Jerba of the 3 rd /9 th century CE: Under Aghlabi Control? Renata Holod and Tarek Kahlaoui Abstract With the beginning of the 3 rd /9 th century, the (Sunni) Aghlabi dynasty was particularly active in establishing a line of the forts (ribāṭs) along the coast of Ifriqīya. For the Gulf of Gabès region, their chief ribāṭ was located at Gabès (Qabis) on the mainland. A detailed study of settlement patterns on the island of Jerba suggests that at the same time at least three strongholds were operating on the island throughout this century. Only one could, perhaps, be directly connected to these Aghlabi initiatives for attack and defense along the seaboard. The increasing Ibāḍī influx into the territory of Jerba throughout the 3rd /9 th century would indicate that, while the Aghlabi frontier may have reached Jerba, it never became fully rooted there. This paper presents the reconstructable settlement patterns of eighth through tenth centuries on the island, which are based on evidence developed from archaeological survey data. These are juxtaposed with available information gleaned from scanty historical notices. KEY WORDS: Jerba, settlement pattern, plague, conquest, demographic loss, new settlers’ influx, murex, textile production, Ibadi space, ceramic chrono‐typology. Studying the Island Space The nature of the settlement on Jerba during the time that the Aghlabi dynasty controlled the coast and hinterland of Ifriqīya has become more understandable mainly thanks to the results of an archaeological survey of the island. This survey took place in five seasons, 1996‐2000, and mapped all phases of occupation from pre‐historic through to the end of nominal Ottoman control over the island in the middle of the 19 th c. 1 The survey was carried out primarily as a stratified random samplying over the territory of the entire island. Additionally, purposive samplying focussed on a micro‐survey of the southeastern zone as well as on a samplying investigation along a putative road running from the southwestern tip of the island to its center. 1 For full results of the survey, see An Island through Time: Jerba Studies. Elizabeth Fentress, Ali Drine, and Renata Holod (eds.) JRA Supplement, vol. 1, 2009; vol. 2 is forthcoming. The survey was a joint Tunisian‐ American project. It was supported by the University of Pennsylvania (The University of Pennsylvania Museumof Archaeology and Anthropology, the History of Art Department, and the University Research Foundation), the American Academy in Rome, and the Institut du Patrimoine (INP), Tunis. Additional support was granted by The 1984 Foundation, and by Fondation Van Berchem, Geneva. Supplemental student travel support was provided by the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and by the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Graduate Group at UPenn. Additional support came from Mrs. Merle Smith.