Sijilmasa

Coordinates: 31°17′N 4°17′W / 31.28°N 4.28°W / 31.28; -4.28
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Sijilmasa
Arab
Site notes
Excavation dates1988–1996[2]
ArchaeologistsWorld Monuments Fund
OwnershipMoroccan Ministry of Culture

Sijilmasa (

medieval Moroccan city and trade entrepôt at the northern edge of the Sahara in Morocco. The ruins of the town extend for five miles along the River Ziz in the Tafilalt oasis near the town of Rissani. The town's history was marked by several successive invasions by Berber dynasties. Up until the 14th century, as the northern terminus for the western trans-Sahara trade route, it was one of the most important trade centres in the Maghreb during the Middle Ages.[3]

History

According to

Midrar dynasty.[citation needed
]

The Arab geographer

dinars from another merchant based out of Sijilmasa. Ibn Hawqal explains that he has never heard of such a large sum of money in all of his travels.[7][8] Not only was Ibn Hawqal impressed with the volume of trade with the Maghrib and Egypt, Al-Masudi noted gold from Sudan was minted here.[9]

On account of its wealth, the city was able to assert its independence under the Midrarid dynasty, freeing itself from the

Rustamid dynasty. The army arrived in the Tafilalt in the latter half of 909, and laid siege to the city. After Yasa' was killed in that year or the next, the Midrar dynasty began a long process of fragmentation that eventually resulted in a hostile takeover by the Maghrawa Berbers, former clients of the Cordoban caliphate.[11]
Under the Maghrawa, who later declared independence from the Cordoban caliphate, the city retained its role as a trade centre. It also became a center for Maghrawan government and its campaign against other tribes in Morocco proper. After 60 years of Maghrawa rule, the elders of Sijilmasa appealed to the
Jebel Mudawwar was established.[13]

Trade routes of the western Sahara c. 1000–1500. Goldfields are indicated by light brown shading.

When the Almohads took the city in the mid-12th century, they also took advantage of the wealth of trade going through Sijilmasa. However, the strict philosophy imposed by the Almoravids at the beginning of their reign of Sijilmasa was overshadowed by the extremely violent practices of the Almohads. This culminated in the massacre of many of the Jews living in Sijilmasa.[14]

Amid the fall of the Almohad dynasty to the Zenata Berber confederation under the Marinids, Sijilmasa once again played host to the latest Berber dynasty.[citation needed]

The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta stayed in Sijilmasa on his journey to visit the Mali Empire in 1352–1353. He wrote: "I reached the city of Sijilmasa, a very beautiful city. It has abundant dates of good quality. The city of al-Basra is like it in the abundance of dates, but those of Sijilmasa are superior."[15] Ibn Battuta also mentions Sijilmasa when describing the Chinese town of Quanzhou: "In this city, as in all cities in China, men have orchards and fields and their houses in the middle, as they are in Siljimasa in our country. This is why their towns are so big."[16]

Leo Africanus, who travelled to Morocco in the early 16th century, goes to the Tafilalt oasis and finds Sijilmasa destroyed. He remarks on the "most stately and high walls", which were apparently still standing. He continues to describe the city as "gallantly builte," writing there were many stately temples and colleges in the city and water wheels that drew water out of the river Ziz. Leo Africanus says that since the city was destroyed, former residents had moved into outlying villages and castles. He stayed in this area for seven months, saying that it was temperate and pleasant. According to Leo Africanus, the city was destroyed when its last prince was assassinated by the citizens of Sijilmasa, after which the populace spread across the countryside.[17] Ibn Khaldun says in his Muqaddimah that the city fell due to a lack of resources.[18] Lightfoot and Miller cite several facts from their findings on site: they say that oral tradition preserved by those in the Tafilalt says that the "Black Sultan", a malevolent dictator, was overthrown by the populace.[citation needed]

The city was rebuilt in the 18th century under the orders of

Ait Atta in 1818. Today, the ruins of Sijilmasa, located one km north of the town of Rissani, are recognized by the World Monuments Fund as an endangered site. They are preserved by the Moroccan Ministry of Culture
.

See also

Part of a series on the
History of Morocco
Banner of the Moors, 1212.
Prehistory

other political entities

  • Treaty of Fez
  • French protectorate
  • Spanish protectorate
Related topics
History by topic

Notes

  1. ^ Lightfoot & Miller 1996
  2. ^ "Sijilmassa".
  3. ^ Lightfoot & Miller 1996
  4. ^ Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, pp. 64–87.
  5. ^ Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 43.
  6. ^ Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, p. 45.
  7. ^ Levtzion & Hopkins 2000, pp. 45, 47, 381 Note 6.
  8. ^ Levtzion 1968.
  9. ISBN 0841904316
    .
  10. ^ R. William Caverly, Hosting Dynasties and Faiths : Chronicling the Religious History of a Medieval Moroccan Oasis City, thesis presented to Hamline University [1]
  11. ^ This story is related in Al-Bakri's account in Levtzion, "Corpus"
  12. ^ Levtzion 1994. "Abd Allah b Yasin and the Almoravids".
  13. ISBN 9791035100094
    .
  14. ^ This is an observation made by Hirschberg in A History of the Jews in North Africa, pp. 109, 116–118
  15. ^ Gibb & Beckingham 1994, p. 946 Vol. 4.
  16. ^ Gibb & Beckingham 1994, p. 894 Vol. 4.
  17. ^ Leo Africanus, A Geographical History of Africa, 260–271
  18. ^ Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, 248

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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