who live throughout the desert.
What are Berbers?
400
"After forty days journey on land along the river, one takes another boat and in twelve days reaches a big city named Meroë, said to be the capital city of the Ethiopians. The inhabitants worship Zeus and Dionysus alone of the Gods, holding them in great honor." What vocabulary word (from list two) is being described here?
What is Hellenism?
500
"The guide is one who has made the journey frequently in both directions, and who is gifted with a quick intelligence." These people (described above) were frequently guides for North African merchants as they traveled through the desert.
Who were Berbers?
500
Ethiopia had a subordinate relationship to Rome, and the Arab world at different times in history. This relationship required tributes to be paid, and may be part of the reason Ethiopia has had a diversity of religious cultures throughout history.
What is client state?
500
A primarily Muslim city south of the Sahara Desert, where religious institutions were founded by Arab traders.
What is Timbuktu?
500
This is the main reason most desert dwelling people are nomadic.
What is an inability to grow crops? (no agriculture)
500
"And TÂMRÎN bade him farewell, and went forth, and journeyed along his road, and came to his Lady, and delivered over to her all the possessions which he had brought. And he related unto her how he had arrived in the country of JUDAH [and] JERUSALEM..." The source above was used to defend the authority of these kings of Ethiopia.
What is the Solomonic Dynasty? (or House of Solomon)
M
e
n
u