Sijilmasa

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Sijilmasa (also Sijilmassa, or Sigilmassa) was a mediaeval trade entrepôt at the Western edge of the Maghreb in what is now Morocco. The ruins of the city lie along the river Ziz in the Tafilalt oasis near the town of Rissani. The city's colorful history was marked by several successive invasions by Amazigh dynasties during the Golden Age of Berber Islam. Up until the 14th century, it was, as the terminus for the western Trans-Sahara trade route, one of the most important trade centres in the Maghreb during the "Golden Age" of the Berber dynasties.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Notes 3 Bibliography 4 External links

[edit] History

According to al-Bakri's Book of Routes and Places, a Miknasa Berber from Spain by the name of Abu 'l-Qasim Samgu bin Wasul al-Miknasi founded the town in or around the middle of the 8th century.^[2] The story al-Bakri relates says that others, probably Berbers, joined him in residence there, until they numbered around forty, at which point they laid the groundwork for the city. They elected a leader, ‘Isa bin Mazid the Black, to handle their affairs during the earliest first few years after the town’s establishment. However, he did not last long as a leader, and was blamed by his companions of corruption. He was summarily executed, and Abu al-Qasim became the leader of the town. According to Ibn Hawqal's account in Kitab Surat al-Ard, the city quickly grew in economic power due to shifting trade routes; previously, trade came into this area from Egypt, but harsh conditions made that route to sub-Saharan Africa and Morocco proper extremely difficult.^[3]

Sijilmassa's economic wealth is evidenced by Ibn Hawqal's incredible story about a bill issued to a trader in Awdaghust for forty-two thousand dinars from another merchant based out of Sijilmassa. Ibn Hawqal explains that he has never heard about a sum of money this large in all of his travels.^[4]

On account of its wealth, the city was able to assert its independence under the Midrarid dynasty, freeing itself from the Abbasid Caliphate as early as 771. Shifting alliances with the Caliphate of Córdoba and the Fatimids of Ifriqiya destabilized the city during the 10th century, beginning with Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah's visit to the city, the man who was later known as the founder of the Fatamid dynasty. 'Ubayed Allah, accompanied by his son al-Qasim, arrived in the Maghrib in 905. 'Ubayed Allah and his son made their way to Sijilmassa, fleeing persecution by the Abbasids, who found their Isma'ili Shi'ite beliefs not only unorthodox, but also threatening to the status quo of their caliphate. According to legend, ‘Ubayed Allah and his son were fulfilling a prophecy that the madhi would come from Mesopotamia to Sijilmassa. They hid among the population of Sijilmassa for four years under the countenance of the Midrar rulers, specifically one Prince Yasa'.

al-Qasim, the son of the alleged mahdi, with his miraculous powers, caused a spring to gush forth outside of the city. A Jewish Sijilmassan witnessed this, and spread the word throughout Sijilmassa that 'Ubayed Allah was going to attempt to take over the city. At or around the same time, Prince Yasa', the Midrarid ruler at the moment, received a letter from the Abbasids in Baghdad, warning him to close his frontiers and be wary of ‘Ubayed Allah. Yasa' was forced to imprison the men he had previously patronized, however ‘Ubayed Allah's servant managed to escape to Cairouan, which at the time was a stronghold for Isma’ilis. The leader of the Isma’ilis in Ifriqiya was Abu ‘Abdallah: he quickly mustered an army to rescue his compatriot. On his way to Sijilmassa, he subdued Tahert, the nearby Ibadi Kharijite stronghold under the Rustamid dynasty. The army arrived in the Tafilalt in the latter half of 909, and laid siege to the city. Yasa' was killed in that year or the next, and the Midrar dynasty began a long process of fragmentation that eventually resulted in a hostile takeover by former clients of the Cordoban caliphate, the Maghrawa Berbers.^[5]

