Sijilmassa: The Rise and Fall of a Walled Oasis in Medieval Morocco
By Dale R. Lightfoot and James A. Miller
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 8:1 (1996)
Introduction: Sjilmassa, once a great oasis city that organized caravans for gold across the Sahara, lies today inruins along the Wadi Ziz in the Tafilalt oasis of southeastern Morocco. Sijilmassa flourished for nearly 650 years after its establishment in AD 757, and housed a population of perhaps 30,000 in the last two hundred years of its existence. Founded by Islamic dissidents – kharijite refugees from the religious mainstream who debated authority in early Islam and who sought and found spiritual refuge among Berbers throughout the Maghrib – Sijilmassa quickly emerged as the premier desert entrepot of North Africa. Not only did the oasis city secure gold from south of the Sahara, it also controlled gold minting, sped the precious trade north and eastward, and was regarded by Arab geographers and historians as the wealthiest of places in the Maghrib. Because Sijilmassa organized the gold trade to Africa, Morocco, and beyond, the city was coveted by centers of power from Spain to Tunis. Prior to abandonment in 1393, Sijilmassa constituted a global place in the premodern era.
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