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Reclaiming Movement: Hayet Amamou on the Maghreb’s Mobile Past and Future

Hayet Amamou in Conversation with Julius Dihstelhoff.

At the 2025 ENIS[1] Spring School—a collaboration between the European Network for Islamic Studies (ENIS) and the Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM)—scholars gathered at Tunis University to grapple with the theme “Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparity.” The program bridged European, Maghrebi, and Middle Eastern thought, employing interdisciplinary lenses—from Islamic studies to anthropology—to interrogate how power shapes visions of tomorrow.

Among its key voices was Prof. Hayet Amamou, history professor and former Dean of Tunis University’s Faculty of Humanities, whose keynote “Le Maghreb précolonial, carrefour de mobilité intense” dismantled static notions of borders by recovering the region’s legacy as a hub of fluid movement. In this conversation with MECAM director Dr. Julius Dihstelhoff, Amamou expands on her research, arguing that precolonial patterns of mobility—not rigid territoriality—forged the Maghreb’s identity. Her work challenges modern narratives of exclusion, insisting that historical connectivity, not isolation, holds the key to reimagining the region’s future. Prof. Amamou’s work aligns with MECAM’s mission to imagine futures by confronting historical erasures. Her keynote underscored that the Maghreb’s precolonial mobility was a negotiated order, not chaos—one that offers alternatives to today’s exclusionary policies. As she concluded: Dignity lies in remembering that we were once architects of connection. The future demands we reclaim that role.

Everyday mobility in the margins. Photo by Maël Balland, taken in Egypt on January 18, 2024, via Pexels.

Julius Dihstelhoff (JD): The 2025 ENIS Spring School—organized by the European Network for Islamic Studies (ENIS), a consortium of universities advancing interdisciplinary research on Muslim societies—and the Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM), centered its discussions on MECAM’s guiding theme: “Imagining Futures: Dealing with Disparity. How does your work on precolonial Maghrebi mobility contribute to this framework?

Hayet Amamou (HA): The theme resonates deeply with my research. When we speak of “disparity,” we must first ask: How were inequalities negotiated before modern borders? The precolonial Maghreb was not a fragmented space but a networked one—where mobility, from transhumance to pilgrimage, acted as a leveling force. As I argued in my keynote, Disparities existed, but they were fluid, negotiated through shared routes and reciprocal dependencies. Colonial borders fossilized these dynamics, turning complementarity into division.

JD: You describe mobility as both an economic necessity and a cultural catalyst. Could you share a vivid example from your research?

HA: Consider the Sufi zaouias—not merely shrines but living laboratories of connectivity. These hubs thrived on three intertwined mobilities: spiritual (pilgrims seeking baraka), intellectual (scholars trading manuscripts across the Sahara), and economic (caravans linking Timbuktu’s gold to Venetian glass). A single zaouia like Sidi Bou Saïd near Tunis might host an Atlas Mountains shepherd swapping wool for salt, a Malian jurist debating Islamic law with an Andalusian poet, and a Genoese merchant negotiating tariffs—all sustained by oasis networks that guaranteed safe passage.

This was voluntarydignified mobility, governed by reciprocity. Caravanserais had water-sharing pacts; trans-Saharan routes honored aman (safe conduct) codes. Contrast this with today’s forced migrations—Mediterranean drownings, detention camps—where movement is criminalized. Precolonial mobility created value: Timbuktu’s libraries, Sijilmasa’s coinage. Modern borders extract value: remittances at gunpoint, offshore patrols outsourcing EU border violence. Genetic studies revealing 43% Sub-Saharan ancestry in Tunisians aren’t just data—they’re proof that mobility once meant civilizational synthesis, not survival.

JD: This challenges the stereotype of the Maghreb as a passive recipient of external influences.

HA: Certainly! While colonial narratives often reduced the Maghreb to mere “exotic caravans” or “primitive tribes,” the historical reality is far richer and more dynamic. Cities like Sijilmasa thrived as medieval metropoles, boasting their own coinage and libraries filled with scientific manuscripts. These urban centers exemplify how the Maghreb was not just a crossroads but a vibrant creator of knowledge, systems, and culture. Take, for instance, the Mint of Sijilmasa (8th14th century). This Saharan trading empire didn’t merely receive gold from West Africa—it standardized and shaped its value. Archaeologists have uncovered coin molds in southern Morocco that reveal how Sijilmasa minted its own dinar coins, inscribed with Quranic verses in Kufic script. These coins facilitated trade between Mali’s gold and Europe’s silver markets. A Genoese ledger from the 14th century even records complaints from Italian merchants about Sijilmasa’s rigorous quality controls, showcasing how the Maghreb dictated the terms of exchange.

