Knut S. Vikør:

The Oasis of Salt

The History of Kawar, a Saharan Centre of Salt Production

Contents

Preface (i)
Contents (iii)
Maps and Tables (v)

1. Introduction (1)

2. The setting: Kawar in the context of the Sahara (17)
   • The peoples of the Sahara (22)
   • The oasis of Kawar (33)
   • The peoples of Kawar (38)
   • The villages of Kawar and its surroundings (51)

   The salt of Kawar

3. Salt in Sahel and Sahara (64)
   • Salt and salts (64)
   • Salts in the Central Sahel (68)
   • The Saharan deposits (71)
   • The Tegidda deposit (75)

4. Salt production in Kawar (79)
   • Techniques of extraction (82)
   • Forms of production (89)
   • The question of slavery (93)
   • Rituals of the salt industry (99)
   • Alun and the history of the salt industry (101)

5. The trade in salt and the taghelam (107)
   • The taghelam, the salt caravan (113)
   • The history of trade patterns (129)
   • Air, Damergu - the other end of the road (135)

   Kawar in the history of the Central Sahara

6. Kawar and the Fazzan (140)
   • The region in pre-Islamic times (140)
   • The first contact: 'Uqba b. Nafi' (148)
   • The Ibadiya of the Fazzan (153)
   • Kawar, centre of Ibadi trade (161)
   • The medieval villages of Kawar (165)
   • Climates of the Sahara (170)

7. The period of Kanem-Bornu hegemony (173)
   • Northern expansion of the Sayfawa (179)
   • Effects of the shift to Bornu (185)

8. Tuareg masters of the Sahara (193)
   • The formation of political structures (197)
   • Internal and external struggles (204)
   • Kawar under Tuareg control (210)
   • Aïr in the nineteenth century (214)
   • The raidings of the nineteenth century (216)

9. Kawar in the nineteenth century (224)
   • Political rule (224)
   • Trade and traders (233)
   • Religious life in Kawar, the Sanusi (240)

10. The French occupation, 1906 (250) ()
    • Ottoman or Sanusi (251)
    • French aspirations (257)
    • Strategies and motives (266)
    • Kawar and Kaossan (268)
    • Postscript (270)

11. Conclusion (275)

    Appendix 1: Tuareg drum-groups and sections (282)
    Appendix 2: Kawar in the Arabic Sources (283)

    Glossary (302)

    Bibliography (308)

    Index (332)

Maps and Tables

---

Read an introduction to this volume

---

This book is distributed outside Scandinavia by

C. Hurst & Co (Publishers) Ltd.,
38 King Street, London WC2E 8JT,
England

Phone +44-171-240 2666; fax +44-171-240-2667,
E-mail: hurst@atlas.co.uk

Publication date: Already published (1999)
xii, 342 pp.; £ 25. ISBN 185065-308-9

---