Abstract
Some years after North Africa was ultimately incorporated into the Caliphate of Damascus, the main Islamic currents became established in the area. While most of Ifrīqiya remained faithful to what would later become Sunnism, opposition to the Umayyad and Abbassid Caliphates began to flourish in the Western territories. In Central Maghreb, Ibāḍism, Ṣufrism, Zaydism and Isma‘ilism were all well-established during this time. Nevertheless, only two centuries later, Malikism became the dominant regional school and progressively caused Ibāḍism to decline and even disappear from most areas. This process clearly started under the Fatimids, but the Banū Ḥammād imposed Malikism in Hodna after founding their capital, the Qal‘a Banī Ḥammād, on the Ibāḍī ‘Ajīsa Berbers’ lands. The Umayyad military intervention, the conversions to Malikism and the organization of broader Maliki trading networks had already weakened the Ibāḍī communities from Tāhart and the Zāb when the arrival of the Banū Hilāl forced them into exile.
