Igiliz
Igiliz is located in Morocco
Igiliz
Shown within Morocco
Alternative nameIgiliz-n-Warghan
LocationIgiliz, Toughmart, Morocco
RegionTaroudant Province, Souss-Massa
Coordinates30°23′57″N 8°21′57″W / 30.3993°N 8.3658°W / 30.3993; -8.3658
Altitude1,354 m (4,442 ft)
TypeSettlement
History
Foundedc. 1120
Abandoned18th century
Associated withArghen
Site notes
Discovered2006
Excavation dates2008-2000
Public accessAllowed for visitors and tourists
Websitevisitagadir.com/sit/site-archeologique-digiliz/
Architecture
Architectural stylesBerber
DesignationMoroccan national historic monument

Igiliz (Arabic: إكَيليز; Tachelhit: ⵉⴳⵉⵍⵉⵣ) is a medieval village located in the rural commune of Toughmart on the edge of the Sous valley in the Anti-Atlas mountains of Morocco.[1][2] It is most known for being the birthplace of Ibn Tumart, founder of the Almohad caliphate.[3][4] The village was known as place of pilgrimage by Ibn Tumart's followers during Almohad rule.[3][1]

As the Almohad caliphate collapsed, the village's location had become lost over time and was believed to be fictional until its discovery in 2006 with archeological searches starting in 2008.[5][6] In 2022, the Igiliz archeological site was listed as a national historic monument.[7][8] In 2023, the site was opened to visitors and tourists.[9]

Etymology

Igiliz is a toponym in Berber that can be translated to "mountain peak" or "isolated mountain".[10][11] The village's full name in Berber, Igiliz-n-Warghan (Tachelhit: ⵉⴳⵉⵍⵉⵣ ⵏ ⵡⴰⵔⵖⴰⵏ, French: Igiliz-des-Hargha), refers to the native Arghen tribe within the Masmuda tribal confederation.[12][5]

Architecture

Igiliz is fortified by two defense walls.[3] There is a residential complex, the Qasba, centered around two courtyards.[13] There is the presence of two places of worship, including a large mosque.[13] Artificial caves, former quarries, were used as places of spiritual retreat and pilgrimage.[13]

History and lifestyle

The village was built in the 11th century by the Arghen, Ibn Tumart's tribe, as a ribāṭ.[3][1] Ceramics jars, lamps, plates, braziers, pans, marmites, couscoussiers, flowerpots and a bread oven were found in the archeological site.[14][15] It is theorized that the community in Igiliz held a market every Friday, to correspond with the Friday sermon, to exchange goods and news, settle disputes, negotiate marriage, and maintain contact with the larger Masmuda confederation.[1][16]

In 1120, Ibn Tumart exiled himself in a cave in his birthplace of Igiliz fearing Almoravid leadership, he proclaimed himself as the Mahdi in the village a year later.[5][17] Following a military success in 1123, Ibn Tumart moved to the village of Tinmal where he died in 1130.[5]

In 1141, Igiliz served as a military base for the Almohads serving the anti-Atlas and the Souss valley.[5] In 1157, five years after the Almohad conquest of Marrakesh, caliph Abd al-Mu'min took a pilgrimage to the ribāṭ of Igiliz to pay respect to Ibn Tumart and the Arghen tribe, where he ordered the preservation of Ibn Tumart's cave.[5] During the conquest, Sufi saint Abu al-Abbas as-Sabti moved from Ceuta to Igiliz.[17] His son and successor, Abu Yaqub Yusuf, had done the same pilgrimage in 1170.[5] By the 13th century, the village had two hermitages dedicated for pilgrims.[5]

Despite Igiliz's status as a site of pilgrimage, the location of the village started to become ommitted from written literature and forgotten in favor of Tinmal, Igiliz had become completely deserted by the 18th century.[5] The village's legacy persisted as a site of asceticism where the native Arghen held a ritual luncheon every year in memory of Ibn Tumart.[5]

The village's exact location had become lost over time and was believed to be fictional.[6][9] In 1924, French historians Henri Basset and Henri Terrasse assumed the village to be in Gueliz district of Marrakesh but offered no reasonable evidence to substanciate their claim.[6][18] In 2005, American historian Allen Fromherz disproved the claim and theorized Igiliz to be located in the village of Igli, near Taroudant within the Sous valley, coroberating his claim with oral tradition.[6]

