Touat (Berb./Ar. Tuwāt) is a vast oasis region in southwestern Algeria. It is dotted by a dozen agglomerations of fortified hamlets (Ar. qṣūr), 248 of which are still inhabited. Although the original residents were Zenata Berbers, most of the present population is Arabic-speaking. Medieval Arab historians such as Ibn Khaldūn make occasional mention of the Touat, but seem to know very little about it. The fourteenth-century Moroccan traveler Ibn Baṭṭūṭa passed through in 1353, but gives few details. According to traditions mentioned by later Arab historians, Jew…