The Ibadi communities

Who rules

Name

Not known: no head of the azzaba of the Mzab, Ouargla, the Jabal Nafusa or Djerba is named for 1 January 1200 in the sources reached

Title

No single ruler: each community is governed by its council of clerics (halqa of the azzaba) with its lay notables (jama'a)

Since

The Ibadi imamate of Tahert fell to the Fatimids in 909; since then the Ibadis of the Maghreb have lived without an imam, in the state of 'concealment' (kitman), governed by their clerics

Family

The Ibadis are the moderate branch of the Kharijites. In the Maghreb they follow the Wahbi school of the Rustamid imams of Tahert. The council of the azzaba, a body of twelve or so clerics in each community, was organised by Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Bakr al-Nafusi (died 1049) in the Wadi Righ and spread to Ouargla, the Mzab and Djerba.

Confidence

medium

fr.wikipedia (Mzab, Ouargla, Ibadisme, Azzaba); Ibadi biographical works (al-Darjini, Tabaqat al-mashayikh, about 1250); Lewicki's studies, as summarised there

Overlord

None that they recognise. The Almohads claim the Mzab and Ouargla as part of the central Maghreb, Yahya ibn Ghaniya holds the Jarid and Tripolitania round the Jabal Nafusa, and the Ibadis of each place pay tribute to whoever is strongest.

What the realm holds

• The Mzab: El Atteuf (founded by tradition 1012), Bou Noura (by tradition 1046), Ghardaia (by tradition 1053) and Melika; Beni Isguen is later (by tradition 1347), Guerrara and Berriane far later (records Mzab, Ghardaia and the other Mzab town records)
• Ouargla (Wargla) with its palm groves and villages; Sedrata (Isedraten), the old Ibadi town nearby, in decline (records Ouargla, Sedrata, Ouargla)
• The Ibadi villages of the Wadi Righ (Oued Righ), the country of the Righa Berbers round Tamerna and Touggourt (record Wadi Righ)
• The Souf, a few villages among the dunes east of the Righ (record Souf; evidence thin)
• In the Ifriqiya area (written there): the Jabal Nafusa, Djerba, Ghadames and the Ibadi remnants of the Jarid and the Nafzawa

How it was acquired

Ibadism came to the Maghreb in the eighth century. The Rustamid imams ruled from Tahert (777-909) over the Ibadis from the Jabal Nafusa to the central Maghreb. After the Fatimids took Tahert in 909, the last imam's family fled to Ouargla and Sedrata. Persecuted by the Fatimids, the Zirids and the Hammadids, Ibadi communities moved deeper into the desert: in the eleventh century they founded the towns of the Mzab, whose first settlement El Atteuf is dated by tradition to 1012.

Allies and rivals

Bound to each other by learning and trade: students and clerics travel between the Mzab, Ouargla, the Righ, the Jarid, Djerba and the Nafusa. Their enemies are the Sunni powers that have persecuted them (the Hammadids sacked Sedrata in the 1070s) and the Arab nomads who tax their roads. Their neighbours in the desert: the Zughba Arabs of the Jabal Rashid and the Mzab's edge, the Chaamba are much later; the Zenata qsur of Tuat and Gourara to the south-west; the veiled Berbers of the Hoggar to the south.

The realm that morning

Self-governing under their councils in the Mzab, Ouargla, the Righ and the Souf. No Almohad governor sits in any of these towns so far as the sources show; their tribute, if any, is not recorded. Yahya ibn Ghaniya holds Biskra and the Zab, north of the Righ, which puts the Righ and Ouargla within his reach.

Wealth

Dates and gardens watered by wells; the caravan trade to the Sudan (gold, slaves) and to the Maghreb (cloth, copper, grain); Ouargla's market; crafts (wool cloth).

Military

Townsmen behind walls; the qsur are fortified villages. They hire or bribe the nomads rather than fight in the field. No numbers in the sources.

Threats

• Yahya ibn Ghaniya and his Arab allies, masters of the Zab north of the Righ
• The Arab nomads who tax the roads
• Almohad doctrine, hostile to the Kharijites, should a governor reach so far south

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. Autumn and winter 1200The caravan season: caravans leave Ouargla for Tadmekka and Gao, and the Mzab trades with Tlemcen and the Zab.Depends on: The roads staying open through the Zab and the Hoggar. Stopped by: War in the Zab between Yahya ibn Ghaniya and the Almohads, or raids on the road.

