AUDAGHOST

also spelled Awdaghost (fl. 9th11th century), former Berber town in the southwest Sahara, northwest of Timbuktu. Audaghost was an important terminus of the medieval trans-Saharan trade route. The town was primarily a centre where North African traders could buy gold from the kings of ancient Ghana. Audaghost was first an independent market town and later a tributary satellite of Ghana. It was captured from Ghana about 105455 by the Sanhajah wing of the Muslim Almoravid movement and thereafter declined in importance. Its location is not certain, but it probably occupied the site of what is now Tegdaoust, Mauritania.