Similarly, the Zaouia of Chinguetti’s “Floating University” in Mauritania’s desert became a beacon of intellectual exchange in the 13th century. This Sufi hub served as a mobile knowledge repository where Berber scholars annotated Greek medical texts in Arabic, and Songhai students carried these enriched manuscripts to Timbuktu. Even the rhyla, leather satchels crafted by Tuareg artisans for transporting books, reflect a sophisticated blend of Saharan practicality and Islamic scholarship.

In 11th century Tunisia, the Transhumance Courts of Kairouan highlight the Maghreb’s legal ingenuity. Pastoralists who clashed over grazing routes saw their disputes resolved by judges who seamlessly blended Maliki law with Amazigh customary codes, or azerf. One preserved ruling recounts a Jewish merchant successfully suing a nomadic tribe for damaged goods, demonstrating the adaptability and inclusivity of these evolving legal frameworks.

While colonial museums may showcase our manuscripts as mere “exotic curiosities,” they often omit the intricate systems that supported them—like Sijilmasa’s precise camel-load rates or the astronomical charts designed for desert navigation. The Maghreb was far more than a transit point; it was a hub of innovation, engineering, and connectivity, shaping the world far beyond its borders.

JD: How might these insights reframe today’s debates on migration?

HA: The precolonial Maghreb wasn’t just a crossroads—it was a living blueprint for mobility as a force of civilization. For centuries, our ancestors wove a tapestry of movement across deserts, mountains, and seas, governed by unwritten codes of reciprocity. Consider this:

Oases weren’t mere pitstops but diplomatic zones where tribal laws guaranteed safe passage. Caravanserais doubled as cultural parliaments—merchants, scholars, and pilgrims negotiated shared rules of transit. Today’s “solidarity corridors” could reactivate this logic: imagine mobile clinics and solar-powered water stations along revived Saharan routes, staffed by transnational teams (Maghrebi and Sub-Saharan elders mentoring young aid workers).

While Europe fears “invasions,” history records 200,000 pilgrims annually crossing the Sahara safely under Almoravid protection. Contrast this with today’s Mediterranean graveyard. The difference? A system that viewed mobility as value creation—caravans paid tolls not to warlords but to oasis communities maintaining shared infrastructure.

The Ibadi networks stretched from Sijilmasa to Timbuktu, with Jewish and Berber traders acting as dual citizens. Their foundouks (medieval trade hubs) functioned like modern free zones—taxes funded road repairs, not border walls. Why not repurpose these historic sites as Afro-Mediterranean co-working spaces for migrant entrepreneurs?

The colonial rupture replaced fluidity with fences. But our archives hold alternatives: Sufi zaouias issued travel permits based on spiritual merit, not passports. Almohad qadis mediated disputes between nomads and settlers. This wasn’t utopia—it was pragmatism. The choice isn’t between open floods and closed forts, but reviving structured mobility that enriched all.

JD: How does your critique of the “sedentarist bias”—the historical tendency in academic research to focus on and value settled societies while overlooking or marginalizing the contributions of mobile and nomadic communities—challenge conventional perspectives and open new possibilities for understanding in Islamic studies?

HA: My critique of the “sedentarist bias” challenges conventional perspectives in Islamic studies by emphasizing the foundational role of mobility in shaping Islamic intellectual, spiritual, and economic traditions. This bias distorts our understanding by privileging static urban centers—mosques, madrasas, and palaces—while marginalizing the dynamic contributions of movement and exchange. Islamic history, as I argue, was not merely transmitted through travel; it was actively produced by it. Figures like Ibn Battuta exemplify this mobility. Far from being mere travelers, such individuals were mobile scholars who facilitated the synthesis of diverse traditions—bridging Maliki jurisprudence in Fez, Sufi practices in Mali, and the commercial customs of the Indian Ocean. Similarly, Maghrebi Sufi lodges (zawiyas) operated as networked hubs along trans-Saharan and Mediterranean routes, fostering manuscript circulation, legal debates, and cultural exchange. The Sahara, often seen as a barrier, was in fact a connective space that defies rigid geographic and civilizational boundaries.

This paradigm shift also demands a focus on gender and mobility. Historical sources often obscure women’s roles in these networks, yet figures like Fatima al-Fihri and Lalla Aisha al-Manoubiya illustrate how women leveraged religious and kinship networks to traverse and shape spaces. In nomadic societies, women’s contributions—managing pastoral transitions, weaving trade goods, and preserving oral traditions—were integral to the infrastructure of mobility, challenging static assumptions about gender roles in Islamic history. Recognizing Islam’s mobile foundations dismantles colonial narratives that framed Muslim societies as either “primitive nomads” or “frozen cities.” These biases persist in modern migration policies, which often weaponize sedentarism to control populations. Revisiting the Maghreb’s precolonial history of permeable borders and dynamic exchange provides a counter-narrative to such reductive views. Mobility, I argue, is not an aberration but a vital and generative force within Islamic thought, offering new possibilities for understanding connectivity, knowledge production, and the fluidity of cultural interactions.

