- Precolonial Mauritania
Precolonial Mauritania, lying next to the Atlantic coast at the western edge of the Sahara Desert, received and assimilated into its complex society many waves of Saharan migrants and conquerors. Berbers moved south to Mauritania beginning in the third century A.D., followed by Arabs in the eighth century, subjugating and assimilating Mauritania's original inhabitants. From the eighth through the fifteenth century, black kingdoms of the western Sudan, such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, brought their political culture from the south.Warner, Rachel. "Historical setting". In Handloff.]
The divisive tendencies of the various groups within Mauritanian society have always worked against the development of Mauritanian unity. Both the Sanhadja Confederation, at its height from the eighth to the tenth century, and the Almoravid Empire, from the eleventh to the twelfth century, were weakened by internecine warfare, and both succumbed to further invasions from the Ghana Empire and the Almohad Empire, respectively.
The one external influence that tended to unify the country was Islam. The Islamization of Mauritania was a gradual process that spanned more than 500 years. Beginning slowly through contacts with Berber and Arab merchants engaged in the important caravan trades and rapidly advancing through the Almoravid conquests, Islamization did not take firm hold until the arrival of Yemeni Arabs in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and was not complete until several centuries later. Gradual Islamization was accompanied by a process of arabization as well, during which the Berber masters of Mauritania lost power and became vassals of their Arab conquerors.
From the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, European contact with Mauritania was dominated by the trade for gum arabic (see Glossary). Rivalries among European powers enabled the Arab-Berber population, the Maures (Moors), to maintain their independence and later to exact annual payments from France, whose sovereignty over the Senegal River and the Mauritanian coast was recognized by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Although penetration beyond the coast and the Senegal River began in earnest under Louis Faidherbe, governor of Senegal in the mid1800s , European conquest or "pacification" of the entire country did not begin until 1900. Because extensive European contact began so late in the country's history, the traditional social structure carried over into modern times with little change.
Early history
The early history of the west Saharan region is largely unknown. There are some written accounts by medieval
Arab traders and explorers who reached the important caravan trading centers and Sudanic kingdoms of eastern Mauritania, but the major sources of pre-European history are oral history, legends, and archaeological evidence. These sources indicate that during the millennia preceding the Christian Era, theSahara was a more habitable region than it is today and supported a flourishing culture. In the area that is now Mauritania, theBafour , a proto-Berber people, whose descendants may be the coastalImraguen fishermen, were hunters, pastoralists, and fishermen. Valley cultivators, who may have been black ancestors of the riverineToucouleur and Wolof peoples, lived alongside the Bafour. Climatic changes, and perhapsovergrazing andovercultivation as well, led to a gradualdesiccation of the Sahara and the southward movement of these peoples.Warner, Rachel. "Early history". In Handloff.]In the third and fourth centuries A.D., this southward migration was intensified by the arrival of Berber groups from the north who were searching for pasturage or fleeing political anarchy and war. The wide-ranging activities of these turbulent Berber warriors were made possible by the introduction of the
camel to the Sahara in this period. This first wave of Berber invaders subjugated and madevassal s of those Bafour who did not flee south. Other Berber groups followed in the seventh and eighth centuries, themselves fleeing in large numbers before the Arab conquerors of theMaghreb .anhadja Confederation
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 andHodh regions. Together with two other important Berber groups, theMessufa and theDjodala , they set up theSanhadja 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 decentralizedpolity 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.Warner, Rachel. "Sanhadja Confederation". In Handloff.]Although dominated by the
Sanhadja merchants, the caravan trade had its northern terminus in the Maghribi commercial city ofSijilmasa and its southern terminus inKoumbi Saleh , capital of theGhana Empire . Later, the southern trade route ended inTimbuktu , capital of theMali Empire .Gold ,ivory , and slaves were carried north in return for salt (ancientsalt mine s nearKediet 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 throughAoudaghast ,Oualâta ,Tîchît , andOuadane . These towns along the route grew to be important commercial as well as political centers. The eleventh-century Arab chroniclerAl-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-Muslimking of Ghana resided. Another important Mauritanian trade city of the Sanhadja Confederation wasChinguetti , 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.Almoravids
