Berbers Essay, Research Paper
The modern-day region of Maghrib – the Arab “West”
consisting of present-day Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia – is
inhabited predominantly by Muslim Arabs, but it has a large
Berber minority.
North Africa served as a transit region for peoples moving
toward Europe or the Middle East. Thus, the region’s inhabitants
have been influenced by populations from other areas. Out of
this mix developed the Berber people, whose language and culture,
although pushed from coastal areas by conquering and colonizing
Carthaginians, Romans, and Byzantines, dominated most of the land
until the spread of Islam and the coming of the Arabs. The
purpose of this research is to examine the influence of the
Berbers on North Africa.
The cave paintings found at Tassili-n-Ajjer, north of
Tamanrasset, and at other locations depict vibrant and vivid
scenes of everyday life in the central Maghrib between about 8000
B.C. and 4000 B.C. They were executed by a hunting people in the
Capsian period of the Neolithic age who lived in a savanna region
teeming with giant buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, and
hippopotamus, animals that no longer exist in the now-desert
area. The pictures provide the most complete record of a
prehistoric African culture.
Earlier inhabitants of the central Maghrib have left behind
equally significant remains. Early remnants of hominid
occupation in North Africa, for example, were found in Ain el
Hanech, near Saida (200,000 B.C.). Later, Neanderthal tool
makers produced hand axes in the Levalloisian and Mousterian
styles (43,000 B.C.) similar to those in the Levant. According
to some sources, North Africa was the site of the highest state
of development of Middle Paleolithic flake-tool techniques.
Tools of this era, starting about 30,000 B.C. are called Aterian
( after the site Bir el Ater, south of Annaba) and are marked by
a high standard of workmanship, great variety, and
specialization.
The earliest blade industries in North Africa are called
Ibero-Maurusian or Oranian (after a site near Oran). The
industry appears to have spread throughout the coastal regions of
the Maghrib between 15,000 and 10,000 B.C. Between about 9,000
and 5,000 B.C., the Capsian culture began influencing the Ibero-
Maurusian, and after about 3,000 B.C. the remains of just one
human type can be found throughout the region. Neolithic
civilization (marked by animal domestication and subsistence
agriculture) developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean Maghrib
between 6,000 and 2,000 B.C. This type of economy, so richly
depicted in the Tassil-n-Ajjer cave paintings, predominated in
the Maghrib until the classical period.
The amalgam of peoples of North Africa coalesced eventually
into a distinct native population that came to be called Berbers.
Distinguished primarily by cultural and linguistic attributes,
the Berbers lacked a written language and hence tended to be
overlooked or marginalized in the historical accounts. Roman,
Greeks, Byzantine, and Arab Muslim chroniclers typically depicted
the Berbers as “barbaric” enemies, troublesome nomands, or
ignorant peasants. They were, however, to play a major role in
the area’s history.
Phoenician traders arrived on the North African coast around
900 B.C. and established Carthage ( in present-day Tunisia)
around 800 B.C. By the sixth century B.C., a Phoenician presence
existed at Tipasa (east of Cherchell in Algeria). From their
principal center of power at Carthage, the Carthaginians expanded
and established small settlements (called emporia in Greek) along
the North African coast; these settlements eventually served as
market towns as well as anchorages. Hippo Regius (modern Annaba)
and Rusicade (modern Skikda) are among the towns of Carthaginian
origin on the coast of present-day Algeria.
As Carthaginian power grew, its impact on the indigenous
population increased dramatically. Berber civilization was
already at a stage in which agriculture, manufacturing, trade,
and political organization supported several states. Trade links
between Carthage and the Berbers in the interior grew, but
territorial expansion also resulted in the enslavement or
military recruitment of some Berbers and in the extraction of
tribute from others. By the early fourth century B.C., Berbers
formed the single largest element of the Carthaginian army. In
the Revolt of the Mercenaries, Berbers soldiers rebelled from 241
to 238 B.C. after being unpaid following the defeat of Carthage
in the First Punic War. They succeeded in obtaining control of
much of Carthage’s North African territory, and they minted
coins bearing the name Libyan, used in Greek to describe natives
of North Africa. The Carthaginian state declined because of
successive defeats by the Romans in the Punic Wars; in 146 B.C.
the city of Carthage was destroyed.
