Those who were bound together

The rise of the imperial Almoravid dynasty was an important catalyst for social, political and cultural change in the archaeological record of medieval North Africa. At the height of their power, the Almoravids controlled a very extensive territory centred around present-day Morocco and stretching from southern Mauritania to northern Iberia. Their takeover of al-Andalus and their military successes against the Christian kingdoms proved vital for the continued presence of Muslim rule in the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula and illustrates a rare instance of African powers exerting territorial control over European soil. The control of trans-Saharan trade networks where West African gold flowed northwards, along with a desire to sustain the spread and strict adherence to Islamic religious ideology, were important drivers of Almoravid expansion. Control of bodies, souls and resources was also a fundamental dimension of imperialist expansion. This paper examines Almoravid material culture, particularly gold coins, as an unrivalled avenue with which to map archaeologically the interlinking imperial processes between Africa and Europe in which these artefacts were enmeshed by illustrating the complex relationship between gold sources, Almoravid coin minting localities and Western museum collections

Ancient history · Art · Geography · Byzantine Studies and History · History · Islamic Studies and History · Medieval History and Crusades

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