MIDRARID

Humble are the early origins of the Midrarid Dynasty. According to the medieval geographer, al-Bakri [i], its founder was a Amazigh shepherd by the name of Abu al-Qasim Samghu Wasul who endeavored to convert the entire local population to Sufri Kharijism [ii]. His followers saught refuge and protection and thus created the city of Sijilmasa. The Midrarid rule reached its zenith under the reign of Abu Muntasir [iii], (r.790–823) who expanded the city, adorned it with palaces, and extended its control over the mines of Dara’a. The years after Abu Muntasir’s death brought civil unrest and signaled the end of the Midrarid Dynasty [iv].

The Midrarid rulers enjoyed decades of prosperity and peace [v]. The major caliphates and kingdoms of the time, viz. the Abbasids, Iberian Umayyads, Aghlabids [vi], and Idrisids [vii], who depended on the trade routes over which the Midrarids exercised control, tended to avoid conflict with the amirat [viii] of Sijilmasa. Good relations were also maintained with the neighboring Rustamids [ix]. This is attested to by a recorded marriage [x] between Abu Muntasir’s son, Midrar, and the daughter of a Rustamid ruler. This changed when the Rustamids of Tahert, at the time vassals of the Fatimids, invaded Sijilmasa in 909 [xi] and installed a succession of tractable Midrarid rulers.

The modern influence of the Midrarids is exceedingly difficult to determine. Early medieval Sijilmasa certainly provided a safe harbor for the Sufri branch of Kharijism [xii] – the degree or extent to which Sijilmasa’s religious scholars played a constitutive role in the development thereof remains an open question [xiii] The unearthed remains of an ornately decorated Midrarid courtyard house that showcase Quranic descriptions affirming the Kharijite belief in salvation [xiv] does however suggest that it was firmly established among the Midrarid elite. Additionally, it appears that the Midrarid rulers of Sijilmasa ushered in a new age of exchange between the Islamic world and West Africa [xv].

Originally, Sijilmasa was intended as an egalitarian Muslim polity [xvi] in accordance with the doctrinal principles of Kharijism [xvii]. But within decades it turned into a hereditary dynasty through which the Banū Midrār exerted power. This changed upon the arrival of the Fatimids [xviii] who sought to subdue the Midrarids. However, their initial efforts to install a Fatimid governor were in vain [xix]. Eventually, the Fatimids appointed a Midrarid ruler who acknowledged their suzerainty and ruled in their stead. Hereditary Midrarid rule was brought to a close in 976 when Sijilmasa fell to the Maghrawa [xx], a tribal confederation in vassalage to the Ummayad Khilāfat Qurṭuba.

The Midrarid Dynasty tells the story of the evolution of Magrhebi Kharijism, particularly the Sufri school of thought. They were its guardian angels for roughly two centuries. Sufri Kharijism – the mainstay of Midrarid identity [xxi] – disappeared upon the demise of the Midrarids in 976 CE when the Maghrawa Berbers, liege subjects of the Umayyads, breached the walls of Sijilmasa. The strategic location of Sijilmasa on the Saharan gold trade route – the raison d'être of the success and downfall of the Midrarids– eventually aroused the envy [xxii] of the Fatimids and the Ummayad Khilāfat Qurṭuba who vied for control of the trans-Saharan trade routes.

The achievements of the Midrarids, as opposed to those of the Rustamids of Tahert, have not been recorded or, rather, the chronicles that document their accomplishments have not survived [xxiii] The sole testament to their existence, aside from descriptions found in the works of the eminent Ibn Khaldun [xxiv] and the geographer al-Bakri [xxv], is the founding of Sijilmasa; a small city on the Northern edge of the Sahara that grew over time into an important trading center on the trans-Saharan trade routes. The remains of its walls, gates and palaces, built under the reign of Al-Yas’a [xxvi] (790-823 CE), attest to its former grandeur.

Ivory. Eunuchs. Enslaved People. Fabrics dyed with saffron. Ambergris. The occasional hippopotamus. And gold. Chiefly gold. Expensive goods and valuable commodities that arrived in Sijilmasa [xxvii] on their journey North to the Islamic heartland. The celebrated medieval geographer, al-Idrisi [xxviii], described how Moroccan traders arrived in Sijilmasa carrying “wool, copper, and beads to Ghana, Takrur, Sila and Gao” and returned laden with “gold ore and [castrated] slaves” [xxix] Midrarid merchants plied the trans-Saharan routes and exchanged copper, brass and salt [xxx] But, above all, it was the lords of Sijilmasa, the Midrarid emirs, who profited from the gold trade. The trade that sustained their rule.