Kanem Empire expands around Lake Chad

1103

Under the Saifawa dynasty, the Kanem state east of Lake Chad extended its authority across the trans-Saharan trade routes connecting the Sahel to the markets of Tripoli and Fezzan. Its kings had recently embraced Islam, and the faith now traveled south with their caravans of salt, slaves, and ivory through grassland kingdoms that had never heard a muezzin's call.