Abstract
The forests of the Mediterranean have been and continue to be the subject of numerous historiographical discussions that focus in particular on a possible deforestation whose chronology remains debated. Focusing on the medieval Maghreb al-Aqṣā, an area often marginalized on the Mediterranean scale, the present study proposes to pay attention to both regional and diachronic variations in forest cover, through an interdisciplinary approach that is the only one able to document its evolution. After presenting the limits and contributions of a documentary corpus composed of textual sources and anthracological data, the analysis of this documentation allows us to qualify the idea of deforestation in the Maghreb al-Aqṣā during the medieval period. Both the representations of forests in medieval Arab authors and the anthracological analyses indicate the diversity of situations according to regions and the need to take into account multiple parameters, particularly local ones, to analyse the evolution of forest cover.