North Africa and Europe in the Early Middle Ages

W. H. C. Frend

doi:10.2307/3678898

North Africa and Europe in the Early Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009

W. H. C. Frend

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Recent discussions about Mediterranean trade in the early Middle Ages have tended to be based on two main assumptions. First, trade has been regarded as trade between ports in the eastern and western parts of the Mediterranean. Secondly, as a result of this view, the attention of historians has concentrated on the advance of the Arab fleets in the seventh and eighth centuries, which disrupted regular commerce and temporarily diminished the importance of the trading cities of Italy and Provence.

Type: Research Article
Information: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 5 , January 1955 , pp. 61 - 80

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3678898 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1955

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^{page 61 note 1} Of the abundant literature, see Pirenne, H., ‘Mahomet et Charlemagne’, Revue Beige de Philologie et d'Histoire, i (1922), 77–86CrossRef Google Scholar, and ‘Un Contraste économique: Mérovingiens et Carolingiens’, ibid., i (1923), 223–35; also Pirenne's, final statement in Mahomet and Charlemagne (Engl. tr., London, 1939)Google Scholar. Discussed by Sabbe, E., ‘L'Importation des tissus orientaux en Europe occidentale au Haut Moyen Age’, Rev. Beige, xiv (1935), 811–48Google Scholar; Lambrechts, P., ‘Les Thèses de Henri Pirenne sur la fin du monde antique et les débuts du moyen âge’, Byzantion, xiv (1939), 513–36Google Scholar; Lopez, R. S., ‘Mahomet and Charlemagne’, Speculum, xviii (1943), 14–38CrossRef Google Scholar, and D. C. Dennett, ‘Pirenne and Muhammed’, ibid., xxiii (1948), 165–90: in addition the able reviews published in the journal of Roman Studies (= JRS), by Baynes, N. H., xix (1929), 224–35CrossRef Google Scholar, and A. Momigliano, xxxiv (1944), 157–8.

^{page 62 note 1} For camels, Gregory, of Tours, , Historia Francorum, vii. 35Google Scholar (ed. Arndt, in Mon. Germ. Hist., Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, i. 315Google Scholar), and Julian, of Toledo, , Historia Wambae, 30Google Scholar (ed. Levison, in M.G.H., Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, v. 525Google Scholar). In general, Haywood, R. M., Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, North Africa (Baltimore, 1938)Google Scholar, and Cagnat, R., ‘L'Annone d'Afrique’, Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, xl (1916), 247–77Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 2} Marcellinus, Ammianus, Rerum Gestarum, xxi. 7.2Google Scholar: ‘Africa … ad omnes casus principibus opportuna’; Cagnat, R., op. cit., pp. 250–1Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 3} al Hakam, Ibn Abd, Futûh Ifrîqiya wa'l Andalus (ed. and tr. Algiers, A. Gateau., 1942), pp. 44–5Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 4} Cited from Pirenne, , Mahomet and Charlemagne, p. 181Google Scholar.

^{page 62 note 5} Dennett, D. C., art. cit., p. 168Google Scholar. On the desultory character of Arab naval operations in the western Mediterranean, ibid., pp. 170–1.

^{page 62 note 6} Ibid., p. 174. See also Lopez, R. S. in Cambridge Economic History of Europe, ii. 275–7Google Scholar.

^{page 63 note 1} The Arabian Nights (ed. Lane, . London, 1889), ii. 85Google Scholar. Cf. Ganshof, F. L., ‘Notes sur les ports de Provence du VIII^e au X^e siècle’, Revue Historique (1938), 28–37Google Scholar.

^{page 64 note 1} Khaldoun, Ibn, Les Prolegomènes historiques (tr. de Slane, . Paris, 1863–1868), i. 310Google Scholar.

^{page 64 note 2} al Hakam, Ibn Abd, op. cit., p. 57Google Scholar.

