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 Call for papers for a thematic issue of  Afriques. Historical debates, methods and fields  to be published in 2021/2022.CallA connected and  connecting space: this seems to be the main conclusion of the recent  renewal of studies on the Sahelian–Saharan area. For the past twenty  years or so, a generation of historians and anthropologists have been  revisiting the old case of trans-Saharan trade by exploring new trails  and, most importantly, by broadening the questionnaire, leading to a  more global reflection on mobility between the two Africas. The  publication, in 2009, of Ghislaine Lydon’s book On Trans-Saharan Trails  is undoubtedly the most emblematic illustration of this shift, notably  for the echoes the book has generated outside the field of African  studies. Drawing on a multitude of endogenous sources, the American  historian has, on the one hand, shown the importance of Islamic law and  Muslim scholarship in general for the development of institutional  structures on which long-distance exchanges were based. On the other  hand, she has highlighted a remarkable circulation of cultural practices  which contradicts the traditional conception of the Sahara as a  frontier space separating the Maghreb and the Sahel. Underlying this  holistic approach, the key role played by trans-Saharan communities came to light. Such communities are united by reference to a  shared geographical and/or genealogical origin, which often corresponds  to one of the oasis regions of the Sahara: the Oued Noun, the  Mauritanian ksour, the Touat, the Mzab or Ghadamès in Libya.  Anthropologist Judith Scheele, in Smugglers and Saints of the Sahara  (2012), also studied these trans-Saharan communities and their networks for  the case of Central Sahara in the 20th century. Her analysis of the  micro-organizational mechanisms through which the activities of groups  of traders and traffickers are deployed between southern Algeria and the  Sahel, suggests patterns of territorial integration in which mobility  acts as a stabilizing element of relations between a plurality of  socio-cultural worlds: those of the Ksourians of the Touat, those of the  pastoral populations of the Azaouad and the Tuareg world, and finally  those of the inhabitants of the Niger Bend. This thematic issue seeks to extend the  debates around trans-Saharan communities as a factor of  territorial integration by adopting a long-term perspective. Indeed, the  studies we have just referred to are situated in a chronological frame  that remains roughly that of colonial history or its prelude. The  richness of endogenous sources available for the period between the 16th  and 18th centuries encourages us, however, to go further back in time  in the study of these communities and their networks. The activities of a  group of trans-Saharan merchants, such as the Zajlāwī-s from Touat  studied by Judith Scheele, can be seen already, for example, in local  18th-century case law collections, while articulating significantly  different stakes and forms of community solidarity. Similarly, the  remarkable dynamism of recent years prompts us to ask new questions  about the protagonists of the exchanges between the Maghreb and the  Sahel in the Middle Ages, particularly with regard to the role of the  Ibāḍī networks. In fact, communities specializing in the creation and  perpetuation of connections between the different parts of the Sahara  and the Sahel constitute a constant in the history of West Africa. Our aim is to provide a  first overview on the social and cultural role of these trans-Saharan  communities, which cannot be reduced to the question of caravan trade  alone. The contributions should therefore grasp the relationship between  trans-Saharan mobility and community building in all its complexity.  Examining the evolution of the traders’ various networks cannot be  overlooked, of course; however, focusing on other trans-Saharan  networks, in which a professional specialization is articulated with  collective identity representations, will be of the essence. We are  thinking, for example, of the expansion of Sharifian lineages in the  Saharan West or the rise of the Kounta confederation between the 16th  and 18th centuries. Finally, the history of these trans-Saharan communities is intrinsically bound to the history of the urban centers in  the Sahelo-Saharan confines such as Timbuktu, Djenne, Oualata or Agadez,  whose history before 1800 remains largely under-studied. New approaches  on the question of the lineage factor in the social organization of  Saharan societies and their Sahelian extensions could thus emerge from  the study of this type of community network. It will also allow us to  write a history from below on the circulations in the great desert, outside the prism of the long 19th century.Editor The editor of this special issue is Ismail Warscheid (IRHT/CNRS, University of Bayreuth).Schedule Proposals should be  submitted in the form of an abstract, in French, English or Arabic, 500  words long, to ismail.warscheid[@]irht.cnrs.fr or  ismail.warscheid[@]uni-bayreuth.de by 30 September 2020. Final papers are due by 1 March 2021.