By the eleventh century,
Islam had spread throughout the west Sahara under the influence of Berber and Arab traders and occasional Arab migrants. Nevertheless, traditional religious practices thrived. The conquest of the entire west Saharan region by theAlmoravids in the eleventh century made possible a more orthodox Islamization of all the peoples of Mauritania.Warner, Rachel. "Almoravids". In Handloff.]The breakup of the Sanhadja Confederation in the early eleventh century led to a period of unrest and warfare among the Sanhadja Berber groups of Mauritania. In about 1039, a chief of the
Djodala ,Yahya ibn Ibrahim , returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca bringing with him a Sanhadja theologian,Abdallah ibn Yassin , to teach a more orthodox Islam. Rejected by the Djodala two years later, after the death of Ibn Ibrahim, Ibn Yassin and some of his Sanhadja followers retired to a secluded place where they built a fortified religious center, aribat , which attracted many Sanhadja. In 1042 theal murabitun (men of the ribat), as Ibn Yassin's followers came to be called, launched ajihad , or holy war, against the nonbelievers and the heretics among the Sanhadja, beginning what later become known as the Almoravid movement. The initial aim of the Almoravids was to establish a political community in which the ethical and juridical principles of Islam would be strictly applied.First, the Almoravids attacked and subdued the Djodala, forcing them to acknowledge Islam. Then, rallying the other Berber groups of the west Sahara, the Almoravids succeeded in recreating the political unity of the Sanhadja Confederation and adding to it a religious unity and purpose. By 1054 the Almoravids had captured Sijilmasa in the Maghrib and had retaken Aoudaghast from Ghana.
With the death of Ibn Yassin in 1059, leadership of the movement in the south passed to
Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar ,amir of Adrar, and toYusuf ibn Tashfin in the north. Under Ibn Tashfin, the Berbers capturedMorocco and foundedMarrakech as their capital in 1062. By 1082 all of the western Maghrib (to at least present-dayAlgiers ) was under Almoravid domination. In 1086 theAndalusia namirates , under attack from the Spanish Christian king Alfonso and theChristian reconquest of Spain , called on Ibn Tashfin and his Berber warriors to cross theStrait of Gibraltar and come to their rescue. The Almoravids defeated the Spanish Christians and, by 1090, imposed Almoravid rule and theMaliki school of Islamic law in Muslim Spain.In Mauritania, Abu Bakr led the Almoravids in a war against Ghana (1062-76), culminating in the capture in 1076 of Koumbi Saleh. This event marked the end of the dominance of the Ghana Empire. But after the death of Abu Bakr in 1087 and Ibn Tashfin in 1106, traditional rivalries among the Sanhadja and a new Muslim reformist conquest led by the
Zenata Almohad s (1133-63) destroyed the Almoravid Empire.For a short time, the Mauritanian Sanhadja dynasty of the Almoravid Empire controlled a vast territory stretching from Spain to
Senegal . The unity established between Morocco and Mauritania during the Almoravid period continued to have some political importance in the 1980s, as it formed part of the basis for Morocco's claims to Mauritania. But the greatest contribution of the Sanhadja and the Almoravids was the Islamization of the western Maghrib. This process would remain a dominant factor in the history of the area for the next several centuries.udanic empires and kingdoms
Although the Almoravids had substantial contacts with the Maghrib, influences from the black Sudanic kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai played an important role in Mauritania's history for about 700 years—from the eighth to the fifteenth century. Ghana, the first of the great West African Sudanic kingdoms, included in its territory all of southeastern Mauritania extending to Tagant. Ghana reached its in the ninth and tenth centuries with the extension of its rule over the Sanhadja Berbers. This large and centralized kingdom controlled the southern terminus of the
trans-Saharan trade in gold, ivory, and salt.Warner, Rachel. "Sudanic empires and kingdoms". In Handloff.]The capture of Koumbi Saleh in 1076 by the Almoravids marked the end of Ghana's
hegemony , although the kingdom continued to exist for another 125 years. TheMandé , under the leadership of the legendary Sundiata, founded the second great Sudanic kingdom, Mali. By the end of the thirteenth century, the Mali Empire extended over that part of Mauritania previously controlled by Ghana, as well as over the remaining Sahelian regions and theSenegal River Valley . Sundiata and his successors took over Ghana's role in the Saharan trade and in the administration and collection oftribute from vast stretches of the Sudan and the Sahel.The slow decline of the Mali Empire that started at the end of the fourteenth century came about through internal discord and revolts by the inhabitants of vassal states, including the Songhai of
