Sijilmasa (or Sijilmassa ) was a commercial city, located at the Morocco and where made halt the large caravans bringing of Bilad Sudan (Black Africa) of the gold powder, the ivory, the feathers of ostrich, of the slaves… It was shaven in 1818 by the warlike tribes of the Djebel Saghro close. It was an important center of Berber the zénètes. Founded in 757, it was the capital of an emirate kharijite, under the cane of the Midrarides before being a bone of contention between Fatimides of Ifriqiya and Omeyyades de Cordoue, because of its situation with the outlet of the caravan tracks. It was finally conquered by the Almoravides towards 1055. Its commercial situation continued to be flourishing until, and its opening on the whole of the known world is attested by the traveller Ibn Battûta who affirms to have met of Sijilmassiens during his tour in China. Time of its splendor, Sijilmassa was made up of approximately 600 kasbahs which formed as many districts. The principal kasbah sheltered the palate of the emir, the large mosque, a monetary workshop of striking as well as an immense market of traders, of which some came from as far as Egypt or even from Baghdad. Midrarides (also called Ouassoulites) adopted a long time the hardest rite of the kharijism, the sofrism. They followed a policy of alliance with the other power kharijite of the Maghreb, the emirate rostémide of Tahert (in current Tiaret, in Algeria). But at the beginning of one notes an easing in practice sofrism and the emir midraride Al Chakir Billah goes until recognizing the spiritual authority of the Abbasid caliph. That also comes owing to the fact that Sijilmassa had become a place of trade of international level, and thus cultivated a certain form of cosmopolitanism, attracting even the founder of the dynasty fatimide, the Shiite chief `Ubayd Allâh Al-Mahdî which fled persecutions in the East.

External bonds

• Web site of the area of Sijilmassa
• What is Sijilmassa?
• the area of Meknes