Passing the Salt, Again: The Legend of Carthage’s Destruction in Medieval North Africa

The destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE is associated with an erroneous legend that Rome sowed the city’s fields with salt. R. T. Ridley pointed out the story’s absence in ancient sources and subsequent scholars traced its origins to medieval European folklore. However, stories of Carthage’s destruction also circulated in Islamic North Africa. The eleventh-century CE geographer Abū ʻUbayd al-Bakrī records a story that includes a reference to salt in connection with Carthage’s destruction. This tale likely represents a local Maghrebi explanation of Carthage’s demise and prompts questions about the place of the Islamic tradition in the reception of the ancient past.