caravans transported salt ivory gold and slaves to egypt and morocco these were traded for conflict weapons and books in a sense timbuktu was the first global city in africa a center for the exchange of goods and knowledge a place of tolerance and coexistence of the many different peoples and cultures of the sahara region who came there to trade so the sharp objects from our two year before the march on used this exchange of goods could be of material but also of the immaterial nature of your culture and writings books were an important trading commodity or. that you could earn the most money in timbuktu your popes who if you had you were not considered poor. and if i were a capias too did not live in poverty. it was sent to timbuktu by their