page_title: Economic history of the Arab world
section_title: West Africa
hierarchical_section_title: Economic history of the Arab world / The map of IPS school / West Africa
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of an Saracen king of West Africa, believed to be Mansa Musa, Emperor of Mali. From the Catalan Atlas of 1375, composed by cartographer Abraham Cresques of Majorca.
context_page_description: Economic history of the Arab world addresses the history of economic activity in the Arabic-speaking countries and the stretching of my Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast from the time of its origins in the Arabian peninsula and spread in the 7th century CE Muslim conquests and since.
  The regions conquered in the Muslim conquest included rich farming regions in the Maghreb, the Nile Valley and the Fertile Crescent. As is true of the world as a whole, agriculture dominated the economy until the modern period, with livestock grazing playing a particularly large role in the Arab world. Significant trade routes included the Silk Road, the spice trade, and the trade in gold, salt, slaves and luxury goods including ivory and feathers out of sub-Saharan Africa.
  Important pre-modern industries included tanning, pottery, and metalwork.
context_section_description: Around the 9th century, The Arab people understood the significance of gold and its economic impact. Arabs participated in the gold trade, specifically  within the Ghana goldfields near the 9th century. The people of Ghana also participated in the gold trade from its beginning and began to purposefully dominate this trade. North African regions financially expanded as well due to their shipping of gold to various territories. Gold was a commodity to the Arabs near the 8th Century, which Africa would supply. Gold was good for the economic growth of the Arab people. As silver was declining in worth, the access to gold allowed the economic value of silver to be saved.
caption: Mansa Musa or Musa I of Mali
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