This is all according to Ibn Hawqal, a turkish-arab traveler who spent a lot of time in Europe, Asia and Africa. And i found this reference in many books and studies.
Ibn Hawqal - Wikipedia
1 -The geographer and traveler ibn Hawqal (fl. 960s,80s) has the following observation: "Ghana is the wealthiest king on the face of the earth because of his treasures and stocks of gold extracted in olden times for his predecessors and himself" (Pingree 1970:117; Levtzion and Hopkins 2000: 29, 49; also Blanchard 2001).
2 -"A little over a century later, Ibn Hawqal (c. 977), having visited Aoudaghost, mentions that the kings of that town have relations with the king of Ghana, which he describes as being the richest on earth because of his gold.28 El Bekri is the best-known source of information for the medieval Western Sudan providing descriptions of the kingdom, its court, its economy, its religions, and its army.29"
Soninke in Ancient West African History - Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History
3 - "In the interior of west Africa the medieval search for salt acquired an importance which has been likened only to the European quest for gold. Ibn Hawqal explained the nature of this concern and its political implications in his discussion of relations between Awdaghust and Ghana:
Ibn Hawqal - Wikipedia
1 -The geographer and traveler ibn Hawqal (fl. 960s,80s) has the following observation: "Ghana is the wealthiest king on the face of the earth because of his treasures and stocks of gold extracted in olden times for his predecessors and himself" (Pingree 1970:117; Levtzion and Hopkins 2000: 29, 49; also Blanchard 2001).
2 -"A little over a century later, Ibn Hawqal (c. 977), having visited Aoudaghost, mentions that the kings of that town have relations with the king of Ghana, which he describes as being the richest on earth because of his gold.28 El Bekri is the best-known source of information for the medieval Western Sudan providing descriptions of the kingdom, its court, its economy, its religions, and its army.29"
Soninke in Ancient West African History - Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History
3 - "In the interior of west Africa the medieval search for salt acquired an importance which has been likened only to the European quest for gold. Ibn Hawqal explained the nature of this concern and its political implications in his discussion of relations between Awdaghust and Ghana:
[The] king of Awdaghust maintains relations with the ruler of Ghana. Ghana is the wealthiest king on the face of the earth because of his treasures and stocks of gold extracted in olden times for his predecessors and himself. He sends gifts to the ruler of Kugha (although Kugha does not approach the ruler of Ghana in opulence and well-being) and they send gifts to him. They stand in pressing need of the goodwill of the kings of Awdaghust because of the salt which comes to them from the lands of Islam. They cannot do without this salt, of which one load, in the interior and more remote parts of the land of the Sudan, may fetch between 200 and 300 dinar."
http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdo...m the Ninth through the Twelfth Centuries.pdf
