On the Aṣnām in the Medieval Maghreb

Avatars of “Paganism”?

Abstract

The integration of North Africa’s integration within the Muslim Empire gave the opportunity to provided many historians, geographers and other specialists with the opportunity to have a closer look to examine the region more closely, to recreate the history of its conquest and subsequently to draw uppaint a larger picture, which encompasses encompassing various aspects, such as the society or the economy of the region. Therefore, their writings can be considered as major sources to better understand better the context of the conquest. In This paper, we have gathered brings together testimonies from Arabic texts about the material presence of paganism in North Africa. Thus, starting with the a study of the notion of “ṣanam / aṣnām”, two main perspectives are dealt withdiscussed:, on the one hand material vestiges and on the other hand toponymy as a memory of a pagan past.