As the Almohad caliphate collapsed, the village's location had become lost over time and was believed to be fictional until its discovery in 2006 with archeological searches starting in 2008.[5][6] In 2022, the Igiliz archeological site was listed as a national historic monument.[7][8] In 2023, the site was opened to visitors and tourists.[9]
Etymology
Igiliz is a toponym in Berber that can be translated to "mountain peak" or "isolated mountain".[10][11] The village's full name in Berber, Igiliz-n-Warghen (Tachelhit: ⵉⴳⵉⵍⵉⵣ ⵏ ⵡⴰⵔⵖⴰⵏ, French: Igiliz-des-Hargha), refers to the native Arghen tribe within the Masmuda tribal confederation.[12][5]
Architecture
Igiliz is fortified by two defense walls.[3] There is a residential complex, the Qasba, centered around two courtyards.[13] There is the presence of two places of worship, including a large mosque.[13] Artificial caves, former quarries, were used as places of spiritual retreat and pilgrimage.[13]
History and lifestyle
The village was built in the 11th century by the Arghen, Ibn Tumart's tribe, as a ribāṭ.[3][1] Ceramics jars, lamps, plates, braziers, pans, marmites, couscoussiers, flowerpots and a bread oven were found in the archeological site.[14][15] It is theorized that the community in Igiliz held a market every Friday, to correspond with the Friday sermon, to exchange goods and news, settle disputes, negotiate marriage, and maintain contact with the larger Masmuda confederation.[1][16]
In 1120, Ibn Tumart exiled himself in a cave in his birthplace of Igiliz fearing Almoravid leadership, he proclaimed himself as the Mahdi in the village a year later.[5][17] Following a military success in 1123, Ibn Tumart moved to the village of Tinmal where he died in 1130.[5]
In 1141, Igiliz served as a military base for the Almohads serving the anti-Atlas and the Souss valley.[5] In 1157, five years after the Almohad conquest of Marrakesh, caliph Abd al-Mu'min took a pilgrimage to the ribāṭ of Igiliz to pay respect to Ibn Tumart and the Arghen tribe, where he ordered the preservation of Ibn Tumart's cave.[5] During the conquest, Sufi saint Abu al-Abbas as-Sabti moved from Ceuta to Igiliz.[17] His son and successor, Abu Yaqub Yusuf, had done the same pilgrimage in 1170.[5] By the 13th century, the village had two hermitages dedicated for pilgrims.[5]
Despite Igiliz's status as a site of pilgrimage, the location of the village started to become omitted from written literature and forgotten in favor of Tinmal, Igiliz had become completely deserted by the 18th century.[5] The village's legacy persisted as a site of asceticism where the native Arghen held a ritual luncheon every year in memory of Ibn Tumart.[5]
The village's exact location had become lost over time and was believed to be fictional.[6][9] In 1924, French historians Henri Basset and Henri Terrasse assumed the village to be in Gueliz district of Marrakesh but offered no reasonable evidence to substanciate their claim.[6][18] In 2005, American historian Allen Fromherz disproved the claim and theorized Igiliz to be located in the village of Igli, near Taroudant within the Sous valley, coroberating his claim with oral tradition.[6]
In 2006, historians Jean-Pierre van Staëvel and Abdallah Fili disproved Fromherz's theory as a confusion between toponyms, with Igili contradicting with historical descriptions of Igiliz as a fortified site in the anti-Atlas.[2] After a search for Igiliz at the Arghen's historical territory, the delegation located a ribāṭ believed to have been Igiliz.[9][2] In 2008, archeological searches began which confirmed the location to be Igiliz.[9] In 2023, the Souss-Massa regional tourism council opened the site for visitors and tourists.[9]
^Ettahiri, Ahmed S.; Fili, Abdallah; Van Staëvel, Jean-Pierre; Belatik, Mohamed; Capel, Chloé; Clavel, Benoit; De Keukelaere, Pauline; Doukali, Hasna; Elbourkadi, Ikhlass; Minvielle-Larousse, Nicolas; Schwerdtner, Ronald; Serrat, Ihssane; Wech, Pierre; Zizouni, Abdeslam (2020). "La montagne d'Igīlīz et le pays des Arghan : enquête archéologique sur les débuts de l'empire almohade au Maroc (chronique de la campagne de fouilles 2019)" [The Igīlīz Mountain and the Land of the Arghans: An Archaeological In- vestigation of the Early Almohad Empire in Morocco (chronicle of the 2019 excavation campaign)]. Bulletin d'Archéologie Marocaine (25): 427–443.
