C. Explain the impact of Islam as a result of the Gold-Salt Trade using this excerpt:
In some capital cities, such as Ghana and Gao, the presence of Muslim merchants resulted in the
establishment of mosques. The Malian king Mansa Musa (r. 1312-37) brought back from a pilgrimage to
Mecca the architect al-Sahili, who is often credited with the creation of the Sudano-Sahelian building
style...Islam brought to Africa the art of writing and new techniques of weighting. The city of Timbuktu, for
instance, flourished as a commercial and intellectual center... Timbuktu... On the continent's eastern coast,
Arabic vocabulary was absorbed into the Bantu languages to form the Swahili language. On the other hand, in
many cases conversion for sub-Saharan Africans was probably a way to protect themselves against being sold
into slavery, a flourishing trade between Lake Chad and the Mediterranean. For their rulers, who were not
active proselytizers, conversion remained somewhat formal, a gesture perhaps aimed at gaining political
support from the Arabs and facilitating commercial relationships.