As carthaginian power waned, the influence of Berber leaders
in the hinterland grew. By the second century B.C., several
large but loosely administered Berber kingdoms had emerged. Two
of them were established in Numidia, behind the coastal areas
controlled by Carthage. West of Numidia lay Mauretania, which
extended across the Moulouya River in Morocco to the Atlantic
Ocean. The high point of Berber civilization, unequaled until
the coming of the Almohads and Almoravids more than a millennium
later, was reached during the reign of Masinissa in the second
century B.C. After Masinissa’s death in 148 B.C., the Berber
kingdoms were divided and reunited several times. Masinissa’s
line survived until A.D. 24, when the remaining Berber territory
was annexed to the Roman Empire.
Increases in urbanization and in the area under cultivation
during Roman rule caused wholesale dislocations of Berber
society. Nomadic tribes were forced to settle or move from
tradional rangelands. Sedentary tribes lost their autonomy and
the connection with the land. Berber opposition to the Roman
presence was nearly constant. The Roman emperor Trajan (ruled
from 98-117 A.D.) established a frontier in the south by
encircling the Aures and Nemencha mountains and building a line
of forts from Vescera (modern Biskra) to Ad Majores (Hennchir
Besseriani, southeast of Biskra). The defensive line extended at
least as far as Castellum Dimmidi (modern Messaad, southwest of
Biskra), Roman Algeria’s southernmost fort. Romans settled and
developed the area around Sitifis (modern Setif) in the second
century, but farther west the influence of Rome did not extend
beyond the coast and principal military roads until much later.
The Roman military presence in North Africa was relatively
small, consisting of about 28,000 troops and auxiliaries in
Numidia and the two Mauretanian provinces. Starting in the
second century A.D.,these garrisons were manned mostly by local
inhabitants.
Aside from Carthage, urbanization in North Africa came in
part with the establishment of settlements of veterans under the
Roman emperors Claudius (ruled 41-54 A.D.), Nerva (ruled 96-98
A.D.), and Trajan. In Algeria such settlements included Tipasa,
Cuicul (modern Djemila, northeast of Setif), Thamugadi (modern
Timgad, southeast of Setif), and Sitifis. The prosperity of most
towns depended on agriculture. Called the “granary of the
empire,” North Africa, according to one estimate, produced one
million tons of cereals each year, one-quarter of which was
exported. Other crops included fruit, figs, grapes, and beans.
By the second century A.D., olive oil rivaled cereals as an
export item.
The beginnings of the decline of the Roman Empire were less
serious in North Africa than elsewhere. There were uprisings,
however. In A.D. 238, landowners rebelled unsuccessfully against
the emperor’s fiscal policies. Sporadic tribal revolts in the
Mauretanian mountains followed from 253 to 288. The towns also
suffered economic difficulties, and building activity almost
ceased.
The towns of Roman North Africa had a substantial Jewish
population. Some Jews were deported from Palestine in the first
and second centuries A.D. for rebelling against Roman rule;
others had come earlier with Punic settlers. In addition, a
number of Berber tribes had converted to Judaism.
Christianity arrived in the second century and soon gained
converts in the towns and among slaves. More than eighty
bishops, some from distant frontier regions of Numidia, attended
the COuncil of Carthage in 256. By the end of the fourth
century, the settled areas had become Christianized, and some
Berber tribes had converted en masse.