Where the sources disagree

• The foundation dates of the Mzab towns are those of Mzabi tradition and are not checked by archaeology; Beni Isguen's traditional date (1347) and the later dates of Guerrara (1631) and Berriane (1679) put them outside 1200.
• Sedrata's end: sacked by the Hammadids in the 1070s; one account puts its final destruction by Yahya ibn Ghaniya in 1229. Its state on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Evidence: The Ibadi communities are well attested by their own biographical literature (al-Warjlani, al-Darjini) and by Ibn Khaldun, but their councils and notables in 1200 are not named in the sources reached.

On the map: No map parts: the realm is drawn from its provinces and towns (Mzab, Ouargla, Wadi Righ, Souf and, in the Ifriqiya area, the Jabal Nafusa and Djerba).

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Book of Examples: the History of the Berbers and of the Muslim Dynasties of North Africa, Ibn Khaldun (1375 to 1379 at Qal'at Ibn Salama and Tunis, revised until 1406). Ibn Khaldun's tribal histories are the standard account of the powers that Almohad chronicles treat as background: the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in Ifriqiya and Tripolitania and their alliances with the Banu Ghaniya and Qaraqush; the Zenata of the central Maghreb (Banu Marin, Banu Abd al-Wad, Tujin, Maghrawa) before their rise; the Sanhaja and the veiled peoples of the Sahara; the Masmuda and the Almohad tribes. Read online
• The Book of Examination of the Wonders of the Cities (1191). The nearest geographical survey to 1200: a description of the Almohad lands written nine years earlier, town by town, from Alexandria and Barqa through Tripoli, Gabès, Mahdia, Tunis, Bougie, Tlemcen, Fez, Marrakesh and Sijilmasa, with a section on the Sahara routes and the Sudan (Ghana, Zafun, Kawkaw). Read online
• The Book of Routes and Realms: the Description of North Africa, al-Bakri (Abu Ubayd Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Bakri) (1068, at Cordoba). Old by 1200 but still the standard description of the Sahara and the Sudan that the Almohad-period writers copied: Ghana under Tunka Manin with its twin towns and its Muslim quarter, Awdaghust, Tadmakka, Kawkaw, Takrur and Sila, the gold trade and the routes from Sijilmasa and the Dar'a; the Ibadi towns of the Jarid and the Fezzan; the Berber peoples of the Maghreb. Read online
• The Journey of al-Tijani, Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Tijani (after 1309 and before 1318, at Tunis). A Hafsid chancery official's travel book, which at each town stops to tell its history, and so preserves accounts of the Banu Ghaniya war and of Qaraqush in southern Ifriqiya and Tripolitania around 1200 (Gabès, Djerba, Tripoli, the Jarid oases) from lost Almohad-period sources. Read online
• The Pleasure of One who Longs to Cross the Horizons (the Book of Roger), al-Idrisi (Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Sharif al-Idrisi) (completed in 1154 at Palermo, for Roger II of Sicily). The fullest geography of Africa a generation before 1200: the Maghreb and Ifriqiya town by town with distances and products; the Sahara routes through Sijilmasa, Awdaghust, Ghadames and Zawila; the Sudan with Ghana, Takrur, Sila, Barisa, Kawkaw (Gao) and Kugha, and Kanem with its towns Manan and Njimi; Nubia and Dongola, the Beja and the Red Sea ports; Zeila and Berbera; and the Zanj coast with Malindi, Mombasa, Qanbalu and Sofala with its gold, the earliest systematic notice of the Swahili towns. Read online
• The Picture of the Earth, Ibn Hawqal (about 977, revised to about 988). Two centuries old by 1200 but the only early geographer who had crossed the Sahara himself: he was at Sijilmasa and Awdaghust in 951, saw the gold trade and the famous cheque for 42,000 dinars, and described the king of Ghana as the richest on earth, with notes on the veiled Sanhaja, the Ibadi towns, the Fezzan, Nubia and Alodia, and the Zanj. Read online