Biledulgerid

Biledulgerid was a term used in early European maps for the Maghreb south of the Atlas Mountains. The name derives from Bilād al-Jarīd (بلاد الجريد, Land of the dates), latinized by Leo Africanus who claimed that Arabs referred to this whole region due to its richness in date palms.^[1] As the region has many oases and cultivation, it has been a significant settlement since the Romans.

Barbariae et Biledulgerid, Nova Descriptio, 1570s map by Abraham Ortelius; Biledulgerid marked in red

Generall Mapp of the Coast of Barbarie, 1667 map by Richard Blome; Biledulgerid marked in yellow and subdivided into regions

While most European mapmakers of the 15th to 17th century only detailed the coastal areas of the Barbary Coast, some already named the inner regions of Africa that were rarely travelled and mostly known from second-hand reports. By the mid-16th century, geographers used the name Biledulgerid as a collective term for all non-coastal entities – variously called kingdoms, principalities or regions – on the northern side of the Sahara desert, stretching parallel to the Barbary Coast in the north. Around the year 1700, these known entities included, from west to east: Tesset (south of Morocco), Darha (around the Draa River), Zegelmesse/Segelomessa (south of Fes), Tigorin/Tegorarina, Zeb/Zebum and Mezzab (south of Algiers), Biledulgerid proper (south of Tunis), the subregions of Techort, Guargala, Gademes (themselves southwest, south and southeast of Biledulgerid proper), Fezzen (south of Tripolis) and Teorregu. The last two parts were sometimes rather counted towards Barcas (Cyrenaica), the neighboring region to the east; or on the contrary Barcas was also included into Biledulgerid. In any case, both Barbary and Biledulgerid did not include the lands of Nile.

The area known previously as ‘Biledulgerid proper’ still bears the name due to the same etymology, but not in the latinized version. The comparably small area southwest of Tunis is known today as Djerid.^[2]

By the end of the 18th century, the geographical term Biledulgerid turned more and more antiquated, as more information about the area became available and the “subregions” turned out to be far less static as Europeans previously believed. A few publications still carried the word into the 19th century. For example, the Encyclopaedia Americana in 1830 conflated both correct information about the Tunisian region of Djerid and its agricultural products, and outdated details about the larger area that previous centuries considered parts of Biledulgerid.