Introduction

The Early Middle Ages was a period of important socio-economic and political transformations in many parts of the ancient world, and the Sahara and sub-Saharan West Africa are no exceptions. Indeed, the changes and interactions taking place in the wider region between the seventh and ninth centuries were so crucial that their effects are still felt today. Mainly responsible for these developments was the Arab-Islamic conquest of Egypt and the Maghreb between the mid seventh and early eighth centuries. This is a period of fundamental cultural renewal that brought new ideologies, customs, technologies, architecture, and more, in tow of newcomers keen to profit from emerging economic opportunities. The Arab-Islamic conquest of northern Africa had a lasting effect not only on the regions directly affected by the invasions. From the eighth century onwards, Central Saharan communities and, with little delay, those living further south at the fringes of the desert also started experiencing the profound impacts triggered by the socio-political changes further north.

For the Garamantian kingdom in the Libyan Sahara, having flourished for almost 1,000 years, the three centuries preceding the Arab conquest of North Africa seem to have been a period of gradual decline. More and more settlements were abandoned, and the flux of trade goods decreased. Perhaps the political and economic instabilities occurring further north due to the decline of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, the Vandal interregnum in the fifth century, and the Byzantines’ takeover in the sixth century had a negative effect on the then firmly established urban way of life of the Garamantes. After the arrival of the Arabs in the Libyan Sahara, however, towns were expanded or newly founded, and trade revived. A good example of this process is the town of Zawila at the eastern edge of the Murzuq sand basin in Libya, replacing in its political and commercial importance the ancient capital of the Garamantian empire, Garama (Jarma), from around the eighth century onwards.

The decline experienced by the Garamantian kingdom between the fourth and seventh centuries finds, however, no evident parallel to the south of the Sahara.