JD: Dear Hayet Amamou, thank you for this conversation that has so vividly illuminated how the Maghreb’s history of mobility challenges our modern conceptions of space and belonging. If you could reimagine a future Maghreb based on these precolonial models of interconnectedness, what would it look like?

HA: It was my pleasure, dear Julius. A Maghreb where borders breathe again—where oases reactivate as innovation hubs, and ancient trade routes become green energy corridors. Imagine Tunis, Algiers, and Marrakesh as co-nodes in a decentralized knowledge network, much like the medieval zawiyas, but with high-speed rail and solar-powered libraries. Mobility wouldn’t be a crisis to manage but a shared resource, blending ancestral Saharan water laws with modern infrastructure. The goal? To prove that connectivity, not walls, is the antidote to disparity.

Prof. Amamou’s work aligns with MECAM’s mission to “imagine futures” by confronting historical erasures. Her keynote underscored that the Maghreb’s precolonial mobility was “a negotiated order, not chaos”—one that offers alternatives to today’s exclusionary policies. As she concluded: “Dignity lies in remembering that we were once architects of connection. The future demands we reclaim that role.”


Notes

[1] ENIS is a collaboration between the following institutions: The Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies (NISIS, Netherlands); Institut d’études de l’Islam et des sociétés du monde musulman (IISMM, France); The Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany); El Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC – the Spanish National Research Council, Spain); Società per gli Studi Sul Medio Oriente (SeSaMO, Italy) and the Institute of History and Religious Anthropology (IHAR) at the University of Lausanne (Unil, Switzerland).


References, also advised for further reading

Braudel, F. (1949). La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II (Bd. I). Paris: Armand Colin.

Djaït, H. (2021). Penser l’Histoire, penser la Religion. Tunis: Cérès-éditions.

Leveau, P. (1988). Le pastoralisme dans l’Afrique antique. In C. R. Whittaker (Hrsg.), Pastoral economies in classical antiquity (p. 181–200). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Marfaing, L. & Wippel, S. (Hrsg.). (2004). Espace transsaharien : espace en mouvement, quelques réflexions pour une approche conceptuelle. Paris: Karthala / ZMO.

Picard, C. (1997). L’Océan Atlantique musulman de la conquête arabe à l’époque almohade. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose / UNESCO.

Valérian, D. (2012). Réseaux d’échanges et littoralisation de l’espace au Maghreb (VIII–XIᵉ siècle). In Les échanges en Méditerranée médiévale (p. 87–105). Aix-en-Provence: Presses Universitaires de Provence.

Valérian, D. (2013). La course et la piraterie en Méditerranée occidentale à la fin du Moyen Âge. In A. Nef (Hrsg.), Les territoires de la Méditerranée VI–XVIᵉ siècle (p. 35–36). Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.


About the Authors

Hayet Amamou is a Professor of Medieval Islamic History at the University of Tunis. Prof. Amamou served as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and directed the Laboratory for the History of Mediterranean Economies and Societies. She previously edited Cahiers de Tunisie, the faculty’s prestigious academic journal. Her research focuses on precolonial Maghrebi history, with particular expertise in trans-Saharan mobility networks and Islamic intellectual traditions.

Julius Dihstelhoff has been serving as the Director ‘Germany’ of the international collaborative project Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) since April 2025. Prior to this, from May 2020 to March 2025, he worked as the Academic Coordinator (Postdoc) for the center. As a political scientist, his research focuses on German foreign policy in the MENA region, political transformation processes in Tunisia, as well as questions of regional (re)ordering and political Islam.


Citation: Hayet Amamou and Julius Dihstelhoff, Reclaiming Movement: Hayet Amamou on the Maghreb’s Mobile Past and Future, in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 01.07.2025, https://trafo.hypotheses.org/59856

 


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Forum Transregionale Studien (July 2, 2025). Reclaiming Movement: Hayet Amamou on the Maghreb’s Mobile Past and Future. TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research. Retrieved July 8, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/148zp


Forum Transregionale Studien

The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien promotes the internationalization of research in the humanities and social sciences. It provides scope for collaboration among researchers with different regional and disciplinary perspectives and appoints researchers from all over the world as Fellows. More...

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