Awdaghust and the Almoravid Sack of 1054: A Saharan Trade Town

Awdaghust was a wealthy caravan town on the southern edge of the Sahara, in what is now Mauritania, that served as a major market for gold arriving from the Ghana Empire. In 1054, or the Islamic year 446, it was stormed and plundered by the Almoravids, a militant Berber religious movement from the western Sahara. The attack marked the Almoravids’ first major blow against Ghana’s sphere of influence and is one of the best-documented events in early West African history.

Background: a Saharan market town

Awdaghust lay at the southern end of a caravan route from Sijilmasa in Morocco, a journey of many weeks to the north. It was a meeting point between the Berber nomads of the desert, North African merchants and the Soninke people of Ghana to the south. The trade is described in more detail in Trans-Saharan Trade.

Writing in 1068, the geographer al-Bakri described Awdaghust as a large, populous town with many fine buildings, a congregational mosque, smaller mosques and Qur’anic schools. Its markets were said to be crowded, its gardens and fields reportedly produced dates, figs, henna and wheat, and its merchants were very wealthy. Gold refined in the town was reputed to be of the highest quality.

In the 10th century the town had been ruled by a Sanhaja Berber chief who exacted tribute from many other rulers. By the mid-11th century, however, Awdaghust had come under the authority of the king of Ghana.

The Almoravids

The Almoravid movement began in the 1030s and 1040s among the Sanhaja Berbers of the western Sahara, led by the preacher Abdallah ibn Yasin with chiefs of the Lamtuna tribe, notably Yahya ibn Umar and his brother Abu Bakr ibn Umar. They preached a strict form of Maliki Islam and united the desert tribes in a holy war.

Their twin targets in the early 1050s were the two ends of the trade route. In the north they took Sijilmasa, described in Sijilmasa: Northern Gateway, around 1054-1055. In the south they turned on Awdaghust. The broader history of the movement is covered in the article on the Almoravids.

The sack of 1054

Al-Bakri is the main source. He reports that in AH 446 the Almoravids attacked Awdaghust, took it by storm and plundered it. He says they committed acts of violence against its people and seized property, justifying their actions on the grounds that the town had acknowledged the authority of the ruler of Ghana.

Al-Bakri, himself a Muslim scholar in al-Andalus, wrote critically of the attack. He stresses that many of the inhabitants were themselves Muslims, yet were treated as if they were legitimate enemies. Exact casualty figures are not given.

Excavations at Tegdaoust

Awdaghust is identified with the ruins of Tegdaoust in southern Mauritania. A Mauritanian and French team led by Jean Devisse, with Denise Robert-Chaleix and Serge Robert, excavated the site from 1960 into the 1970s and published the results in several volumes.

The excavators found a town built of stone and mud brick, with houses arranged around courtyards, a mosque, streets and workshops. Finds included North African glazed pottery, glass weights, copper-working debris and evidence of gold handling. The layers show occupation from roughly the 8th or 9th century to the 14th century, with a prosperous phase in the 10th and 11th centuries.

The archaeology also showed that the town did not simply disappear after 1054. It continued to be inhabited, though its later history was less prosperous as trade shifted to other routes.

Consequences

The sack gave the Almoravids control of an important southern market and brought them into direct contact with Ghana. Later Arabic writers claim that Almoravid forces under Abu Bakr ibn Umar went on to attack Ghana’s capital around 1076, although the nature and extent of that conquest are much debated by historians.

Life in Awdaghust

According to al-Bakri, the population was mixed. Berbers of the Zanata and other groups lived alongside Arab merchants from North Africa and people from the lands to the south, many of whom worked as servants or enslaved labourers. Much food had to be brought in from outside, and imported goods were traded in its markets at high prices.

Gold dust and other goods passed through the town on their way north, while salt, copper, cloth and manufactured goods travelled south. This position made Awdaghust valuable to whoever could control it, whether Saharan chiefs, the kings of Ghana or the Almoravids.

Timeline

• 10th century: Awdaghust ruled by a Sanhaja Berber chief.
• c. 1035-1040: Abdallah ibn Yasin begins preaching among the Sanhaja.
• Early 1050s: Awdaghust under the authority of the king of Ghana.
• 1054 (AH 446): Almoravids storm and plunder Awdaghust.
• c. 1054-1055: Almoravids take Sijilmasa.
• 1068: Al-Bakri describes the sack in his geographical work.
• c. 1076: Reported Almoravid attack on Ghana’s capital.
• 1960-1970s: Excavations at Tegdaoust.

Why it matters

The sack of Awdaghust shows how religion, politics and the control of trade were bound together in the medieval Sahara. Combined with the excavations at Tegdaoust, it offers a rare chance to match a written account of a West African event with physical evidence on the ground.