^{page 64 note 3} The dating of this phase of the history of North Africa is obscure. There seem to have been some organized Byzantine forces in the field as late as 683, when Sekerdid the Roum is mentioned as the ally of the Berber leader Koçeila in battles against the Arabs (Khaldoun, Ibn, Histoire des Berbères, ed. de Slane, (Algiers, 1852–1856), i. 211, 288Google Scholar). On the other hand, the important fortresses placed near the south Tunisian shorts, such as Tozeur (Thusuros) and Nefta (Nepte), seem to have been abandoned about 667 (Poinssot, L., Bull, archéologique du Comité des Travaux historiques (= B.A.C.), 1940, Séance de 27 mai, pp. v–ixGoogle Scholar).

^{page 65 note 1} al Hakam, Ibn Abd, op. cit., p. 31Google Scholar. Cf. Oates, D., ‘The Tripolitanian Gebel: settlement of the Roman period around Gasr ed-Dauun’, Papers of the British School at Rome, xxi (1953), 113Google Scholar. The Hawarra were still in the area of Leptis in the eleventh century. See El-Edrisi, , Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne (ed. , R. Dozy and de Goeje, , Leyden, 1866), p. 154Google Scholar.

^{page 65 note 2} See Gsell, S., L'Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord, i (Paris, 1913), pp. 53–99Google Scholar, and Sherwin-White, A. N., ‘Geographical Factors in Roman Algeria’, JRS, xxxiv (1944), 1–10Google Scholar.

^{page 66 note 1} CIL, viii. 23956, 1. 14 (Snobbeur, Henchir)Google Scholar.

^{page 66 note 2} Best studied in Frank's, Tenney two articles in the American Journal of Philology (= AJP). xlvii (1926), ‘The Inscriptions of the Imperial Domains of Africa’, pp. 55–73CrossRef Google Scholar, and ‘A Commentary on the Inscription from Henchir Mettich’, pp. 153–70. See also Carcopino, J., ‘L'Inscription d'Ain el Djemala’, Melanges d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'Ecole française de Rome (= Mélanges), xxvi (1906), 365 ffCrossRef Google Scholar.

^{page 66 note 3} Beautifully illustrated in Baradez', J.Fossatum Africae (Paris, 1949)Google Scholar.

^{page 66 note 4} Birley, Eric, ‘The Governors of Numidia’, JRS, xl (1950), 68Google Scholar.

^{page 67 note 1} Goodchild, R. G. and Perkins, J. B. Ward, ‘The Limes of Tripolitanus in the light of recent discoveries’, JRS, xxxix (1949), 81–95, at p. 93Google Scholar.

^{page 67 note 2} Guey, J., ‘Note sur le “limes” romain de Numidie et le Sahara au IV^e siècle’, Mélanges, lvii (1939), 178–248, pp. 221 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 67 note 3} Carcopino, J., ‘Les Castella de la plaine de Sétif’, Revue Africaine, lxii (1918), 1–22Google Scholar.

^{page 67 note 4} Ed. G. Lumbroso (Rome, 1903), p. 81; ‘Paene ipsa (Africa) omnibus gentium usum olei praestat.’

^{page 67 note 5} Augustine, , De Ordine, i. 3.6 (Migne, Pat. Lat., xxxii. 981)Google Scholar. See Albertini, E., Mélanges Paul Thomas (Bruges, 1930), pp. 1–5Google Scholar.

^{page 67 note 6} Codex Theodosianus, xiv. 15.3 (Ad Senatum, 15 April 397); Symmachus, , Ep. ix. 55 and x. 55Google Scholar. See also the present writer's The Donatist Church (Oxford, 1952), pp. 47 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 67 note 7} Calza, G., ‘Il Piazzale delle Corporazione e la funzione commerciale di Ostia’, Bull. della Commissions archeologica communale di Roma, xliii (1916), 187Google Scholar. On the dating, Walbank, F. in Cambridge Econ. Hist., ii. 47Google Scholar. A mosaic in the museum at Tébessa shows a galley laden with amphorae under sail, with an inscription Fortuna Redux.

^{page 67 note 8} CIL, vi. 1625, 1626. Cf. ii. 1180. Dating probably end second century.