In 2006, historians Jean-Pierre van Staëvel and Abdallah Fili disproved Fromherz's theory as a confusion between toponyms, with Igili contradicting with historical descriptions of Igiliz as a fortified site in the anti-Atlas.[2] After a search for Igiliz at the Arghen's historical territory, the delegation located a ribāṭ believed to have been Igiliz.[9][2] In 2008, archeological searches began which confirmed the location to be Igiliz.[9] In 2023, the Souss-Massa regional tourism council opened the site for visitors and tourists.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Fromherz, Allen J. (2010). The Almohads : the Rise of an Islamic Empire. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-282-88107-5. OCLC 729030442.
  2. 1 2 3 Van Staëvel, Jean-Pierre; Fili, Abdallah (2006-06-30). "«Wa-waṣalnā 'alā barakat Allāh ilā Īgīlīz»: à propos de la localisation d'Īgīlīz-Des-Harġa, le Ḥiṣn du Mahdī Ibn Tūmart" [On the localization of Igiliz-des-Harga, the Hisn of Mahdi Ibn Tumart]. Al-Qanṭara (in Spanish). 27 (1): 155–197. doi:10.3989/alqantara.2006.v27.i1.24. ISSN 1988-2955.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Igiliz". Grands Sites Archéologiques. Ministère de la Culture. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  4. ↑ Ruas, Marie-Pierre; Tengberg, Margareta; Ettahiri, Ahmed S.; Fili, Abdallah; Van Staëvel, Jean-Pierre (2011-07-23). "Archaeobotanical research at the medieval fortified site of Îgîlîz (Anti-Atlas, Morocco) with particular reference to the exploitation of the argan tree". Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 20 (5): 419–433. doi:10.1007/S00334-011-0306-2. S2CID 129509079.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Saleh Ettahiri, Ahmed; Fili, Abdallah; Staëvel, Jean-Pierre van (2017). "Igilīz, le 'Ribāt' des Hargha: aux origines de l'architecture défensive des Almohades" (PDF). Hesperis Tamuda (52): 81–107. ISSN 0018-1005.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Fromherz, Allen J. (2005-06-30). "The Almohad Mecca. Locating Igli and the Cave of Ibn Tūmart". Al-Qanṭara. 26 (1): 175–190. doi:10.3989/alqantara.2005.v26.i1.121. ISSN 1988-2955.
  7. ↑ "Le site Igiliz de Taroudant classé monument historique". Medias24. 2022-11-23.
  8. ↑ Hamri, Salma (2022-11-18). "A Taroudant, le site archéologique d'Igîlîz inscrit au patrimoine national". Le Desk (in French). Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Maroc : le site d'Igiliz enfin accessible aux férus d'histoire". Arab News (in French). 2023-05-10. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  10. ↑ Ettahiri, Ahmed S.; Fili, Abdallah; Van Staëvel, Jean-Pierre (2011-09-30). "La montagne d'Îgîlîz et le pays des Arghen (Maroc): Enquête archéologique sur une société de montagne, de la révolution almohade à la constitution des terroirs précoloniaux". Les Nouvelles de l'archéologie (124): 49–53. doi:10.4000/nda.1435. ISSN 0242-7702.
  11. ↑ Weisrock, André; Van Staëvel, Jean-Pierre; Fili, Abdallah; Ettahiri, Ahmed; Ouammou, Abderrahmane; Rousseau, Louis (2015). "Approche géoarchéologique du site médiéval d'Igîlîz (Anti-Atlas occidental, Maroc)". Les Paysages Lus du Ciel. Presses Universitaires de Nancy - Éditions Universitaires de Lorraine: 305–320.
  12. ↑ Herz, Allen J. (2011-01-01), Akyeampong, Emmanuel K.; Gates, Henry Louis (eds.), "Ibn Tumart, Muhammad", Dictionary of African Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780195382075.001.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5, retrieved 2023-12-21
  13. 1 2 3 "Igiliz - Fouilles archéologiques". Casa de Velazquez. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  14. ↑ Fili, Abdallah; Ettahiri, Ahmed Saleh; Van Staëvel, Jean-Pierre; Serrat, Ihssane (2020). "Première approche typologique de la céramique protoalmohade d'Igiliz (Maroc)" [First typological approach to the proto-Almohad pottery of Igiliz (Morocco)]. Bulletin d'Archéologie Marocaine. 25 (25): 101–123. doi:10.34874/IMIST.PRSM/bam-v25.29693. eISSN 2820-6908. ISSN 0068-4015.
  15. ↑ Ettahiri, Ahmed S.; Fili, Abdallah; Van Staëvel, Jean-Pierre; Belatik, Mohamed; Capel, Chloé; Clavel, Benoit; De Keukelaere, Pauline; Doukali, Hasna; Elbourkadi, Ikhlass; Minvielle-Larousse, Nicolas; Schwerdtner, Ronald; Serrat, Ihssane; Wech, Pierre; Zizouni, Abdeslam (2020). "La montagne d'Igīlīz et le pays des Arghan : enquête archéologique sur les débuts de l'empire almohade au Maroc (chronique de la campagne de fouilles 2019)" [The Igīlīz Mountain and the Land of the Arghans: An Archaeological In- vestigation of the Early Almohad Empire in Morocco (chronicle of the 2019 excavation campaign)]. Bulletin d'Archéologie Marocaine (25): 427–443.
  16. ↑ Ettahiri, Ahmed; Fili, Abdallah; Van Staëvel, Jean-Pierre (2013). "Nouvelles recherches archéologiques sur les origines de l'empire almohade au Maroc : les fouilles d'Igîlîz". Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. 157 (2): 1109–1142. doi:10.3406/crai.2013.95273.
  17. 1 2 Ghouirgate, Mehdi (2021-10-30). "L'An 41 : la prise de Marrakech par les Almohades". Annales islamologiques (in French) (55): 235–254. doi:10.4000/anisl.9953. ISSN 0570-1716.
  18. ↑ Basset, Henri; Terrasse, Henri (1932). Sanctuaires et forteresses almohades (in French). Institut des hautes-études marocaines.
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