Sijilmasa au temps des Midrarides : nouvelles approches historiques et premier bilan archéologique

International audienceStudies about Kharijism in Morocco today remain unusual despite the historical weight of a powerful Ðufri emirate born in the region in the course of the second/eighth century in Sijilmasa. The main reason for this historiographic weakness is undoubtedly the scarcity of historical sources documenting this period and the fact that no local source, like Ibaµi literature, is known to date. The purpose of this text is twofold: first, it proposes a rereading of medieval Arabic texts dealing with the Ðufri founding of the dynasty of Sijilmasa, the Midrarids, with particular emphasis on the birth of the movement as well as on its tribal organization and basis; then, this text focuses on the exploitation ofºthe archaeological data resulting from the Moroccan-American excavations of Sijilmasa (1988–1998) in order to gain a new perspective on the later periods of the city’s history by means of these mainly unpublished documents. The purpose of highlighting these data is to initiate documentation on Khariji Ðufri societies of Morocco and beyond to start a discussion about whether or not it is possible to identify a Khariji (here Ðufri) organization through archaeolog