^{page 67 note 9} Cagnat, , op. cit., p. 257Google Scholar. Also Camps-Fabrer, H., L'Olivier et l'huile dans l'Afrique romaine (Algiers, 1953), pp. 70 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 68 note 1} Goodchild, R. G., ‘Roman Sites on the Tarhuna Plateau of Tripolitania’, Papers of the British School at Rome, xix. 41–77Google Scholar. For the Theveste area, Guenin, Commandant, ‘Inventaire archéologique du Cercle de Tébessa’, Nouvelles archives des Missions scientifiques, xvii (1909), 75–234Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 2} Illustrated by Brogan, O., Illustrated London News, 22 and 29 01 1955Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 3} See Christofle, M., Essai de restitution d'un moulin à huile de l'époque romaine à Madaure (Algiers, 1930)Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 4} Hautecoeur, L., ‘Les mines d'Henchir-es-Srira’, Mélanges, xxix (1909), 383 ffGoogle Scholar. The African abroad was proud of his title ‘civis Afer negotians’ (CIL, iii. 5230).

^{page 68 note 5} Synesius, , Ep. 52Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 6} Baynes, N. H. in JRS, xix (1929), 234Google Scholar; also Bury, J. B., The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians (London, 1928), pp. 123–4Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 7} Salvian, , De Dei Gubernatione, vi. 12, 68Google Scholar; ‘Postremo, ne qua pars mundi exitialibus malis esset immunis, (populi Wandalorum) navigare per fluctus bella coeperunt; quae vastatis urbibus mari clausis et eversis Sicilia et Sardinia, id est fiscalibus horreis, atque abcisis velut vitalibus venis Africam ipsam, id est quasi animam captivavere reipublicae.’

^{page 69 note 1} Procopius, , De bello Vandalico, iii. 22Google Scholar. 15.

^{page 69 note 2} Vitensis, Victor, Historia persecutionis, i. 4Google Scholar. Roman state organizations such as the navicularii evidently went out of business in this period. See Courtois, C., ‘De Rome a l'Islam’, Revue Africaine, lxxxvi (1942), 27Google Scholar.

^{page 69 note 3} Tablettes Albertini, ed. Courtois, C., Leschi, L., Perrat, C., and Saumagne, C., published on behalf of the Government General of Algeria by Arts et Métiers, 1952Google Scholar. Albertini's, E. article in the Journal de Savants 01 1930Google Scholar, on the preliminary results of the discovery is still valuable.

^{page 69 note 4} Tablettes Albertini, p. 84. In all the transactions the vendor is described as selling his rights to the purchaser in the formula ‘ut [is] earn rem habeat, teneat, possideat, utatur, fruatur, ipse heredesve eius in perpetuum’. Cf. Frank, Tenney, AJP, xlvii (1926), 166Google Scholar.

^{page 70 note 1} Tablettes Albertini, pp. 201 ff.

^{page 70 note 2} Ibid., pp. 192–3.

^{page 70 note 3} Ibid., p. 175.

^{page 70 note 4} Cassiodorus does not say that the oil came from Africa, but he uses the term orcae in which the African oil was shipped. I am accepting Pirenne's view (op. cit., p. 93) that the merchant John who was supplying the bishop of Salona originally got his cargo from Africa (Cassiodorus, , Variae, iii. 7Google Scholar; ed. Mommsen, in M.G.H., Auct. Antiq., xii. 83Google Scholar).

^{page 70 note 5} Procopius, , De bello Vandalico, iii. 20. 5 and 16Google Scholar.

^{page 70 note 6} Cassiodorus, , Variae, iii. 53Google Scholar.

^{page 70 note 7} Vitensis, Victor, Historia persecutionis, iii. 29Google Scholar.

^{page 70 note 8} Leschi, L., Tipasa (Algiers, 1948), pp. 48 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 71 note 1} A study on the early history of the Louata is badly needed. They appear to have spread across the Gulf of Sirte from Cyrenaica during the fifth century until they reached the area of Leptis Magna c. 500. References to them have been collected by Bates, O., The Eastern Libyans (London, 1914), pp. 69–70Google Scholar.

