WE MAY NEVER KNOW just how pervasive was the legal and spiritual authority of the Ibāḍī shaykhs over Berber tribesmen. Their influence must surely have been considerable, operating as they did in the political and commercial centres. To these places, tribes of the surrounding regions, though relatively autonomous, would necessarily have been drawn by the symbiotic needs of the nomad and the townsman. The proliferation of quṣūr, or fortified strongholds, suggests the occasional collision of interests. The expansion of the trade network, however, means there was cooperation of trading interests. On the one hand, we find Berber Ibāḍīs with access to capital and markets, and on the other hand, Berber tribesmen in control of the vast spaces in between. Eight. and ninth-century contact and trade with the trans-Sahara was initially through the Berber Ibāḍī merchants, who first travelled southwards along an eastern route from Zawīla to Kawār and to Kānim. As the trade increased in the ninth century, more of it shifted to. central route via Wārjlā and, even further west, through Sijilmāsa and Tagdaoust.

An eastern route (see Map 5) has been referred to earlier in Chapter IV, with its primary objective being Kawār. While the central route by way of Wārjlā was also used to reach Kawar, Ibāḍī merchants by the ninth century were going as far as Ga. by way of Tādmakka and trade along this route enjoyed its heyday in the ninth and tenth centuries.