Under the Maghrawa, who later declared independence from the Cordoban caliphate, the city retained its role as a trade centre, but became a center for Maghrawan government and the Maghrawa campaign against other tribes in Morocco proper. After 60 years of Maghrawa rule, the elders of Sijilmassa appealed to the Sanhaja Berber confederation, which was just beginning its transformation into the Almoravid movement. According to al-Bakri, in 1055, Abdallah ibn Yasin, the spiritual leader of the Almoravid movement and his new Almoravid army arrived at Sijilmassa and killed the leader of the Maghrawa, Mas'ud ibn Wanudin al-Maghrawi. The Almoravid imposed an extremely strict interpretation of Islam, smashing music instruments and closing down wine shops throughout the city. While the city would rebel against the Almoravid garrison on more than one occasion, Sijilmassa became the Almoravid's first conquest and remained under their control until 1146, when the Almohad dynasty took control of the city. During the Almoravid's rule, the city shared in the centralized governing structure of the Almoravid Empire.^[6]

When the Almohad took the city in the mid-12th century, they also took advantage of the wealth of trade going through Sijilmassa. However, the strict philosophy imposed by the Almoravid at the beginning of their reign of Sijilmassa was overshadowed by the extremely violent practices of the Almohad, which culminated in the massacre of many of the Jews living in Sijilmassa (presumably peacefully, under the Almoravid).^[7]

Amid the fall of the Almohad dynasty to the Zenata Berber confederation under the Marinid, Sijilmassa once again played host to the latest Berber dynasty. According to Ibn Battuta, who speaks about Sijilmassa several times in his travelogue, the Rihla, the city was booming under the Marinid dynasty. Ibn Battuta mentions that Sijilmassa is home to large manors and fields and that it was a very beautiful city.^[8]

The next mention of Sijilmassa in the extant sources is that of Leo Africanus, who, travelling to Morocco in the early 16th century, goes to the Tafilalt oasis and finds Sijilmassa destroyed. He remarks on the "most stately and high walls", which were apparently still standing in some capacity. He goes on to say that the city is "gallantly builte" and that 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 it was destroyed, the inhabitants of Sijilmassa have, again, 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 Sijilmassa, after which the populace spread across the countryside^[9]. Ibn Khaldun says in his Muqaddimah that the city fell due to a lack of resources.^[10] Lightfoot and Miller cite several facts from their own 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.

The city was rebuilt under the orders of Sultan Moulay Ismail in the 18th century. It was conquered and destroyed - once again - by the nomadic tribes of Ait Atta in 1818. Today, the ruins of Sijilmassa, laying a couple of km north of the town of Rissani, are recognized by the World Monuments Fund as an endangered site, and preserved by the Moroccan Ministry of Culture.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

• Boone, Myers, James L.; Myers, J. Emlen; Redman, Charles L. (1990), "Archeological and Historical Approaches to Complex Societies - The Islamic States of Medieval Morocco", American Anthropologist 92: 630–646, doi:10.1525/aa.1990.92.3.02a00050 .
• Gibb, H.A.R. trans. and ed. (1929), Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354, London: Routledge . Extracts are available here.
• Hirschberg, H.Z. (1974), A History of the Jews in North Africa, New York: Brill Academic .
• Ibn Khaldun (1958), al-Muqaddimah, Franz Rosenthal, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
• Levtzion, Nehemia; Hopkins, John F.P., eds. (2000), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa, New York, NY: Marcus Weiner Press, ISBN 1-55876-241-8 . First published in 1981.
• Levtzion, Nehemia (1994), Islam in West Africa: Politics and Society to 1800, Grand Rapids, MI: Variorum, ISBN 0-86078-444-4 .
• Levtzion, Nehemia (1973), Ancient Ghana and Mali, London: Methuen, ISBN 0-84190-431-6 .
• Lightfoot, Dale R.; Miller, James A. (1996), "Sijilmassa: The rise and fall of a walled oasis in medieval Morocco", Annals of the Association of American Geographers 86: 78–101, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1996.tb01746.x, http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119197219/abstract  Also available here.

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 31°16′48″N 4°16′48″W / 31.28°N 4.28°W / 31.28; -4.28