Gao . By the end of the fifteenth century, the Songhai Empire had replaced the Mali Empire and extended to Mauritania and the upper Senegal River Valley. At the end of the sixteenth century, a large Moroccan force defeated the Songhai, bringing to an end the seven centuries of domination of the western Sudan (and a large part of Mauritania) by strong, centralized black kingdoms.Arab invasions
Beginning with the
Arab conquest of the western Maghrib in the eighth century, Mauritania experienced a slow but constant infiltration of Arabs and Arab influence from the north. The growing Arab presence pressed the Berbers, who chose not to mix with other groups, to move farther south into Mauritania, forcing out the black inhabitants. By the sixteenth century, most blacks had been pushed to theSenegal River . Those remaining in the north became slaves cultivating theoases .Warner, Rachel. "Arab invasions". In Handloff.]After the decline of the Almoravid Empire, a long process of Arabization began in Mauritania, one that until then had been resisted successfully by the Berbers. Several groups of
Yemen i Arabs who had been devastating the north of Africa turned south to Mauritania. Settling in northern Mauritania, they disrupted thecaravan trade , causing routes to shift east, which in turn led to the gradual decline of Mauritania's trading towns. One particular Yemeni group, theBani Hassan , continued to migrate southward until, by the end of the seventeenth century, they dominated the entire country. The last effort of the Berbers to shake off the Arab yoke was theMauritanian Thirty Years' War (1644-74), or Sharr Bubba, led by Nasr ad-Din, aLemtuna imam . This Sanhadja war of liberation was, however, unsuccessful; the Berbers were forced to abandon the sword and became vassals to the warrior Arab groups.Thus, the contemporary social structure of Mauritania can be dated from 1674. The warrior groups or Arabs dominated the Berber groups, who turned to
cleric alism to regain a degree of ascendancy. At the bottom of the social structure were the slaves, subservient to both warriors and Islamic holy men. All of these groups, whose language wasHassaniya Arabic , became known asMaures . The bitter rivalries and resentments characteristic of their social structure were later fully exploited by the French.Early European contacts
Despite the Almoravid domination of Spain in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, there seems to be little evidence of contact during that time between Mauritania and Europe. The inhospitable coastline of Mauritania continued to deter voyagers until the Portuguese began their African explorations in the fifteenth century. Lured by legends of vast wealth in interior kingdoms, the Portuguese established a trading fort at
Arguin , southeast of Cap Blanc (present-dayRas Nouadhibou ), in 1455. Theking of Portugal also maintained acommercial agent atOuadane in the Adrar in an attempt to divert gold traveling north by caravan. Having only slight success in their quest for gold, the Portuguese quickly adapted to dealing in slaves. In the mid-fifteenth century, as many as 1,000 slaves per year were exported from Arguin to Europe and to the Portuguesesugar plantation s on the island ofSao Tomé in theGulf of Guinea .Warner, Rachel. "Early European contacts". In Handloff.]With the merger of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns in 1580, the Spaniards became the dominant influence along the coast. In 1638, however, they were replaced by the Dutch, who were the first to begin exploiting the
gum arabic trade. Produced by theacacia trees ofTrarza andBrakna and used in textile pattern printing, this gum arabic was considered superior to that previously obtained in Arabia. By 1678 the French had driven out the Dutch and established a permanent settlement at Saint-Louis at the mouth of the Senegal River, where theFrench Company of the Senegal River (Compagnie Française du Sénégal) had been trading for more than fifty years.The
Maures , with whom the Europeans were trading, considered the constant rivalries between European powers a sign of weakness, and they quickly learned the benefits of playing one power against the other. For example, they agreed simultaneously to give monopolies to the French and the Dutch. The Maures also took advantage of the Europeans whenever possible, so that when the French negotiated with the emir of Trarza to secure a monopoly on the gum arabic trade, the amir in exchange demanded a considerable number of gifts. Thus began thecoutume , an annual payment expected by the Maures for doing business with a government or a company. By 1763 the British had expelled France from the West African coast, and France recovered control only when theCongress of Vienna in 1815 recognized French sovereignty over the coast of West Africa from Cap Blanc south to Senegal.References
Notes
Works cited
*Handloff, Robert E., editor. [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/mrtoc.html "Mauritania: A Country Study"] .
Library of Congress Federal Research Division (June 1988). "This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain."
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