handout 2 - Sailing across the Indian Ocean
I typed these notes in 2010. We count our years back from when Jesus Christ was born.(AD). So, these notes were created in 2010 AD. (This stands for ANNO DOMINI, meaning Year of the Lord). The years before Christ was born, are referred to as BC.
Arab traders sailed down the east coast of Africa in Dhows. They started settlements along the coast and began trading. This continued all the way to 1500 AD, when the Portuguese traders took over.
The Arabs found gold, copper, ivory, wild animal skins, tortoise shells and slaves. They then took these to India.
There they traded them for find woven cloth, glass, beads, porcelain (which THEY got from China), and other things that African people wanted.
Because of this trade a The Arabs were number of Arab towns developed along the east coast of Africa.
The Swahili traders sailed up and down the east coast of Africa in small wooden boats called dhows.
The traders who sailed across the great Indian Ocean to India and other places needed much bigger dhows.
This picture shows a big dhow hat could sail on the open sea. A dhow was light and needed only a few people to sail it. In the picture you can see that the sails have a shape like a triangle. These sails were able to use the wind very well and this meant that the dhow could travel fast. The sails were large, so that they caught lots of wind to push the dhow across the sea.
The trade routes.
Look at the trade routes on your map.
Those trading along the routes between India and Africa were helped by a strong wind called the monsoon. It helped trader to sail across the Indian Ocean. The monsoon blows ships from Africa to India in the northern summer and blows the other way for the other half of the year.
The Arabs and the local people of East Africa intermarried and their cultures and languages blended to form a new culture and language known as Swahili. The Arab traders were followers of Islam and their influence was seen in the buildings of the time.
As trade became more important to African people, chiefs become more powerful. They controlled the gold mining, the ivory hunting and the trade routes to the Sahara desert and the Indian Ocean. Some chiefs became very rich owning many cattle.
The people also became rich; they mined gold, tin and iron.
How do we know this trade actually happened?
In 916 AD, the Arab trader, Al-Mas’udi, travelled down the African coast, and wrote about what he saw there. He describes a new trading town, called
Sofala, between the mouth of the LimpopoRiver and the mouth of the Zambezi river, in what is today Mozambique. It became famous for its gold. The Swahili and Arabs. Sofala’s harbour was the oldest harbour in Southern Africa.Sofala was founded about the year 700 AD. The Arabs had frequented the coast since 915, followed by traders from Persia.
Tasks:
- Draw a timeline, like the one shown below, from the birth of Christ to the present, show the time when Arabs were the traders between Africa and Asia. You will be adding to this timeline later.
Mark - 0 AD, 500 AD, 1000AD, 1500 AD, 2000AD
- Describe how the Arab traders travelled from India to the east coast of Africa.
- List the goods that the Africans and Arabs traded.
- The people of African Kingdoms hunted elephants for their ivory tusks. Ivory trade has been banned in most countries of the world. Why do you think trade in ivory was banned?
Do you agree with the banning of the trade in ivory?
- Why do you think many East African people today are Muslims
Hand in date______
Rating code / Description of competence (Rubric*) / Marks %7 / Outstanding (Excellent) / 80 / - 100
6 / Meritorious (Very good) / 70 / - 79
5 / Substantial (Good) / 60 / - 69
4 / Adequate (Satisfactory) / 50 / - 59
3 / Moderate / 40 / - 49
2 / Elementary / 30 / - 39
1 / Not achieved / 0 - 29
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