A division in the church that came to be known as the
Donatist controversy began in 313 among Christians in North
Africa. The Donatists stressed the holiness of the church and
refused to accept the authority to administer the sacraments of
those who had surrendered the scriptures when they were forbidden
under the Emperor Diocletian (ruled 284-305). The Donatists also
opposed the involvement of Emperor Constantine (ruled 306-337) in
church affairs in contrast to the majority of Christians who
welcomed official imperial recognition.
The occasionally violent controversy has been characterized
as a struggle between opponents and supporters of the Roman
system. The most articulate North African critic of the Donatist
position, which came to be called a heresy, was Augustine, bishop
of Hippo Regius. Augustine (354-430) maintained that the
unworthiness of a minister did not affect the validity of the
sacraments because their true minister was Christ. In his
sermons and books, Augustine, who is considered a leading
exponent of Christian truths, evolved a theory of the right of
orthodox Christian rulers to use force against schismatics and
heretics. Although the dispute was resolved by a decision of an
imperial commission in Carthage in 411, Donatist communities
continued to exist through the sixth century.
Led by their king, Gaiseric, some 80,000 Vandals, a Germanic
tribe, crossed into Africa from Spain in 429. In the following
year, the invaders advanced without much opposition to Hippo
Regius, which they took after a siege in which Augustine died.
After further advances, the Vandals in 435 made an agreement with
Rome to limit their control to Numidia and Mauretania. But in
439 Gaiseric conquered and pillaged Carthage and the rest of the
province of Africa.
The resulting decline in trade weakened Roman control.
Independent kingdoms emerged in mountainous and desert areas,
towns were overrun, and Berbers, who had previously been pushed
to the edges of the Roman Empire, returned.
Belisarious, general of the Byzantine emperor Justinian
based in Constantinople, landed in North Africa in 533 with
16,000 men and within a year destroyed the Vandal kingdom. Local
opposition delayed full Byzantine control of the region for
twelve years, however, and imperial control, when it came, was
but a shadow of the control exercised by Rome. Although an
impressive series of fortifications were built, Byzantine rule
was compromised by official corruption, incompetence, military
weakness, and lack of concern in Constantinople for African
affairs. As a result, many rural areas reverted to Berber rule.
Unlike the invasions of previous religions and cultures, the
coming of Islam, which was spread by Arabs, was to have pervasive
and long-lasting effects on the Maghrib. The new faith, in its
various forms, would penetrate nearly all segments of society,
bringing with it armies, learned men, and fervent mystics, and in
large part replacing tribal practices and loyalties with new
social norms and political idioms.
Nonetheless, the Islamization and arabization of the region
were complicated and lengthy processes. Whereas nomadic Berbers
were quick to convert and assist the Arab invaders, not until the
twelfth century under the Almohad Dynasty did the Christian and
Jewish communities become totally marginalized.
The first Arab military expeditions into the Maghrib,
between 642 and 669, resulted in the spread of Islam. These
early forays from a base in Egypt occured under local initiative
rather than under orders from the central caliphate. When the
seat of the caliphate moved from Medina to Damascus, however, the
Umayyads (a Muslim dynasty ruling from 661 to 750) recognized
that the strategic necessity of dominating the Mediterranean
dictated a concerted military effort on the North African front.
In 670, therefore, an Arab army under Uqba ibn Nafi established
the town of Al Qayrawan about 160 kilometerss south of present-
day Tunis and used it as a base for further operations.
Abu al Muhajir Dina, Uqba’s successor, pushed westward into
Algeria and eventually worked out a modus vivendi with Kusayla,
the ruler of an extensive confederation of Christian Berbers.
Kusayla, who had been based in Tilimsan (modern Tlemcen), became
a Muslim and moved his headquarters to Takirwan, near Al
Qayrawan.
This harmony was short-lived, however. Arab and Berber
forces controlled the region in turn until 697. By 711 Umayyad
forces helped by Berber converts to Islam had conquered all of
North Africa. Governors appointed by the Umayyad caliphs ruled
from Al Qayrawan, the new wilaya (province) of Ifriqiya, which
covered Tripolitania (the western part of present-day Libya),
Tunisia, and eastern Algeria.
