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

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.