The peri-urban zone: A vital economic space for urban supply in the central Maghreb (2nd-6th AH/8th-12th CE)
Abstract
This article aims to examine the peri-urban spaces of the Central Maghreb, commonly referred to as suburban zones, during the period spanning from the 2nd century to the 6th century AH / 8th to 12th century AD. These spaces have largely been overlooked by historians and researchers, whose attention has been directed toward two different areas: the urban area represented by the major cities and metropolitan centers, and the rural area represented by the countryside and villages. Accordingly, we will try to define them as areas surrounding cities, and reveal the role they played in supporting the economic activity of the city. They are further examined as important socio-economic spaces that exerted a significant influence on urban growth and economic vitality.
Delving into this issue and attempting to address its elements leads us to raise the problematic relationship between the city and its urban-rural environment, especially in its economic aspect. How are the peri-urban spaces of the city managed and supplied? Can we trust the hypothesis that the city's strength and capacity for continuity are based upon an adjacent external space that actively shaped life within its boundaries? And can the city grow in isolation from the surrounding peri-urban areas?
This study adopts a descriptive- analytical approach, in order to be able to read the available texts in a way that is appropriate to attract the attention of researchers to this vital field. This entails the extrapolation of some jurisprudential texts, their contextual analysis, and their placement within their broader historical framework. A statistical dimension is incorporated through the extraction and classification of relevant material into structured tables, designed to substantiate the presence of peri-urban terminology within geographical sources. The study further endeavors to delineate urban areas and their role in directing historical phenomena.
This study has allowed us to partially grasp the importance of the areas surrounding the city walls, as they are the primary source for securing the food needs of the urban population through agricultural production. This production was transformed into raw materials that stimulated the central markets and weekly markets held at the city gates. Conversely, these zones absorbed economic activities that the city itself was unable to accommodate within its boundaries, most notably craft industries whose operations adversely affected urban stability, whether in terms of sanitation or noise pollution. The proximity to industrial materials also allowed for the formation of this economic space as a support for the cities and an effective element in supporting the internal commercial units within them. Often, the gates, in addition to guarding and security, played an important role in transporting products and in accommodating commercial transactions between the nomadic and urban populations. This arrangement served to alleviate congestion within the urban core, in accordance with the jurisprudential principle of preventing harm to city residents and users of urban spaces.
Thus, semi-urban areas formed an important socio-economic arena, at times operating with considerable autonomy, which had an impact on the growth and revival of cities. The suburbs of the cities of the central Maghreb - in particular - located outside the walls were dynamic and vital, they contributed to the growth of urbanization within the walls. As population growth increased and the inner urban environment became saturated, the latter emerged in the form of integrated and independent geographical and urban elements through their urban units, forming an architectural unit and a scene independent of the city and rural areas. Thus, we conclude that the continuity of cities and their survival over time and their economic and political development are largely contingent upon the economic activities conducted in their suburban peripheries, along their outskirts, and in the vicinity of their gates that functioned, above all, as their principal source of supply and sustenance.
Key words: Suburbs, peri-urban area, craft-commercial area, cities of central Maghreb.
