Re-Reading the Bargawāta

Scholars have long relied on a limited set of Arabic sources, particularly geographies, to reconstruct the history and beliefs of the Barġawāṭa, a Berber group of the Atlantic coast with an indigenous prophetic legacy and a ‘Qurʾān’ in the local language. The present article revisits these texts, arguing that they must be understood as two distinct veins of tradition: an early account by Ibn Ḥawqal and a separate presentation by al-Bakrī that became hegemonic. It then builds on the work of Allaoua Amara, who first noted the promise of legal compendia in studying the Barġawāṭa, presenting a set of previously neglected legal rulings from ʿAbd al-Mālik Ibn Ḥabīb that are the earliest known source on the Barġawāṭa and cast a critical, independent light on the movement’s origins and practices. Finally, it reconsiders the historiography of the Barġawāṭan faith, arguing that it was an early indigenous conversation with the new religious grammar of Islam rather than a later ‘decolonial’ rejection of the conqueror’s faith.