144 gold and salt, kingdoms of and other towns, including Lydda, Ramleh, Bethlehem, and Hebron, from hostile native forces that occupied the countryside between towns After falling out with Raymond, Godfrey’s relations with his nobles cooled, but most answered his call to defend the kingdom Gradually Godfrey extended his power over the rural areas of Judea and Samaria His reputation increased rapidly As his powers in the Levant increased, Godfrey’s powers in his own lands waned and he found himself increasingly at the mercy of other nobles in the Holy Land His vassals used his cordial nature to their advantage, while churchmen knew he could not deny the church and used his trust to undermine his authority He needed replacements and ships, his nobles wanted political favors, and Godfrey was in no position to resist their demands In June 1100 after a period of intense negotiations and travel, Godfrey collapsed at a hostel in Jaffa Rumors of poisoning passed through the court, but he likely had typhoid He on for nearly a month while politicians hovered around his sickbed, ready to take what they could on his death He died July 18, 1100 Godfrey of Bouillon, at times a weak and unwise ruler, was nevertheless successful in his attempts to establish and expand his kingdom and earned respect for his courage, modesty, and faith He was buried as the first Christian ruler of Jerusalem on the hill of Golgotha, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site of the Crucifixion Further reading: Asbridge, Thomas The First Crusade: A New History Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004; France, John Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Mayer, Hans Eberhard The Crusades Trans by John Gillingham Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988; Runciman, Steven A History of the Crusades Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951; Setton, Kenneth M., and Marshall W Baldwin, eds A History of the Crusades Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969 inland shore that Arab and Berber traders deposited their most valuable goods: solid blocks of salt Salt from the sea would not work as it quickly dissolved in the humid and vast region of West Africa Only solid salt bars from the desert could be carried without spoiling Salt was needed to replace fluids in the body and for preserving food in a tropical climate where meat spoiled quickly Salt was so valuable to the people of western Sudan that some were willing to pay the price of gold for salt Gold was plentiful south of the Sahara Ibn al Hamdhani, an Arab geographer, described gold growing there like carrots in the ground Similarly salt was plentiful in the Sahara The buildings in the town of Taghaza in the middle of the Sahara were built from blocks of salt While the West Africans needed the salt for their diet, the North Africans needed gold for currency Kingdoms, wealthy merchants, great empires, and kings would rise and fall on both sides of the Saharan shore, their fortunes largely dependent on the trade of salt and gold With plentiful salt in the north but a lack of gold, and plentiful gold in the south with a lack of salt, the conditions for trade were perfect Ironically the gold and salt miners almost never saw each other face to face Merchants from the west and north traded, while the great empires of the south, Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, managed the trade The gold miners, the Wangaran people, did not want to give up the secret locations of their mines deep in the dense rainforests of West Africa and would swear not to reveal information about the gold mines if captured The gold and salt trade had an important impact on both the culture of the northern traders and subSahara Gold introduced the Mediterranean world to the enticing natural riches of Africa and fueled an economic boom The sub-Saharan rulers similarly gained from the salt and from the new ideas and religious practices introduced by the northern traders, allowing them to create unified states around Islam See also Berbers Kevin D Hill gold and salt, kingdoms of For those who knew how to survive it, the Sahara was not an impenetrable desert as much as it was a vast, navigable ocean Like ships on the ocean, large camel caravans have crossed vast distances on waves of sand for centuries, stopping at island oases along the way The sahel, the Arabic word for shore, describes the semiarid region just below the Sahara It was upon this Further reading: Ajayi, J F., and M Crowder, eds History of West Africa New York: Columbia University Press, 1972; Conrad, David Empire of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali and Songhay New York: Facts On File, 2005; Levtzion, Nehemia, and Jay Spaulding Medieval West Africa: Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2003; McKissack, Patricia and Frederick The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa New York: Henry Holt, 1995 Allen Fromherz