Key Terms
- caliph
- an Islamic title designating a spiritual and secular leader
- dhow
- a ship made of coconut-wood planks sewn together with coconut fiber and equipped with lateen sails
- lateen sail
- a triangular-shaped sail that allows a boat to sail both with and into the wind
- Slave Coast
- a section of African coast along the Bight of Benin, centered on the port city of Whydah and a major source of African people sold into slavery
- Sudanic
- a term describing the region of West Africa south of the Sahara Desert
- Swahili
- a language that combines the grammar of African Bantu languages with a Bantu and Arabic vocabulary and is spoken in East Africa