Aproximación al estudio medioambiental en perspectiva histórica: El caso de Siǧilmāsa

Resumo

Based on a historical environmental analysis, we study the natural and cultural landscape of the Magrib al-Aqṣà in the 9th-16th centuries, from the point of view of terminology and the representation of the Moroccan environment. We will study the case of the city of Siğilmāsa, located in the region of Tāfilālt. Through the stories of some of the muslim geographers of the 9th-11th centuries (the period when this genre appeared in the Arabic and Islamic historiography), as well as the masterpiece by Joannes Leo Africanus, written in the 16th century, we will compile information about the climate, lands, cultivation and hydrological sources, among other topics. Thanks to this data, we can have a first approximation about the natural landscape of this territory and its later transformation in a period of four centuries. As a conclusion, we indicate a hypothesis about the influence of the environment in the historical evolution of Siğilmāsa and its later decline.