The trans-Saharan trade and Jewish merchants

From the early Middle Ages to the modern period, Jewish merchants from the Maghreb participated in commercial networks linking Mediterranean Africa to the Saharan and sub-Saharan regions. These caravan routes carried gold, salt, textiles, enslaved people, and other high-value goods across the desert. The documents of the Cairo Genizah, a vast repository of manuscripts discovered in a synagogue in Fustat, attest to the extent of Jewish commercial activity in the Mediterranean and beyond, shedding light on practices of credit, partnership, and merchant correspondence. Families established in cities such as Sijilmassa, Fès, and Kairouan served as relay points in these exchanges. This trade constitutes an important chapter in the economic history of Jews in the medieval Islamic world.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World — Brill
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan