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Ibn Battuta was impressed with wealth and hospitality when he arrived at Taghaza. There, even the roofs of houses were  covered with salt blocks and camel crafts. The inhabitants were slaves of the Masfa tribe and depend on dates, camel meat and millet from other provinces. Ibn Battuta felt very uncomfortable here. After that, when people visited him, they treated him with hospitality and kindness. Qurans were read and prayers were said for Abul Hassan and Mansa Suleiman. Ibn Battuta believed that the black people who treat him were worthy of admiration. They were very sincere and carefully observed their prayer times. A bad feature was that women of all ages striped naked in front of everyone.They also ate carrion, dogs and donkeys.

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Timbuktu, one of ther cities in Mali, became known as world-renowned center of Islamic learning. As there was a tremendous growth in trade, more people were drawn into the empire’s economy and trade networks which brought more people in touch with distant cultures from many different regions. Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage was successful because of the prosperity that it brought Mali. Due to his deep devotion, many mosques and religious schools were built under his name.

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The Mali government profited from the gold trade and from taxing everything that entered West Africa. Timbuktu became wealthy from the books produced there, which fetched higher prices than most other commodities. Sundaita created a thriving gold trade.

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Ghana is in between the Sahara and the tropical rainforests of the West African Coast. From Ghana’s capital city, Kolumbi Saleh, the king ruled with well established and centralized government helped by nobles and an army equipped with iron weapons, Many extensive trade routes brought the people of Ghana to get in contact with other cultures and beliefs form other people which caused my religions to arise.

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From the Mediterranean Sea south into Egypt and beyond, Christianity spread. The rise of Islam contributed to the region's religious diversity. Then a Christian-led kingdom arose, and these magnificent churches were built. These carved rock monuments have long been an integral part of Ethiopian religious architecture. Ethiopian Christianity emerged on its own, with its own set of traditional faith traditions.

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They engaged in trade for gold, ivory, slaves, and salt. Throughout the 500-1590 period, these were significant commodities. A large demand for slaves was essential. Trans-Saharan trade linked Mediterranean gold-demanding economies.

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Rulers originating from Ghana traded gold and ivory to many Muslim merchants in exchange goods such as salt, copper, cloth, and tools. They used their wealth to build an powerful and well established army. They also taxed many traders along the trade routes.

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Venice was a city surrounded by water and located near the Byzantine Empire. Connected Europeans and Muslims since it was in the middle of both, had a lot of influence and power. Was a very wealthy and rich city. The culture of people living in Europe, wore off on the Byzantine empire. It connected the christian in Europe with the Muslims around them.

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Venice  was the trading hub for goods from China to Europe through the Silk Road. Venice traded exquisite goods such as gems, gold, silk cloth, spices, salt, and slaves.

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The culture of China was a huge influence on trade along the Indian Ocean. The government of China believed in Confucianism which consisted of a social class and a agrarian lifestyle. However, due to the Indian Ocean trade, many cultures were spreading in which the Chinese scholars began looking down upon them or tried to stop  any foreign influences on China.  In conclusion, China culture continued to remain very similar to what they believe and followed before.

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The Muslim admiral, Zheng He, went on a journey to explore many areas of the Indian Ocean Basin as well as the east coast of Africa. Even though he didn’t export any goods, he received various products from other which immensely changed his perspective of China compared to other regions. He returned to China with exotic treasures like giraffes, a better understanding of the various Chinese borders, and more knowledge of other culture's traditions. However, this made the emperor feel that the Chinese citizens might cause rebellion and will leave China to live in the other places that Marco Polo visited. Therefore, the emperor stopped all the voyages so that the knowledge about the rest of the world wouldn’t be learned or be under inspiration.

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Kinsay traded silk, tea and porcelain mainly in the Silk Road trade route. This turned into one of China's most busiest and occupied ports.

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The "City of Heaven" as described by Marco Polo is located in current day Hangzhou, China. It its also a very prosperous city because of the rich nobles who gives there. The exquisitely designed mansions and rich houses.

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In Africa, the societies were generally based on kin-ship meaning that the head of the family would rule. However, because of many religions arising in surrounding regions and because of the trade routes, some Swahili citizens converted to Islam. Also, because Islamic people believed that anyone who practiced any of the Abrahamic religions couldn’t be slaves, it was a religious motivation to convert to Islam for many. Another major reason Islam played a major influence was because women in Islam had more rights than normal African women which made many of them decide to covert without any hesitation or doubt. Due to this, some African people’s culture consisted of praying, wearing hijabs, and more due to the heavily weighted influence Islam had on the daily lives of the Swahili citizens.

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The Venetian explorer Marco Polo described to Kinsay, China, today known as Hangzhou, as "The City of Heaven." There are a total of twelve thousand stone bridges. There are twelve guilds of various crafts, each with at least 12000 households, and each with at least 12 workers. The merchants are so affluent that we can't even count how many items they passed on to others. There is a lake inside the city, and it is surrounded by stunning houses and palaces. These are the domains of the nobles. Any large event or entertainment event, such as a wedding reception, will be held in these locations.

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Swahili city-states are along the east coast (Kenya to Mozambique) of Africa which is relatively close to India as it it is very close-by to the Indian Ocean trade routes. They traded many luxurious goods such as ivory, gold, peacock feathers, tortoise shells, rhinoceroses horns, etc. Most of these trading goods were predominately traded in India, Southeast Asia, and China since those items were considered a rarity in those regions. One of the most popular trade item were slaves that were exported throughout several different continents, mainly in the Americas. Swahili city-states tended to mainly import porcelain from China, Indian cotton and spices, and manufactured ironworks.

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Calicut, Kerala, India: Culture (Shresta)

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Calicut, Kerala, India: Culture (Shresta)

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Calicut was the one of the main centers of trade for merchants from regions such as Arabia and China. Due to this, Islam was highly present and the culture of Calicut was influenced by the religion as well as the Muslim merchants. Also many Arabian merchants settled in Southern India. Not only did the Muslim merchants trade, they also intermarried with the local citizens which heavily spread the religion throughout many different reasons. They started to build many mosques all over India. This is seen in the picture above. Calicut is also extremely famous for their forms of religious dance called kathakali.

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Xian, Shaanxi, China (Culture) (Priyanka)

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Xian, Shaanxi, China (Culture) (Priyanka)

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The main religion in the Tang Dynasty was Taoism. This religion was started by Lao Tzu and believes that everything has to go with the flow of the world and harmony and peace between all living things must be maintained. The spread of other religions was caused because of the influence that merchants had on the Tang Dynasty.Buddhism was one of the main religions which had an impact on the Tang Dynasty. They were not completely biased towards one social class of people and were accepting towards everyone. This made this religion well known.

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The Ceylonese king is shown as hostile in Document E written by Zheng He as he deceives Zheng He into entering the court while his warriors plot a surprise attack to steal from Zheng He's ships. The Ceylonese king's selfish desire to steal from Zheng He while misleading him is demonstrated by this depraved deed. Ceylon had opportunity to plunder any ships that passed along because it was situated close to the middle of the Indian Ocean route.

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In Calicut, they were well known for trading their vast collection of different spices to other places. Calicut was one of the most important trading centers taking place in India that traded different regions such as China, West Asia, and African coast.  Calicut was given the name “City of Spices” due to the amount of various spices they tended to possess. Spices were seen as luxury goods used mostly for ritual, medicinal, food, and culinary purposes along the Indian ocean trade routes.

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Xi'An, Shaanxi, China (Trade) (Priyanka)

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Xi'An, Shaanxi, China (Trade) (Priyanka)

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The Tang Dynasty was located in Modern day Shaanxi, and olden day Xi'An in China. The trading in the Silk Road was with items such as- gunpowder, tea, coffee, precious stones with other merchants and traders. The Tang Dynasty significantly aided the silk road's prosperity.