Still, except from what we gather from medieval geographers, and their evidence was mostly hearsay, there is not one atom of proof which tends to show that such a town as Tafilet ever existed, nor could I during my stay there gain any information to that effect, my informants one and all stating that Sijilmassa, or, as it is now called, Medinat el Aamra, was the sole and only large town that ever existed in Tafilet. Although many of the _ksor_, as the fortified villages are called, are of very considerable size, there is none to which the term town can be aptly applied. Before offering any description of Tafilet as I saw it, a few words as to its history may not prove out of place. Thanks to oriental historians, we are from time to time able to obtain a glimpse of what was passing in this remote corner of the dominions of Morocco, although Tafilet was until comparatively lately a separate kingdom, and to-day figures as such amongst the titles of the reigning Sultan of Morocco, who in summing up his dominions styles himself “King of Tafilelt.” Originally a settlement of the Amazigh or Shloh people—both terms signify “noble”—it was not until the year 88 A.H. (707 A.D.) that the Arabs appeared upon the scene, under the leadership of Musa ben Nasr, who, according to Ibn Khaldun, founded the town of Sijilmassa, though there seems every reason to believe that the name at least had been in existence from a much earlier period. In all probability the Berbers were dwelling there in thatch huts, and it was not until the Arab invasion that buildings of _tabia_, or native concrete, were raised, the sole material at hand at Tafilet, where stones are not to be found. We find that the divisions of the Berber people at this time (88 A.H.) inhabiting that and the surrounding district were the Beni Mgil, who to this day are a powerful tribe on the plains of the Wad Muluya, and the Dhu Mansur, though the second name is distinctly Arabic, and is probably a translation into that language of the Berber name, now unfortunately lost. Tafilelt itself was in the possession of an _ahlaf_, or confederation, the principal families of which were the Monabat and Amana. “At this time,” says Leo Africanus, “the oasis was a great emporium of trade, a number of Moorish and European merchants being settled there, while a king governed and took taxes at the _douane_.” It would be interesting to learn more of the European merchants, and one is inclined to think that foreign would have been a more appropriate term, possibly meaning Turks, Algerians, Tunisians, and Egyptians. With varied local history, of which there is no need to make particular mention here, Tafilet maintained its trade importance throughout the middle ages, its rulers reigning under the title of Sultans of Sijilmassa. It was no doubt owing to the caravan-routes that so inhospitable a spot became so important a trading-place, for the extremes of heat and cold are cruel.