Chinguetti

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinguetti
شنقيط
Chinguetti old town.jpg
State : MauritaniaMauritania Mauritania
Region : Adrar
Coordinates : 20 ° 27 ′  N , 12 ° 22 ′  W Coordinates: 20 ° 27 ′  N , 12 ° 22 ′  W
 
Residents : 4,370
Time zone : GMT ( UTC ± 0 )
Chinguetti (Mauritania)
Chinguetti
Chinguetti

Chinguetti ( Arabic شنقيط, DMG Šinqīṭ ), also Changuit, Schinguete, Singuyty , is a historic trading post and today a place with 4,370 inhabitants (as of 2013) in the Adrar region in northwest Mauritania . It is located on the Adrar Plateau about 70 km east of Atar . Chinguetti is the capital of the department of the same name .

overview

The well-preserved ruins of the trading post (Arabic Ksar ) Since 1996, together with Ouadane , Tichitt and Oualata a place of UNESCO - World Heritage Site . Once the center of several trade routes through the Sahara , it continues to attract tourists and Islamic scholars to admire its architecture and ancient libraries.

The local architecture of the older parts of the city consists of houses made of stone and clay with patios , each of which huddles along narrow streets around a mosque with a minaret .

Worth seeing include the Friday Mosque , a former fortress of the French Foreign Legion - a national symbol of Mauritania - and a water tower. In the old town there are five old libraries with academic and Koran texts , many of them from the late Middle Ages .

history

Old town with the minaret of the Friday mosque, which is crowned by five ostrich eggs

The Chinguetti region has been inhabited for thousands of years. It used to be the savannah . Cave paintings at the nearby Amoghar Pass show images of giraffes , cows and people in a green landscape that is very different from today's desert landscape.

The city may have been founded in the 11th century by a Berber tribal group, the Sanhajah . According to legend, soon after the settlement of Chinguetti, the Sanhajah came into contact with the Almoravids and eventually merged with them. The Almoravids were the founders of the Moors Empire , which stretched from present-day Senegal to Spain . The sober, no-frills architecture of the city reflects the strict, Maliki Islam of the Almoravids.

After two centuries of decline, the city was effectively re-established, this time as the fortified center of Trans-Saharan trade between the Mediterranean and interior Africa. Was traded u. a. with salt extracted nearby. Although the fortress walls have disappeared centuries ago, many buildings still date from this time.

Chinguetti is sometimes referred to as the seventh holiest city in Islam. In any case, the city is one of the most important cities in the history of Islam as well as West Africa. For centuries the city was the most important meeting point for Mecca pilgrims from the Maghreb and over time it became a holy city in itself, especially for those who could not make the long journey to the Arabian Peninsula themselves. It also became a center of Islamic, religious, and scientific learning. In addition to religious education, rhetoric , law, astronomy, mathematics and medicine were taught in schools. For many centuries all of Mauritania was known in the Arab world as "Bilad Shinqit", "The Land of Chinguetti".

In an old Koran library

The depopulation of the city accelerated through emigration to the mining region Zouérat - F'dérik and through the Western Sahara conflict in the 1970s. The first restoration work began in the 1980s. Today largely left to the desert, the city has some of the most important medieval manuscript libraries in West Africa, most of which are privately owned. The area around the Rue des Savants was once known as the gathering place of the scholars who discussed the finer details of Islamic law. Today the deserted streets showcase the urban and religious architecture of the Middle Ages.

Mauritania's newly discovered offshore oil field was named in honor of the city of Chinguetti .

sons and daughters of the town

See also

Web links

Commons : Chinguetti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. World Gazetteer @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bevoelkerungsstatistik.de
  2. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata. Accessed August 21, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Chinguetti. ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ArchNet  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / archnet.org
  4. ↑ Stefan Ehlert Desert sand threatens centuries-old writings. ( Memento from July 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) tagesschau.de, July 4, 2010.
  5. ↑ Ulrich Rebstock, Rainer Osswald, A. Wuld ʿAbdalqadir: Catalog of Arabic manuscripts in Mauritania (= Beirut texts and studies, vol. 30). Beirut 1988 (commissioned by Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden – Stuttgart).