^{page 71 note 2} Suggested in a well-documented article by Gsell, S., ‘La Tripolitaine et le Sahara au III^e siècle de notre ère’, Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, xliii (1933)Google Scholar. See also the valuable discussion of the evidence by Leschi, L., Rome et les Nomades du Sahara central (Algiers, 1942)Google Scholar, and Gautier's, E. F. forceful pages in Le Passé de l'Afrique du Nord (Paris, 1937), pp. 210–14Google Scholar.

^{page 71 note 3} Caesar, , for instance, in Bellum Africum, 68.4Google Scholar, reports the capture of twenty-two camels which belonged to King Juba.

^{page 71 note 4} Ammianus Marcellinus, xxviii. 6. Cf. Oates, , art. cit. (above, p. 65, n. 1), p. 112Google Scholar.

^{page 71 note 5} Goodchild, , art. cit. (above, p. 68, n. 1), p. 65Google Scholar. On Christianity in Vandal and Byzantine Tripolitania, Perkins, J. B. Ward and Goodchild, R. G., ‘The Christian Antiquities in Tripolitania’, Archaeologia, xcv (1953), 57 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 71 note 6} Late, perhaps even seventh-century Berber ruins have been located along the Oued Itel some thirty-five miles south of the limes at Gemellae, in country which is to-day desert (Blanchet, P., B.A.C., 1899, pp. 137–40Google Scholar). See also Baradez, J., op. cit., pp. 141–2Google Scholar.

^{page 72 note 1} Procopius, , De bello Vandalico, iii. 8Google Scholar. See also Gautier, E. F., Genséric (Paris, 1951), pp. 288–94Google Scholar. For the Louata's use of similar tactics against the Byzantines, , Corippus, , Iohannidos, ii. 93Google Scholar; iv. 598; v. 430; vi. 194; viii. 40.

^{page 72 note 2} Procopius, , De bello Vandalico, iii. 9, 3Google Scholar. Cf. Ferrandus, , Vita Sancti Fulgentii (ed. Lapeyre, R. P.), p. 30Google Scholar.

^{page 72 note 3} Corippus, , Iohannidos, iv. 22, 18Google Scholar.

^{page 72 note 4} Ibid., iv. 21, 19.

^{page 72 note 5} Ibid., iv. 24, 7.

^{page 72 note 6} Procopius, , De bello Vandalico, iv. 23, 27, 28, 52Google Scholar.

^{page 73 note 1} Corippus, , Iohannidos, ii. 146–8Google Scholar. Cf. Goodchild, R. G., The Limes Tripolitanus (II), JRS, xl (1950), 38Google Scholar.

^{page 73 note 2} Poinssot, L. and Lantier, R., B.A.C., 1925, pp. lxxv–lxxxivGoogle Scholar.

^{page 73 note 3} Albertini, E., ‘Ostrakon byzantine de Négrine’, Cinquantenaire de la Faculté des Lettres à Alger (Algiers, 1932)Google Scholar.

^{page 73 note 4} En-Noweri, (ed. de Slane, , Appendix i to Khaldoun's, IbnHistoire des Berbères, p. 341)Google Scholar. See also Marçais, G., La Berbérie musulmane et l'Orient au moyen age (Paris, 1946), p. 23Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 1} al Hakam, Ibn Abd, op. cit., pp. 44–5Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 2} Poinssot, and Lantier, , art. cit., p. lxxxiiiGoogle Scholar.

^{page 74 note 3} Gregory, of Tours, , Historia Francorum, iv. 43Google Scholar. Also v. 5.

^{page 74 note 4} Information from C. A. Raleigh Radford, F.S.A., who conducted the excavations.

^{page 74 note 5} References to these hoards are given by Poinssot, and Lantier, , art. cit., p. lxxxiii, n. 1Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 6} Khaldoun, Ibn, Histoire des Berbères, iii. 179Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 7} Ibid., i. 214. Cf. En-Noweri (ed. de Slane, p. 341).

^{page 75 note 1} See E. F. Gautier's excellent analysis of the campaigns fought between the Arab, and Berber, armies in the last half of the seventh century, Le Passé de l'Afrique du Nord, pp. 247–54Google Scholar.

