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Note on Silent Trade.

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Taken from: Silent Trade: Myth and Historical Evidence by P. F. de Moraes Farias (in History in Africa Vol. 1 -1974, pp. 9-24)

 

The first medieval Arab accounts come in the works of al-Masudi, who wrote in the tenth century but who never visited west Africa. We owe to him two passages about silent trade in West Africa, one referring to “the land of gold beyond Sijilmasa” and the other to the gold mines bordering the kingdom of Ghana. The two accounts are closely homologous and at the same time vague from a geographical point of view. In fact, they appear to be unreconciled accounts of the same story  ….. and merely the vestigial reminiscences of Mediterranean traditions similar to those recorded by Herodotus.

 

Yaqut, who, like al-Masudi, never visited West Africa, wrote in the thirteenth century an account that has since been regarded as solid historical evidence for the existence of silent trade: yet, on closer scrutiny it can be seen that his text is self-contradictory. Yaqut began by describing how the traders, on their way to the land of gold, situated “to the south of the Maghrib,” stopped at Ghana. …..

 

they stop here [in Ghana] and recover... and recruit jahabidha and samasira for

their negotiations with the owners of the gold . . . . They proceed until they arrive

at the place that divides them from the owners of the gold. There they beat the

big drums that they have brought, which can be heard from the horizon of the

region inhabited by the Blacks.... When the traders know that these people

[i.e., the Blacks] have heard the drums they produce whatever they have brought

of the goods.... Then they withdraw to a distance equivalent to one traveling

stage. Then the Blacks come out and put certain amounts of gold beside each

ware, and leave. The traders come again and each of them takes the gold found

beside his merchandise, which he leaves there. Then they beat their drums and

depart.

 

This text has been grossly misinterpreted. …..  Each time it has been quoted the initial lines on the

recruitment of jahabidha and samasira have either been deleted or ignored. Yet they are essential. The word samasira means ‘brokers’, ‘middlemen’, ‘agents’. Jahdbidha can be translated either as ‘those who verify the weight of coins before money is exchanged’ or as ‘those who distinguish good quality merchandise from bad quality.’ …. It becomes clear that recruiting such middlemen …. would have made no sense had the blacks who sold the gold really kept themselves invisible and silent. To perform their role the brokers would have needed verbal contact with both trading parties (though not, of course, necessarily at the same time).

 

What may have happened was that the trans-Saharan traders themselves had no direct contact with the black “owners of the gold.” Contact would be established on their behalf by the Ghanaian middlemen. In this case Yaqut's text would not have recorded information provided by Arab travelers who had been eye-witnesses to the transactions described by him as “silent”. Instead it would have been accounts (rumors?) passed on to the Maghribi merchants by the Ghanaian middlemen.

 

Whatever its origin, Yaqut’s information is probably the earliest available evidence for the operation of the broker systems that still survive in the Wangara or Dyula and other trade networks of West Africa. …….

 

It was probably through the operation of a broker system that the kings and traders of Ghana were able to secure their strategic position in the gold trade, in spite of not having the mining of the metal directly under their control. …..

 

…… medieval accounts of silent trade that can be traced to borrowings from the works of al-Masudi and Yaqut even though they appear to refer to later times. These include passages in the works of al-Zuhri (twelfth century), al-Qazwini (thirteenth century), Ibn al-Wardi (fourteenth or fifteenth

century), and al-Bakuwi (fifteenth century).

 

Al Umari (1349) is the only other independent source of silent trade (here in Mali) (with Qalqashandi (1418) copying him). Al Umari had the information only from hearsay from somebody who did not visit Mali; while the Malian ruler Mansa Musa and his companions having visited Cairo shortly before (1324-25) did not mention it; neither did Ibn Battuta who did visit it in 1352-53.

 

Note: This article of P. F. de Moraes Farias is about silent trade in West Africa. I like to expand his writing however also to East Africa as the same authors (and some others ) also wrote about the same silent trade in East Africa.

Those mentioning the silent trade in East Africa on my webpages: Hudud Al-'Alam (982); al-Zayyat (1058); In these first two texts the problem is of not understanding each others language. All the others in this list follow the West African pattern: Al Zuhri : (1137); Mohammad ebn Mahmud ebn Ahmad Tusi (1160); Ibn Al Wardi (about 1456); Al-Qazwini(d. 1283)in Atar al Bilad; Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220); Rukneddin Ahmed (1420).

Some examples on how trade really got done (but also under a forced brokerage system): Tuan Ch'eng-Shih (863); Ibn Battuta (1331) visits Mogadishu; Yakut (1220) also about Mogadishu.  

 

Note: even in China they talk about silent trade in the Indian Ocean: Ma Tuan-lin, (Wen-Hsien-t'ung-k'ao) (1295) (general study of the literary remains): On the western sea [Indian Ocean] there are markets where the traders do not see one another, the price being deposited by the side of the merchandise; they are called "spirit markets."