Jenne Jeno History
Jenne Jeno emerged around 300 as a city surrounded by villages (von Sivers,
Desnoyers, and Stow 422). The city became a center for regional trade of iron, gold,
and silver, in return for urban manufacturer s (von Sivers, Desnoyers, and Stow 422).
After 300, the regional trade became long distance trade, thanks to the introduction of
the camel from the Berbers of North Africaand the Sahara allowing traders to travel
through the dessert (von Sivers, Desnoyers, and Stow 422). It took some time for
the initial trans Saharan exchanges to become a regular occurrence, however once
the Romans lost control of their gold mines in Iberia to Germanic migrants they
began to regularize trans Saharan trade (von Sivers, Desnoyers, and Stow 422). In
the 600 s, Soninke chiefs enriched by the profits of the Saharan trade armed their
followers with weapons and horses and conquered Soninke groups in the Sahel
between the... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Business amongst North African and Middle Eastern merchants was easier to
complete when both parties followed the same beliefs (von Sivers, Desnoyers, and
Stow 413). In the early 1100 s the kings of Ghana converted to Islam, possibly under
pressure from the Almoravids (von Sivers, Desnoyers, and Stow 423). In Mali, the
opening of new gold fields in the rainforests exposes hitherto marginal peoples to
the influence of long distance trade, royal rule, and Islam (von Sivers, Desnoyers,
and Stow 424). In 1324, the most famous Malian ruler, Mansa Musa seized the city
of Timbuktu from its Touareg Berber founders (von Sivers, Desnoyers, and Stow
426). Musa founded a college, library, which were part of a Sankore mosque (von
Sivers, Desnoyers, and Stow 426). Timbuktu then became a center of learning
focused on Islamic law while also offering various other fields of study (von Sivers,
Desnoyers, and Stow