Since their establishment in Al-Andalus (756), the Umayyads of Cordoba maintained close ties with the other shore of the Mediterranean. They therefore developed a complex diplomatic strategy towards the states which flourished in the Maghreb throughout the ninth century. However, it was after the proclamation of the caliphate (929) that the Umayyads’ ambitions fully realized: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III decided to conquer Ceuta (931) and promoted the establishment of a vast territory under Andalusi influence on the other side of the Mediterranean, stretching from the Atlantic to Algiers, and from the Strait of Gibraltar to the gates of the desert (Siǧilmāsa). By doing this, the Umayyads created an original political framework that survived beyond the fitna of the ninth century and paved the way for the feats achieved by the Almoravids, as well as the Almoravids. 

This scientific outreach activity resulted from the coordinated research project MAGNA II: “Transits and transformations in the Maghreb space and population” (TRAMAGHIS. PID2021-122872NB-C21 and DIANA. PID2021-122872NB-C22), financed by MICIN/AEI/13039/501100011033 and the ERDF. A Way to Make Europe. 

Aurélien Montel has been a maître de conférences on the History of Medieval Islam at the University of Toulouse 2-Jean Jaurès since 2023. A specialist in the medieval Islamic West, his research focuses on the history of Al-Andalus and the Maghreb, as well as medieval Libya (Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan). His work also addresses the prosopography of networks of scholars and the study of biographical literature. He has authored many studies on power dynamics and exchanges in the Western Islamic world, and has recently published La rive d’en face. al-Andalus et le Maghreb à l’époque des Omeyyades de Cordoue (The Opposite Shore: Al-Andalus and the Maghreb in the era of Cordoba’s Umayyads, Casa de Velázquez, Madrid, 2025).