Medieval Worlds Beyond Europe

Long ago, in the Middle Ages, people did not have planes or trains. But traders still moved goods across thousands of miles using a network of routes called the Silk Roads. The roads stretched from China in the east toward Europe in the west, and traders passed goods from one to another like runners in a relay race.

Silk was the most famous cargo, but far more traveled too. Spices, precious stones, glass, and paper moved along the routes. Technology moved as well. Papermaking spread from China, and new ways of working metal and building spread between regions.

Ideas traveled too. Traders and travelers carried religions, stories, art styles, and scientific knowledge with them. Buddhism spread from India into China along these routes, and Muslim traders later carried Islam into South and Southeast Asia.

East Africa joined this busy world through ports on the Indian Ocean, where ships loaded with goods sailed between Africa, Arabia, India, and China.

Between the years 960 and 1279, China was ruled by the Song dynasty. Historians often call this China's medieval period, and the Song were among the most advanced civilizations anywhere in the world at that time.

People in Song China made amazing discoveries in science, art, philosophy, and technology. They were curious about the world and studied it closely. Cities grew huge and busy, and trade flourished. Silk was one of China's greatest treasures. It helped pay large armies and showed the power of the emperor.

Printing, compasses, and beautiful landscape painting all flourished under the Song. Ships carried Chinese goods across the seas, and camel caravans carried them along the Silk Road to faraway lands. Learning was valued, and books spread knowledge more widely than ever before.

Mansa Musa was the ruler, called a mansa, of the Mali Empire in West Africa about 700 years ago. Mali was one of the richest lands on Earth because it sat on top of enormous gold mines.

In 1324, Mansa Musa set out on a pilgrimage, a holy journey to the city of Mecca more than 3,000 miles away. He brought a huge caravan of camels, soldiers, and attendants, and so much gold that stories of his wealth spread everywhere he went. In one city he passed through, he gave away so much gold that its price stayed low for years.

His journey shows how geography and faith shaped the medieval world. Mali's location beside the Sahara Desert put it right on the trade routes that crossed the desert, so gold, salt, and ideas flowed through his empire. His pilgrimage also tied West Africa to the wider Islamic world, and architects he brought home helped make the famous learning city of Timbuktu shine.

Have you ever solved for x in a math problem? Then you have used algebra, and its story starts partly in the medieval Islamic world.

People used early algebra ideas even in ancient Babylon, for measuring land and trading goods. But the word algebra comes from a book written about 1,200 years ago by a Persian mathematician named Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi.

Scholars in Baghdad translated and studied works from Greece, India, and Persia, then added their own brilliant ideas. This was the Islamic Golden Age, and algebra was one of its lasting contributions to the world.

The algebra we learn today was not invented by one person. It grew over centuries as mathematicians from many cultures built on each other's work.

Trade routes need cities the way trains need stations. Big trading cities grew up along the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean routes, and they became centers where goods, people, and ideas met.

Three famous examples are Hangzhou in China, Timbuktu in West Africa, and Malacca in Southeast Asia. Each one sat in a smart spot, near rivers, deserts, or narrow sea passages where trade had to pass through.

These cities grew rich and crowded because of trade. In Hangzhou, merchants sold silk and porcelain. In Timbuktu, traders swapped gold and salt, and scholars filled its libraries. In Malacca, ships from many nations loaded and unloaded spices.

When goods moved through these cities, more than cargo traveled. Languages, religions, foods, and inventions moved too.