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As Leo
mentions, the traffic of Gold, and the minting of coins was one of
the central fuels of the Caravan trade. Even after its fall as a great
commercial center and caravan endpoint, the region of Sijilmassa remained
instrumental in the minting of gold brought from the Sudan. As the
Arab and European economies grew, gold became a key resource in managing
this growth. Confronted with the lack of it in their own territories,
these 'Northern' countries started spinning myths about the abundance
of Gold South of the Sahara, thus greatly increasing caravan commerce. As the
flow of gold augmented, the temptation to refine and mint it on the
way, rather than at its final destination also increased. Until the
Xth century, control over the right to mint coins had always been
held by the central government in the Orient as a means to control
the vast expanses of the Arab world. The minting of gold in Sijilmassa
was one of the first acts of rebellion of the Fatimid dynasty, who
originated from the Maghreb. In doing so, they directly opposed the
ruling government in Baghdad. From
the Xth to the XIIth century, Sijilmassa was at the center of the
Gold trade between Morocco and the Sudan- and its famed glory owes
much to this position. Sudanese gold refined in Sijilmassa also made it to Europe, where it was minted into European coins. The identical quality and gold proportion between European and Moroccan coins attests to the importance of trade between these regions- and it seems that Europeans minted similar coins precisely to purchase Maghrebi luxury goods. |
