Answer:
Shipping routes between the African coast and Yemen brought Islam info West Africa.
Explanation:
Islam entered the African continent from North African countries such as Morocco and Egypt, and was one of the first regions to be conquered by the early Arab-Islamic expansion (7th and 8th centuries). From the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, Muslim merchants contributed to the emergence of important kingdoms in West Africa, which flourished thanks to the trade of caravans that traversed the Sahara, bringing the Mediterranean world into contact with the steppes and savannas of West Sudan and central Africa.
However, the spread of Islam on the African continent was much more for trade and migration than for military impositions. Islamic expansion took place, basically on three fronts:
- from the northwest of the continent (Maghreb region) to the Sahara and West Africa
- from the low to the high Nile valley, reaching northeast Africa (Somalia peninsula and surrounding areas)
- Traders from the south-southwest portion of the Arabian Peninsula and immigrants from the Indian subcontinent created settlements on the Indian coast and from there spread the Muslim presence inland.
The number of Muslims in Africa is currently estimated at over 300 million, about 27%t of the total followers of the religion created by the Prophet Muhammad.
