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Mauritania
Index
One of the Berber groups arriving in Mauritania in the eighth
century was the Lemtuna. By the ninth century, the Lemtuna had
attained political dominance in the Adrar and Hodh regions.
Together with two other important Berber groups, the Messufa and
the Djodala, they set up the Sanhadja Confederation. From their
capital, Aoudaghast, the Lemtuna controlled this loose
confederation and the western routes of the Saharan caravan trade
that had begun to flourish after the introduction of the camel.
At its height, from the eighth to the end of the tenth century,
the Sanhadja Confederation was a decentralized polity based on
two distinct groups: the nomadic and very independent Berber
groups, who maintained their traditional religions, and the
Muslim, urban Berber merchants, who conducted the caravan trade.
Although dominated by the Sanhadja merchants, the caravan
trade had its northern terminus in the Maghribi commercial city
of Sijilmasa and its southern terminus in Koumbi Saleh, capital
of the Ghana Empire. Later, the southern trade route ended in
Timbuktu, capital of the Mali Empire. Gold, ivory, and slaves
were carried north in return for salt (ancient salt mines near
Kediet Ijill in northern Mauritania are still being worked),
copper, cloth, and other luxury goods.
Important towns developed along the trade routes. The
easiest, though not the shortest, routes between Ghana and
Sijilmasa were from Koumbi Saleh through Aoudaghast, Oualâta,
Tîchît, and Ouadane. These towns along the route grew to be
important commercial as well as political centers. The eleventhcentury Arab chronicler, Al Bakri, describes Aoudaghast, with its
population of 5,000 to 6,000, as a big town with a large mosque
and several smaller ones, surrounded by large cultivated areas
under irrigation. Oualâta was a major relay point on the gold and
salt trade route, as well as a chief assembly point for pilgrims
traveling to Mecca. Koumbi Saleh was a large cosmopolitan city
comprising two distinct sections: the Muslim quarter, with its
Arab-influenced architecture, and the black quarter of
traditional thatch and mud architecture, where the non-Muslim
king of Ghana resided. Another important Mauritanian trade city
of the Sanhadja Confederation was Chinguetti, later an important
religious center. Although Koumbi Saleh did not outlive the fall
of the Ghana Empire, Aoudaghast and particularly Oualâta
maintained their importance well into the sixteenth century, when
trade began shifting to the European-controlled coasts.
Data as of June 1988
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