Oualata

The Oualata area is believed to have been first settled by an agro-pastoral people akin to the Mandé Soninke people who lived along the rocky promontories of the Tichitt-Oualata and Tagant cliffs of Mauritania facing the Aoukar basin. There, they built what are among the oldest stone settlements on the African continent.{{sfn|Holl|2009}}

The town formed part of the Ghana Empire and grew wealthy through trade. At the beginning of the thirteenth century Oualata replaced Aoudaghost as the principal southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade and developed into an important commercial and religious centre.{{sfn|Levtzion|1973|p=147}} By the fourteenth century the city had become part of the Mali Empire.{{cite book |last1=Gomez |first1=Michael |author1-link=Michael A. Gomez |title=African dominion : a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa |date=2018 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=9780691177427|page = 86}}

An important trans-Saharan route began at Sijilmasa and passed through Taghaza with its salt mines and ended at Oualata. The French historian {{ILL|Raymond Mauny|fr}} estimated that in the Middle Ages the town would have accommodated between 2000 and 3000 inhabitants.{{sfn|Mauny|1961|p=485}}

Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta found the inhabitants of Oualata were Muslim and mainly Massufa, a section of the Sanhaja. He was surprised by the great respect and independence that women enjoyed. He only gives a brief description of the town itself: "My stay at Iwalatan (Oualata) lasted about fifty days; and I was shown honour and entertained by its inhabitants. It is an excessively hot place, and boasts a few small date-palms, in the shade of which they sow watermelons. Its water comes from underground waterbeds at that point, and there is plenty of mutton to be had."{{sfn|Gibb|1929|p=320}} His visit highlights the increased use of the Berber name Iwalatan at the expense of the original Mande name Biru, a reflection of the changing identity of the residents.{{sfn|Cleaveland|2002|p=37}} Nevertheless, the Azayr language, a mix of Soninke (Mande) and Berber, was still spoken widely until at least the end of the 16th century.{{cite book |last1=Cleaveland |first1=Timothy |editor1-last=Jeppie |editor1-first=Shamil |editor2-last=Diagne |editor2-first=Souleymane Bachir |title=The Meanings of Timbuktu |date=2008 |publisher=HSRC Press |location=Cape Town |chapter=Timbuktu and Walata: lineages and higher education|page=80}}{{cite journal |last1=McDougall |first1=E. Ann |title=The View from Awdaghust: War, Trade and Social Change in the Southwestern Sahara, from the Eighth to the Fifteenth Century |journal=The Journal of African History |date=1985 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=1-31|doi = 10.1017/S0021853700023069}}

From the second half of the fourteenth century Timbuktu gradually replaced Oualata as the southern terminus of the trans-Sahara route and it declined in importance, becoming an increasingly poor backwater in comparison to the previous wealth of the town.{{sfn|Levtzion|1973|p=80, 158}}{{sfn|Mauny|1961|p=432}} In 1433, the Mali Empire lost control of Walata.{{cite book |last1=Person |first1=Yves |author1-link=Yves Person |title=Le sol, la parole et l'écrit: Mélanges en hommage à Raymond Mauny, Tome II |date=1981 |publisher=Société française d'histoire d'outre-mer |location=Paris |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/sfhom_1768-7144_1981_mel_5_2_965 |access-date=13 November 2024 |chapter=Nyaani Mansa Mamudu et la fin de l ’empire du Mali|p=616}} The town was besieged for a month and then sacked by the Mossi in 1480. The inhabitants managed to regroup, pursue the invaders as they made off with their spoils, and rescue many of the slaves who had been taken.{{cite book |last1=Izard |first1=Michel |title=Introduction à l'histoire des royaumes mossi |date=1970 |publisher=Collège de France, Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale |location=Paris |page=39 |url=http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb35338501v |access-date=5 April 2025}}

The Berber diplomat, traveller and author Leo Africanus visited the region in 1509–1510, and gives a description in his book Descrittione dell’Africa: "Walata Kingdom: This is a small kingdom, and of mediocre condition compared to the other kingdoms of the blacks. In fact, the only inhabited places are three large villages and some huts spread about among the palm groves."{{sfn|Hunwick|1999|p=275}} By that time, the composition of the kingdom seems to have changed to reflect a large Songhai-speaking population residing within the town. "The language of this region is called Songhai, and the inhabitants are black people, and the most friendly unto strangers." Oualata was a tributary of the Songhai Empire; also reflected within Africanus' book Descrittione dell’Africa explaining "In my time this region was conquered by the king of Timbuktu and the prince of Oualata fled into the deserts, whereof the king granted him peace conditionally that he pay great yearly tribute and so the prince has remained tributary to the king of Timbuktu until this present."{{Cite book |author=Leo, Africanus |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/999621723 |title=The history and description of Africa and of the notable things therein contained |date=15 May 2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-317-02892-5 |oclc=999621723}}Today there is a deserted settlement called Tizert at a distance of 5 km from the town.

