Long Distance Trade as it Affected Timbuktu

Timbuktu, a city in Maili, West Africa, was a center of trade and education. Home to the Songhay, Tuareg, Fulani, and Morrish people, Timbuktu had the distinct advantage of being located directly in the middle of two different Saharan trade routes.

Books were very important to the culture of Timbuktu. Not only were the books bought and sold, but they were used to promote the learning and great education of the city's inhabitants. Books were one of the greatest contributions the city had to its economy due to the vast amount of revenue the trade brought to the city.

Without the inset of Islam, the city would not have had its desire for the book trading or the inherent desire to learn and be educated. Islam not only brought literacy to the struggling city, but it brought discipline and morals that the city is known for today.

School children were taught from a very early age from the Quran. They were required to learn word for work parts of the work and were later required to copy and write passages. Not only did this teach reading and writing skills, but it ingrained in the young population a sense of morality and ethics that were lacking across Africa in those days. The children learned a strict moral conduct and were expected to follow this into adulthood.

This literacy and moral background helped in the ever present trading industry that made Timbuktu so popular. The moral guidelines the children were thought rolled over into every aspect of there lives. Even into the way that they priced their items for trade. A set of rules were developed that were consistent across the market, allowing everyone a more efficient trade mechanism.