Identifying the Rustamid Imamate. State Building and Urban Foundation through the Case of Tāhart

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Rustamid Imamate emerged in the aftermath of the uprisings against the Caliphate (around 160/777) and was the leading and only long-lasting Ibāḍī State in North Africa. Tāhart, a settlement in the Roman borderlands, became its cradle and witnessed the foundation of a new Islamic stronghold. How was this Islamic polity able to establish itself on the edges of the Caliphate, in a strikingly different social and political milieu? How did the Imamate assert its authority over a fragmented tribal society? The answer to these issues requires understanding of how pre-Islamic traditions influenced state-building and adapted the foreign Eastern model of the Imamate. Through the analysis of foundation narratives and archaeological data, this article reconstructs the formation of this early Islamic polity.