Land-Tenure and Agriculture in the Medieval Maghrib from 1000 to 1500
Final Report Abstract
This project has resulted in some new findings that will improve our understanding of the development of the iqṭāʿ (commonly defined as a grant by the state to an individual of the right to receive some or all of the revenue from a specific plot of land) in the medieval Maghrib. First a strong case has been made that the institution of the iqṭāʿ in the Maghrib was not only a result of the internal evolution of society in the western Islamic World, but that it was developed under the influence of administrative and military currents from the Islamic east (the Mashriq). It was demonstrated that the Syro-Egyptian iqṭāʿ system was directly imposed in Tripolitania and Tunisia during the conquest of those lands by the Ayyubids under Sharaf al-Dīn Qarāqūsh in the 1180s. After the Almohads reconquered these lands many Ayyubid troops and officers took service with them, settling in the western Maghrib and al-Andalus. Thus, the Islamic west was subject to influence from the east not only in the intellectual and religious spheres as is well-known but also in terms of administrative and military organization. Secondly, this project has suggested, contrary to what some researchers have maintained, that Almohad soldiers played a direct role in the cultivation of their iqṭāʿ lands and that these lands were not cultivated for them by agents of the state. There is no evidence that the Almohad iqṭāʿ system was more “centralized” than its eastern counterpart, indeed it appears to have resembled it in many respects. Thirdly, it was shown that iqṭāʿ grants were more important for the sustenance and support of the rank and file Almohad soldiers than the salaries that were disbursed from the central treasury periodically. The latter were too infrequent and resembled bonuses more than full salaries. Thus the iqṭāʿ was a very important and widespread feature of Almohad administrative and military policy and it is not correct to minimize its role in the medieval Maghrib as some scholars have done.
Publications
- “Evidence for the Ayyubid Iqṭāʿ in Ifrīqīya and a Reconsideration of the Almohad Iqṭāʿ,” in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean
Amar S. Baadj
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2019.1660949)
