Aoudaghost (also known as Awadaghust, Awdughast, Awdaghusht…

Aoudaghost (also known as Awadaghust, Awdughast, Awdaghusht and Awdhaghurst) is an important oasis town at the southern end of a trans-Saharan caravan route that is mentioned in a number of early Arabic manuscripts.

The archaeological ruins at Tegdaoust in southern Mauritania are thought to be the remains of the medieval town.

The earliest mention of Aoudaghost is by al-Yaqubi in his Kitab al-Buldan completed in 889-890 in which he described the town as being controlled by a tribe of the Sanhaja and situated 50 stages south of Sijilmasa across the Sahara desert.

"It is the residence of their king who has no religion or law.

He raids the land of the Sudan who have many kingdoms."

From Ibn Hawqal writing in around 977 we learn that the distance from Aoudaghost to Ghana (presumably the capital of the Empire) was ten days' journey for a lightly loaded caravan.

Ibn Hawqal wrote that the "king of Awdaghurst maintains relations with the ruler of Ghana" which suggests that at that time Aoudaghost was not part of the Ghana Empire.

He also mentions the trade in gold and writes that the king of Ghana is very rich because of his stocks of gold but that the kings of Ghana and Kugha "stand in pressing need of [the goodwill of] the king of Awdaghust because of the salt which comes to them from the lands of Islam."

The Ghana Empire captures the Berber town in 992.