The early 17th century saw an influx of Hassaniya Arabs into the town, whose influence would lead to the development of the current name, Walata.{{sfn|Cleaveland|2002|p=37}} The local political scene was dominated for a century and a half by the Lemhajib, a group of three Soninke families who, like the rest of Biru's Mande population, were gradually assimilated into the Berber and Arab milieu.

The old town covers an area of about {{Convert|600 by 300|m}}, some of it now in ruins.{{sfn|Mauny|1961|p=485}} The sandstone buildings are coated with banco and some are decorated with geometric designs. The mosque now lies on the eastern edge of the town but in earlier times may have been surrounded by other buildings. Oualata is home to a manuscript museum, and is known for its highly decorative vernacular architecture. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 together with Ouadane, Chinguetti and Tichitt.{{cite web | title=Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata | url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/750 | publisher=UNESCO: World Heritage Convention | access-date=15 August 2014 }}

{{clear}}

Image:Oualata Decorative Entrance 1.jpg|Oualata Decorative Entrance

Image:Oualata Mosque.jpg|Oualata Mosque

Image:Oualata Decorative Window.jpg|Oualata Decorative Window

Image:Oualata Decorative Secondary Entrance.jpg|Oualata Decorative Secondary Entrance

Image:Oualata Decorative Secondary Entrance 2.jpg|Oualata Decorative Secondary Entrance

Image:Oualata Decorative Entrance 2.jpg|Oualata Decorative Main Entrance

Image:View of Oualata 1.jpg|View of Oualata 1

Image:View of Oualata 2.jpg|View of Oualata 2

Image:View of Oualata 3.jpg|View of Oualata 3

Image:View of Oualata 4.jpg|View of Oualata 4

• Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata
• Twelve Doors of the Mali Empire
• En attendant les hommes, 2007 documentary film about women muralists in Oualata.
• Mauritania: Oualata, “the big sister of Timbuktu” documentary film on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QjLWrvp62Y&t=5s TV5MONDE Info], 2023

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin|40em}}

• {{ cite book | last=Cleaveland | first=Timothy | year=2002 | title=Becoming Walata: A History of Saharan Social Formation and Transformation | location=Portsmouth, NH | publisher=Heinemann | isbn=978-0-325-07027-8 }}
• {{cite book | editor-last=Gibb | editor-first=H.A.R.| title=Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354 | url=https://archive.org/details/ibnbattutatravel00harg | publisher=Routledge | place=London | year=1929 | isbn=9788120608092 }} Extracts are available [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.html here].
• {{cite journal | last=Holl | first=Augustin F.C. | year=2009 | title=Coping with uncertainty: Neolithic life in the Dhar Tichitt-Walata, Mauritania, (ca. 4000–2300 BP) | journal=Comptes Rendus Geoscience | volume=341 | issue=8–9 | pages=703–712 | doi=10.1016/j.crte.2009.04.005 | bibcode=2009CRGeo.341..703H | url=https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/geoscience/articles/10.1016/j.crte.2009.04.005/ }}
• {{cite book | last=Hunwick | first= John O.| author-link= John Hunwick | title= Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents | publisher=Brill| place=Leiden | year=1999 | isbn=90-04-11207-3 }}
• {{cite book|author-link1=Nehemia Levtzion | last=Levtzion | first=Nehemia | title=Ancient Ghana and Mali | publisher=Methuen | place=London | year=1973 | isbn=0-8419-0431-6 }}
• {{cite book | last=Mauny | first=Raymond | year=1961 | title=Tableau géographique de l'ouest africain au moyen age, d'après les sources écrites, la tradition et l'archéologie | publisher=Institut français d'Afrique Noire | place=Dakar | language=fr }}

{{Refend}}

{{Refbegin|40em}}

• {{cite book | editor1-last=Levtzion | editor1-first=Nehemia | editor2-last=Hopkins | editor2-first=John F.P. |title=Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa | publisher=Marcus Weiner Press | place=New York, NY | year=2000 | orig-year=1981 | isbn=1-55876-241-8}}
• {{cite book | last=Norris | first=H.T. | title=Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume VII | edition=2nd | year=1993 | contribution= Mūrītāniyā |publisher=Brill | place=Leiden | url=https://archive.org/stream/EncyclopaediaDictionaryIslamMuslimWorldEtcGibbKramerScholars.13/07.EncycIslam.NewEdPrepNumLeadOrient.EdEdComCon.BosDonLewPel.etc.UndPatIUA.v7.Mif-Naz.Leid.EJBrill.1993.#page/n678/mode/1up | isbn=90-04-09419-9 | page=625 }}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category|Oualata}}

• {{citation | publisher=République Islamique de Mauritanie Sheet NE-29-XI | title=Map showing Oualata: Fond Typographique 1:200,000 |

url=http://ml-datos.com/4/ficheros/mapas/mauritania/Oualata.PNG | ref=none }}.

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Category:World Heritage Sites in Mauritania

Category:Communes of Hodh Ech Chargui region

Category:Archaeological sites in Mauritania

Category:Wangara trade towns

Category:Ksars