Anatomy of a Medieval Islamic Town: Al-Basra Morocco

The site of Al-Basra lies in northern Morocco and was said to have been founded during the break-up of the Islamic empire in North Africa and Spain in c.AD 800, only to have been abandoned just 300 years later. This volume contains a series of papers given at the SAA meeting in Philadelphia in 2000 by members of a team working at the site in the 1990s. As a whole the papers paint a picture of urban life in an Islamic town during the first millennium AD with each contributor focusing on a different aspect of the town's history, archaeology or culture. Subjects include the nature of Al-Basra's fortification walls and towers, the subsistence economy and environment, crft production, ethnic identity, the status of women, the treatment of the dead and economic ties with the settlements surrounding it.