A Sanhaja Berber trade-oasis town (archaeologically identified with the ruins at Tegdaoust in southern Mauritania), the southern terminus of a major trans-Saharan caravan route from Sijilmasa. First described by al-Ya'qubi (writing 889-890) as ruled by its own king, independent of and receiving tribute from Sudanic kingdoms; it was the chief marketplace where North African salt and goods were traded for West African gold.
Absorbed into the Ghana Empire by the late 10th or early 11th century, then violently sacked by the Almoravids in 1054-55; it never fully recovered, lost the salt trade to Oualata, and was in visible decline by the time al-Idrisi described it (1154) as a small, thinly populated town.
Volume from the French archaeological mission's excavation series at Tegdaoust, the site identified with Aoudaghost — polity-specific.