^{page 75 note 2} Khaldoun, Ibn, Histoire des Berbères, i. 237Google Scholar.

^{page 75 note 3} Berthier, A., Les Vestiges du christianisme antique dans la Numidie centrale (Algiers, 1942), p. 172 (decay of churches in Numidia)Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 1} Berthier, A., Tiddis, antique Castellum Tidditanorum (Algiers, 1952), pp. 50–2Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 2} Goodchild, , The Limes Tripolitanus (II), p. 37Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 3} Analysed by Marçais, G. in ‘La Berbérie au IX^e siècle d'après el Ya'koubi’, Revue Africaine, lxxxv (1941), 42 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 76 note 4} Khaldoun, Ibn, op. cit., i. 233–4Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 5} Lopez, in Cambridge Econ. History, ii. 276Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 6} Cited from Pirenne, , Mahomet and Charlemagne, pp. 89–90Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 7} El-Idrisi, , Description d'Afrique et de l'Espagne, p. 149Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 8} Al-Muqaddasi (writing c. 980), Description de l'Occident musulman au IX–X siècle (ed. and tr. Pellat, G.. Algiers, 1950)Google Scholar.

^{page 77 note 1} El-Idrisi, , op. cit., p. 141Google Scholar. The merchants seem to have penetrated lands occupied by negroes and obtained gold from them.

^{page 77 note 2} van Berchem, M., ‘Uncovering a lost city of the Sahara’, Illustrated London News, 31 01 1953Google Scholar.

^{page 77 note 3} Seston, W., ‘Sur les derniers temps du Christianisme en Afrique’, Mélanges, liii (1936), 101–24Google Scholar; Marçais, , La Berbérie musulmane, pp. 32 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 77 note 4} Monceaux, P., Timgad chrétien (Paris, 1911), p. 22Google Scholar.

^{page 77 note 5} al Hakam, Ibn Abd, op. cit., p. 77Google Scholar; also Khaldoun, Ibn, Histoire des Berbères, i. 215Google Scholar.

^{page 77 note 6} Procopius, , De bello Vandalico, iii. 8. 18Google Scholar.

^{page 77 note 7} Corippus, , Iohannidos, vii. 307–15Google Scholar; cf. ii. 109.

^{page 78 note 1} al Hakam, Ibn Abd, op. cit., p. 31Google Scholar. See also Marçais, , La Berbérie musulmane, pp. 35 ffGoogle Scholar. Khaldoun, Ibn, Histoire des Berbères, i. 214Google Scholar, states that the Kahena's followers (i.e. nomadic Berbers) embraced Islam after the battle of Bir el Kahena in 698.

^{page 78 note 2} Khaldoun, Ibn, op. cit., i. 212Google Scholar.

^{page 78 note 3} Seston, , op. cit., pp. 121 ffGoogle Scholar. As late as 1140 the Aghlabids were using Christians or converts to Islam in the army and administration.

^{page 78 note 4} Tchalenko, G., ‘La Syrie du Nord: Etude économique’, Actes du VI^e Congrès international des études byzantines (Paris, 1950), ii. 389–97Google Scholar.

^{page 79 note 1} Sites such as Gasr ed-Dauun in Tripolitania where smaller buildings have been built in the ruins of large olive farms have been surveyed but not yet excavated.

^{page 79 note 2} Khaldoun, Ibn, Prolegomènes (ed. de Slane, , i. 309)Google Scholar. See also Schumpeter, J., ‘Les Conquêtes musulmans et l'Impérialisme arabe’, Revue Africaine, xciv (1950), 283–97Google Scholar.

^{page 79 note 3} The Hafsids also used the Louata as collectors of tribute from other Berber tribes (Khaldoun, Ibn, Histoire des Berbères, i. 233Google Scholar).

^{page 79 note 4} See Gautier, , Le Passé de l'Afrique du Nord, pp. 281 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 80 note 1} Lopez, in Camb. Econ. Hist. ii. 261Google Scholar.

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