In 652, Arab rulers in Egypt and the Christian kingdom of Makuria (Nubia) concluded the baqt treaty. Accounts of the treaty describe Nubian deliveries of enslaved people as part of an ongoing annual arrangement, linking state diplomacy to coerced labor flows. This helped normalize enslaved-person transfers into North Africa early in the Islamic period.
In 757, Sijilmasa was founded at the northern edge of the Sahara (in today’s Morocco). It became a major staging point for camel caravans linking North Africa with Sahelian markets, including commerce in gold, salt, and enslaved people. Its growth helped make long-distance desert trade more regular and scalable.
By the 10th century, the oasis town of Awjila (in today’s Libya) is described as a stage on major caravan routes. Later historical summaries note it became a main market for enslaved people coming from regions such as Kanem-Bornu and cities on the Niger bend. This illustrates how specific oasis hubs anchored Sahel-to-Mediterranean slave supply chains.
In the mid-11th century, the Almoravid movement expanded and fought for control of trans-Saharan routes and key trade centers. This contributed to shifts in who controlled and taxed caravan commerce, which included enslaved people alongside other commodities. Political change in North Africa thus altered the organization and profits of desert trade.
In 1352, traveler Ibn Battuta reached Taghaza, a Saharan salt-mining settlement supplying the Mali region. He wrote that the site was worked by enslaved people and that salt was exchanged through caravan trade into West Africa. The account shows how slavery supported extractive production that fed long-distance trade networks.
By 1353, Ibn Battuta reported encountering an enslaved woman near Timbuktu and described elite households using enslaved labor in the region. His observations connect Sahelian political centers to broader Islamic-world slavery, where people could be moved, sold, and owned across long distances. This helps document slavery’s role inside Sahelian societies as well as in export trade.
In 1393, Sijilmasa was abandoned after long periods of political instability and conflict. The decline of this major northern entrepôt disrupted established western routes and encouraged re-routing through other oases and ports. Such shifts could change the costs, risks, and volume of enslaved-person movement across the desert.
On 1591-03-13, the Saadi Sultanate defeated Songhai forces at the Battle of Tondibi. Songhai’s collapse weakened a major Sahelian state that had shaped security and taxation along caravan corridors. In the resulting instability, control of slave-raiding and caravan protection often shifted toward other powers and networks.
By the 1830s, sources report that the oasis town of Ghadames was handling thousands of enslaved people per year. This reflects how trans-Saharan trafficking remained economically significant even as Atlantic slave trading was being restricted. The continued scale depended on desert intermediaries, caravan logistics, and coastal markets in North Africa.
On 1848-04-27, France issued a decree abolishing slavery throughout its colonial empire. While this did not directly end trans-Saharan slavery, it signaled a growing international trend toward formal abolition and later influenced French policy in West Africa. Anti-slavery laws also became a political tool used to justify deeper colonial expansion into Sahelian regions.
In 1857, the Ottoman Empire issued the Prohibition of the Black Slave Trade, formally banning the import of African enslaved people into the empire. Historical summaries also note that enforcement was uneven and the trade continued in practice in some areas. Even so, the decree marked a key legal turning point for North African and Saharan slave markets connected to Ottoman territories.
From 1889-11-18 to 1890-07-02, European and other states met at the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference and adopted the Brussels Conference Act. The Act promoted measures against slave trading (including by land) while also encouraging expanded colonial administration and controls (for example, on arms and shipping). In the Sahara–Sahel context, these policies helped accelerate state-backed pressures that narrowed routes and markets over the late 1800s.
Despite formal bans, multiple historical accounts indicate trans-Saharan slave trading continued in practice in some regions into the 1890s. Weak enforcement, local political interests, and continued demand for coerced labor meant that legal change did not immediately end the trade. Over time, tighter colonial control and expanding abolition policies reduced the scale and viability of Saharan slave economies.
Trans-Saharan Slave Trade and Sahelian Slave Economies (c. 700–1900)