Azougui (or Azuggi, ar, آزوكي) was a town in north western

Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامي� ...

, lying on the

Adrar Plateau The Adrar (, Berber for "mountain") is a highland natural and historical region of the Sahara Desert in northern Mauritania. The Adrar Region, an administrative division of Mauritania, is named after the traditional region. It is sometimes c ...

, north west of

Atar Atar, Atash, or Azar ( ae, 𐬁𐬙𐬀𐬭, translit=ātar) is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire" (Mirza, 1987:389). It is considered to b ...

. In the eleventh century it was the first capital of the

Almoravid dynasty The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that ...

, who conquered a territory stretching from the

Ghana Empire The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadou ( ar, غانا) or Awkar, was a West African empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali that existed from c. 300 until 1100. The Empire was founded by the Soninke people, an ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

and the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. The chronicler

al-Bakri Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī ( ar, أبو عبيد عبد الله بن عبد العزيز بن محمد بن أيوب بن عمرو البكري), or simply al-Bakrī (c. 1040–1 ...

claims a fortress "surrounded by 20,000 palms" was built here by Yannu ibn Umar, a brother of the first Almoravid chieftains,

Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn Umar ibn Talagagin ibn Turgut ibn Wartasin, commonly suffixed al-Lamtuni al-Sanhaji, (d. near Azuggi, 1056; Arabic : يحيى إبن عمر) was a chieftain of the Lamtuna, a tribe in the Sanhaja confederation. Yahya ibn Uma ...

and

Abu Bakr ibn Umar Abu Bakr ibn Umar ibn Ibrahim ibn Turgut, sometimes suffixed al-Sanhaji or al-Lamtuni (died 1087; ar, أبو بكر بن عمر) was a chieftain of the Lamtuna Berber Tribe and Amir of the Almoravids from 1056 until his death. He is credited ...

, and marked the frontier between the dominions of the

Lamtuna The Lamtuna (Berber: Ilemteyen) are a nomadic Berber tribe belonging to the Iẓnagen / Sanhaja (Zenaga) confederation, who traditionally inhabited areas from Sous to Adrar Plateau. During the Almoravid period, many Lamtunas emigrated northwards. ...

and the Gudala. Both of them Berber

Sanhaja The Sanhaja ( ber, Aẓnag, pl. Iẓnagen, and also Aẓnaj, pl. Iẓnajen; ar, صنهاجة, ''Ṣanhaja'' or زناگة ''Znaga'') were once one of the largest Berber tribal confederations, along with the Zanata and Masmuda confederations. Man ...

desert tribes and one time allies, the Lamtuna formed the core of the Almoravids after the Gudala broke away. It was near this location, at a place called Tabfarilla, that the early Almoravids suffered their first significant defeat, when the Gudala crushed an Almoravid Lamtuna army based in Azuggi and killed their leader Yahya ibn Umar in 1056. Azuggi and the nearby battlefield subsequently became a revered site for the Almoravids. The chronicler al-Zuhri, writing in the 1150s, called Azuggi the "capital of the Almoravids". Al-Idrisi identified Azougi as an essential stop on the

trans-Saharan trade Trans-Saharan trade requires travel across the Sahara between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the early 17th century. The Sahara once had a very d ...

route between

and

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

("Whoever wants to go to the countries of Sila,

Takrur Takrur, Tekrur or Tekrour ( 800 – c. 1285) was an ancient state of West Africa, which flourished roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire. Origin Takrur was the capital of the state which flourished on the lower Senegal River. Takruri was ...

and Ghana in the land of the Sudan cannot avoid this town").al-Idrisi, in Levtzion and Hopkins (1981: p.127-28) He also notes that the "

Guineans Demographics of Guinea describes the condition and overview of Guinea's peoples. Demographic topics include basic education, health, and population statistics as well as identified racial and religious affiliations. Population According to the ...

" (prob. Soninke) called it "Quqadam". The site is even older, as seventh century

rock carving A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock (geology), rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrasion (geology), abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", ...

s attest. Parts of the

citadel A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. In ...

and the

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually i ...

of al-Imam al-Hadrami survive.

World Heritage Status

This site was added to the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

Tentative List on June 14, 2001 in the Cultural category.

External links

Paysage culturel d'Azougui - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

References

* Levtzion, N. and J.F.P. Hopkins, editors, (1981) ''Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2000 edition. * Mohamed Salem Ideidbi, Mauritanie. La richesse d'une nation, Nouakchott, al-Manar, 2011. * Mohamed Salem Ideidbi, Traité de Politique ou Conseils pour la conduite du pouvoir d'al-Imam al-Hadrami (Cadi d'Azougui, Paris, Geuthner, 2012. ({{ISBN, 978-2705338510) History of Mauritania Almoravid dynasty Former populated places in Mauritania Archaeological sites in Mauritania Adrar Region Archaeological sites of Western Africa