Idris I and the Berbers

chapter 25 Idris I and the Berbers

Elizabeth Fentress

Although far from the capital at Kairouan, by the time of the foundation of the Aghlabid dynasty the Idrisid kingdom formed an important part of the land- scape of North Africa. The arrival of the ʿAlid prince Idris I at the Moroccan town of Volubilis, then known as Walila in 778–9, is of signal importance to the Moroccan state even today, marking the first union between the Berber, or Amazigh, tribes and their Arabic-speaking Muslim conquerors. The unification of northern Morocco as a single state under its new ruler, joined by marriage to a Berber woman, Kanz, is the essential model for all subsequent Moroccan dynasties. The reigning Alaouite dynasty married Berber women through the reign of Hassan II, cementing the ties between the government and the tribes which comprise forty percent of the population: not by chance, Berber unrest in Morocco has been far less vehement than in neighboring Algeria. UCL-INSAP excavations of an Islamic-period settlement at Volubilis, di- rected by Hassan Limane, Gaetano Palumbo, and myself, took place between 2000 and 2005 (Fig. 25.1); the final publication is forthcoming.1 The following represents reflections on the Idrisid settlement at the medieval town of Walila, suggesting ways in which we can read its plan as representative of the relation- ship between Idris and the inhabitants of the town from which he created his state.2 Idris I, his tomb, and his memory were appropriated and reappropri- ated at key points in Morocco’s history by dynasties seeking legitimacy by link- ing themselves to the ʿAlids and the Prophet. Idris I, who both manipulated

1 Fentress and Limane, forthcoming. The excavations form part of a larger project that comprises the preparation of a management plan, under the direction of Gaetano Palumbo of UCL and the World Monuments Foundation, the conservation of significant buildings and the planning of a visitors’ center. Sponsorship has come from the British Museum, the World Monuments Foundation, the Max van Berchem Foundation and the Volubilis Foundation, to whose presi- dent, Rita Bennis, we are particularly grateful for her tireless energy and support. Interim reports on the excavations can be found in Fentress and Limane, “Nouvelles données.” A version of this paper was given at a conference at Birkbeck College organized by Caroline Goodson, to whose helpful comments, together with those of Corisande Fenwick and Renata Holod, it owes much. 2 A full bibliography for the site, complete up to 2003, may be found on www.sitedevolubilis .org. Full publication of the site is forthcoming: Elizabeth Fentress, and Hassan Limane, Volubilis après Rome: Fouilles INSAP/UCL 2000–2005, Brill.

Figure 25.1 Volubilis: general plan. Fernanda Palmieri. and was manipulated by the Berber tribe of the Awraba, thus has a significance that goes well beyond his very brief reign.

Volubilis before Idris

Volubilis was founded at some point in the third century BCE, probably by members of the local, Mauretanian elite, whose city foundations were gradually moving inland from the coast. The Roman takeover of Mauretania