Abalak

Abalak lies in the Azawagh, the dry country west of the Aïr mountains. Its plains were home to pastoral communities whose herds moved through a landscape of sparse vegetation and seasonal water. During the seventeenth century the balance of power in the Azawagh changed as the Iwellemmedan Tuareg extended their authority over the region. To the south lay Ader, where Hausa-speaking communities and rulers from Aïr formed another part of the Sahel's varied political landscape.