| Aghmat, a great city where caravans trading gold, slaves and various goods used
to gather before their long journeys to and from sub Sahara countries, is signaled
by chronicles as early as the VII century. " In fact, tow settlements had
this name: Aghmat Ailan, beautiful, rich and exclusively populated by Jews in
the time of El Edrissi (Arab chronicler who lived in the XII.c), and Aghmat Warika,
some kilometers further..." (Laoust). Which one of the two was located where
Aghmat is today ? Probably Warika, according to P. Pascon , who locates Ailane
on the nearby plateau of Tasghimout.
When Ibn Toumert left Marrakesh for fear of being
arrested (after he had publically adressed the Almoravid
Emir Ali Ibn Youssef) , he stopped at Aghmat at about 30km to the south towards
the Atlas mountains and Tinmel.
Aghmat, which the Almoravids had taken away from the Maghraoua and which was
their capital before the foundation of Marrakech, was " the departure point
of the caravans journeying to the country of the" Negroes" with a
great number of camels loaded with red and colored cooper… wool garments….
different sorts of necklaces and rosaries made of glass or sea shells…
and a variety of drugs and perfumes . Aghmat was also a city of scholars, where
a great number of Moroccan, Andaloucian and Maghrebi theologians, Fakihs and
ascetics used to teach. Many of them were opposed to the condemnation of Al
Ghazali's book [2] .
Ibn Toumert settled in Aghmat with the four companions
who had come with him from the Orient to carry on his imprecations against the
Almoravids . He recruited a fifth disciple on the
spot; the latter warned him against the imminent arrival of Almoravid agents
-that were chasing him by asking him to comment the following Koran verse: "
Moses, the council is deliberating as to whether you should be put to death,
leave the country. It is a good advice I am giving you". The master understood
the message and left Aghmat with his companions who had now become five.
Aghmat was also the place of exile and the prison of the Andaloucian prince
and brilliant poet (Al Mu'tamid) whom the Emir Ibn Tachfine had jailed after
saving his kingdom of Seville from another Christian attempt of conquest. A
sober but beautiful mausoleum covered by a dome in the Almoravid style hosts
the grave where he lies beside his wife. The walls are covered with his poems
of captivity of which here is an excerpt:
"The enemy wants to ravish my kingdom ? And my armies are abandoning
me?
My heart is still in my flanks. And never shall my flanks deliver my heart"
|
