Book contents
- Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
- The Trans-saharan Archaeology Series
- Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Oasis Origins in the Sahara: A Region-by-Region Survey
- Part III Neighbours and Comparanda
- 9 Early States and Urban Forms in the Middle Nile
- 10 Mediterranean Urbanisation in North Africa
- 11 Numidian State Formation in the Tunisian High Tell
- 12 The Origins of Urbanisation and Structured Political Power in Morocco
- 13 Architecture and Settlement Growth on the Southern Edge of the Sahara
- 14 Long-Distance Exchange and Urban Trajectories in the First Millennium AD
- 15 First Millennia BC/AD Fortified Settlements at Lake Chad
- 16 At the Dawn of Sijilmasa
- 17 The Early Islamic Trans-Saharan Market Towns of West Africa
- 18 Urbanisation, Inequality and Political Authority in the Sahara
- Part IV Concluding Discussion
- Index
- References
16 - At the Dawn of Sijilmasa
New Historical Focus on the Process of Emergence of a Saharan State and a Caravan City
from Part III - Neighbours and Comparanda
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2020
- Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
- The Trans-saharan Archaeology Series
- Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Oasis Origins in the Sahara: A Region-by-Region Survey
- Part III Neighbours and Comparanda
- 9 Early States and Urban Forms in the Middle Nile
- 10 Mediterranean Urbanisation in North Africa
- 11 Numidian State Formation in the Tunisian High Tell
- 12 The Origins of Urbanisation and Structured Political Power in Morocco
- 13 Architecture and Settlement Growth on the Southern Edge of the Sahara
- 14 Long-Distance Exchange and Urban Trajectories in the First Millennium AD
- 15 First Millennia BC/AD Fortified Settlements at Lake Chad
- 16 At the Dawn of Sijilmasa
- 17 The Early Islamic Trans-Saharan Market Towns of West Africa
- 18 Urbanisation, Inequality and Political Authority in the Sahara
- Part IV Concluding Discussion
- Index
- References
Summary
The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu taught us in the early 1990s that to question the ‘genesis of the state’ is one of the most arduous tasks for the historian. Indeed, in essence, the state defines itself when it is already accepted and firmly installed. Then it produces instruments of recognition and domination, including symbolic ones, to confirm the social norm, the social order that it supervises or even imposes, and to validate this ‘fundamental consensus on the social world’ of which it is the guarantor. For instance, it is customary for historians to define a state by the establishment of taxation, which at first sight would be preliminary in any policy construction. However, Bourdieu, and Weber before him, pointed out that for this step to occur, it is necessary that the taxing authority has already been recognised by the social body and that the legitimacy of such an initiative has already been accepted by society.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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