Foreword on Azugi and the Almoravid Enterprise

Contrary to what is (too often) written

• the timespan: from 1060 to 1151, roughly a century—significant in itself, but far removed from the "centuries" frequently attributed to Almoravid action.
• African conquests: these were limited. While the Almoravides may have seized Awdaghost (a dependency of Ghana), their actual impact on this vast political formation remains highly questionable (cf. Conrad and Fischer, "A conquest that never was")…as for actions against the Idrisid dynasty of Fès, these belong to the realm of legend—the dynasty had already vanished by the late 9th century, well before the rise of the Almoravids.
• the fortress (ribat): supposedly established on the island of Tidra (Banc d'Arguin in Mauritania) appears to be little more than myth. No remains, however minimal, seem to exist on this large island. The only "remains" observed are either Neolithic (tombs and camps) or recent ("cisterns" dug into a depression by Ahl Barikallah herders in the 1950s)…

This summary was prepared in large part from the works of ABDEL WEDOUD OULD CHEIKH and BERNARD SAISON (1987). Full article attached.

Any errors remain the responsibility of B. Lamarche alone.

Introduction

The site of Azûgi, located eight kilometers northwest of Atar (Mauritania), forms a bridge between Abu Bakr's companion, the qadi of Azugi who died in 489/1095-63, and the figure venerated at this location today.

It was here that the faqih (jurist versed in Islamic jurisprudence), a native of Kairouan, is said to have passed away, and it was also here that his tomb was miraculously "discovered" some six centuries later by al-Imam al-majdhûb.

Azugi and the Almoravid Legacy

In the mid-5th century H/11th century CE, the Andalusian writer al-Bakri mentions the existence at "Arki" of a "fortress…surrounded by 20,000 palm trees…built by Yannu Ibn 'Umar al-Hâj, brother of Yahya Ibn 'Umar…". This brief reference has long been considered the origin of the "Almoravid" designation that modern historians, in the absence of proper archaeological investigation, have generally attributed to the apparent ruins of the Azugi tell.

A century later, al-Idrisi (1154) describes the "first station of the Sahara…in the land of the Massufa and Lamta", a waypoint on a trans-Saharan route linking Sigilmasa to Silla, Takrur, or Gana. Azuki, or Kukdam in the "ginawiyya language of Sudan", shelters a prosperous population.

Brief and imprecise as it is, al-Idrisi's account remains the most detailed of those reaching us from medieval Arabic authors.

No writer contemporary with al-Idrisi, or later—whether al-Zuhri (after 1133), Ibn Sa'îd, or especially Ibn Khaldun, who does not even mention its name in his otherwise complete narrative of the Almoravid movement—provides new information about Azugi.

By the late 15th century, as Portuguese navigators appeared on the Saharan coast, al-Qalqashandi and al-Himyari mention "Azuqi" or "Azifi" only as a toponym among others in Bilad al-Sudan…

Arabic written sources from the 11th-15th centuries thus offer only brief notices on Azugi—far less detailed and elaborate than those devoted to nearby major cities like Awdagust, Gana, Kawkaw, Niani, Walata, etc., in the same period and by these same authors.

Should this discretion be read as a silentio evidence of the material decline of a settlement—a city in the sense these authors ordinarily intend—particularly since al-Idrisi himself affirms it was not a great city?"

It was to answer this question that several archaeological soundings were conducted on the Azugi tell in 1980 and 1981 (cf. B. Saison)

.

The ensemble of ruins visited and described for over a century by numerous European travelers, administrators, and scholars (Captain Vincent 1860, R. Chudeau 1910/11, Modat 1915) and more recently Th. Monod (1948) and R. Mauny (1955), can be divided into three zones of unequal importance (see attached map):

1. pages 36/76 and following…
2. The central zone, the most vast, forms the archaeological tell proper…
3. The cenotaph…
4. The cliff construction…

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The present-day site of Azugi constitutes part of a continuous palm grove extending some fifteen kilometers along Wad Tayarit.

Once, this palm grove is said to have consisted essentially of "Bafur palms" ("ankhal-Bavur") which have entirely disappeared in favor of "modern" cultivars = Phoenix dactylifera (primarily the "ahmar" variety), reportedly of Maghrebi origin. Local narratives generally portray this "replacement"—more or less explicitly—as a shift from mere gathering and "savagery" toward "civilization"…

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1. also article

The Theologian and the Sleepwalker: A Recent Episode in Almoravid History in Mauritania

Abd El Wedoud Ould Cheikh and Bernard Saison

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines

Vol. 19, No. 2 (1985), pp. 301-317

Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Canadian Association of African Studies

DOI: 10.2307/484827

https://www.jstor.org/stable/484827