Sijilmasa

Sijilmasa was founded around 757-758, after the Kharidjit Uprising that started in Tingis a few years prior. It was a territory of the Miknassa tribe, who were sufrid kharidjids. A few years later, a man named Midrar came fleeing the repression in Cordoba, and founded the dynasty that became associated with the name of Sijilmasa. The founding of Sijilmasa and the other kharidjid states showed a structural evolution of the Maghreb: the Tamazight were now themselves muslim rulers, and Islam wasn't the marker of the Arab dominator anymore.
Sijilmasa quickly became a powerful commercial city. It traded with the Barghwata Realm, to the west, and held one of the main roads to the south. Its revival of the road across the Sahara pertook in the establishment of important diplomatic relations with the newly formed Ghana and its gold mines, between the rivers Senegal and Niger, though Tahert had been first to reach the country. The city itself forged the mineral into coins and jewellery and then still exported a fraction of that ressource to the neighbouring muslim states of Tlemcen, Tahert, Berghawata, Ifriqiya.
At the eve of the 9th century, the Midrarid Amirs made closer contact with the Ibadites from Tahert who owned many of the caravans that crossed by their city on their path towards al-Sudan. They bore the title of Amir al-Mu'minin, which was engraved on their coins, and they slowly migrated back to Malekit orthodoxia.
Sijilmasa attracted many from all regions, eager to see its wonders. From far in the east, people from as far as Yemen visited. One such is the Mahdi 'Ubayd Allah, who may or may not have managed to get in prison for... lack of properly registering to the fisc all of his trading activities. An incident that was caused by his eagerness to start on a job before having a clear graps of the local notarial law.
Anyway, 'Ubayd Allah was freed when his follower, Abu Abd' Allah al-Mustahib, captured the city in 909, after he'd already ravaged Tahert and started to conquer the formerly Aghlabid territories. Abu Abd' Allah was not a pupil of 'Ubayd Allah: according to them, the later was the legitimate imam of the umma, the hidden imam. Abu Abd' Allah found his master wholly disappointing. A middle-aged, easy-going former merchant, rather than a young and celestial man. They had a clash, and a fall-over, and Abu Abd' Allah went under. Al-Mahdi then turned his ambition to the East, and Egypt, all while establishing in Ifriqiya a strict religious law that wasn't entirely accepted by the local population.
The Fatimids now in power in Sijilmasa and a large part of the central Maghreb continued the trade with the south and the city continued to thrive and be admired by many.

Sijilmassa ressemble à Kairouan par la salubrité de son climat et le voisinage du désert. Il y a en outre un commerce ininterrompu entre cette ville et le pays des Noirs et d'autres contrées, ce qui assure des gains abondants à l'aide des caravanes commerciales continuelles, avec la maîtrise des activités et un souci de perfection dans la méthode et les affaires. Leurs procédés s'éloignent de l'esprit méticuleux des gens du Maghreb ; ils agissent avec correction et leur zèle à accomplir les bonnes oeuvres est courant. Ils montrent une tendance pieuse et chevaleresque à s'entraider : même s'il y a des haines et des rancunes anciennes, ils se réconciliet en cas de besoin et rejettent toute dissension dans un sentiment de magnanimité et de tolérance, par une noblesse qui leur est innée, une délicatesse d'âme qui leur est propre... Je dois dire que nulle part au Maghreb je n'ai vu plus de cheikhs d'une conduire aussi régulière, encourageant la science et les savants, avec une élévation de pensée et des sentiments purs et nobles.

— Ibn Hawqal, vers 951.

Eux et leurs enfants [les irakiens originaires de Bagdad, Bassora et Kufa installés à Sijilmasa] s'adonnaient à un commerce incessant, par petits groupes, continuellement en mouvement ou en caravanes ininterrompues. Ils arrivèrent ainsi à des gains considérables, à des avantages importants et à une opulente richesse. Bien peu de commerçants dans les pays de l'islam ont approché d'une situation aussi considérable.

— Ibn Hawqal, vers 951.

Ibn Hawal also reports of a shakk shown to him, amounting to 42 000 dinars and that was but one transaction let by a Sijilmarite and a merchand of Awdaghust to the south, the last saharian city before Ghana :

Je n'ai ni vu ni entendu en Orient quelque chose de pareil à ce fait. Je l'ai raconté en Irak, dans le Fars et dans le Khurasan, il a paru partout inouï.

Sijilmasa alone held half the revenue of the Fatimids, 400 000 dinars in various impositions and taxes on the caravans that traveled to and from Sudan, Ifriqiya, Fas, Hispania, Sous and Aghmat.
The city remained a massive metropolis long avec the departure of the Fatimids in the 970s, when it passed on to the Zenets and through them, to the Andalusian Omeyyads. It is once again visited in 1068 by al-Bakri, who paints it as green, luxurious, with impressive architecture. The inhabitants cultivated dates, grapes, and many other fruits, and the soil was extraordinarily fertile :

Il suffisait d'ensemencer une fois les terres autour de Sijilmasa pour avoir des révcoltes pendant trois ans consécutifs. On engresse les chiens pour les manger, ainsi que cela se pratique à Gafsa et à Castiliya On y regarde aussi comme une friandise les grains de blé qui commencent à germer. Les lépreux y font le métier de vendangeru ; celui de maçon est réservé spécialement aux Juifs.