Paradoxically, the spread of Islam among the Berbers did not
guarantee their support for the Arab-dominated caliphate. The
ruling Arabs alienated the Berbers by taxing them heavily;
treating converts as second-class Muslims; and, at worst, by
enslaving them. As a result, widespread opposition took the form
of open revolt in 739-740 under the banner of Kharijite Islam.
The Kharijites objected to Ali, the fourth caliph, making peace
with the Umayyads in 657 and left Ali’s camp(khariji means “those
who leave”). The Kharijites had been fighting Umayyad rule in
the East, and many Berbers were attracted by the sect’s
egalitarian precepts. For example, according to Kharijism, any
suitable Muslim candidate could be elected caliph without regard
to race, station, or descent from the Prophet Muhammad.
After the revolt, Kharijites established a number of
theocratic tribal kingdoms, most of which had short and troubled
histories. Others, hhowever, like Sijilmasa and Tilimsan, which
straddled the principal trade routes, proved more viable and
prospered. In 750 the Abbasids, who succeeded the Umayyads as
Muslim rulers, moved the caliphate to Baghdad and reestablished
caliphal authority in Ifriqiya, appointing Ibrahim ibn Al Aghlab
as governor in Al Qayrawan. Although nominally serving at the
caliph’s pleasure, Al Aghlab and his successors ruled
independently until 909, presiding over a court that became a
center for learning and culture.
Just to the west of Aghlabid lands, Abd ar Rahman ibn Rustum
ruled most of the central Maghrib from Tahirt, southwest of
Algiers. The rulers of the Rustumid imamate, which lasted from
761 to 909, each an Ibadi Kharijite imam, were elected by leading
citizens. The imams gained a reputation for honesty, piety, and
justice. The court at Tahirt was noted for its support of
scholarship in mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, as well as
theology and law. The Rustumid imams, however, failed, by choice
or by neglect, to organize a reliable standing army. This
important factor, accompanied by the dynasty’s eventual collapse
into decadence, opened the way for Tahirt’s demise under the
assault of the Fatimids.
In the closing decades of the ninth century, missionaries of
the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam converted the Kutama Berbers of
what was later known as the Petite Kabylie region and led them in
battle against the Sunni rulers of Ifriqiya. Al Qayrawan fell to
them in 909. The Ismaili imam, Ubaydallah, declared himself
caliph and established Mahdia as his capital. Ubaydallah
initiated the Fatimid Dynasty, named after Fatima, daughter of
Muhammad and wife of Ali, from whom the caliph claimed descent.
The Fatimids turned westward in 911, destroying the imamate
of Tahirt and conquering Sijilmasa in Morocco. Ibadi Kharijite
refugees from Tahirt fled south to the oasis at Ouargla beyond
the Atlas Mountains, whence in the eleventh century they moved
southwest to Oued Mzab. Maintaining their cohesion and beliefs
over the centuries, Ibadi religious leaders have dominated public
life in the region to this day.
For many years, the Fatimids posed a threat to Morocco, but
their deepest ambition was to rule the East, the Mashriq, which
included Egypt and Muslim lands beyond. By 969 they had
conquered Egypt. In 972 the Fatimid ruler Al Muizz established
the new city of Cairo as his capital. The Fatimids left the rule
of Ifriqiya and most of Algeria to the Zirids (972-1148). This
Berber dynasty, which had founded the towns of Miliana, Medea,
and Algiers and centered significant local power in Algeria for
the first time, turned over its domain west of Ifriqiya to the
Banu Hammad branch of its family. The Hammadids ruled from 1011
to 1151, during which time Bejaia became the most important port
in the Maghrib.
This period was marked by constant conflict, political
instability, and economic decline. The Hammadids, by rejecting
the Ismaili doctrine for Sunni orthodoxy and renouncing
submission to the Fatimids, initiated chronic conflict with the
Zirids. Two great Berber confederations- the Sanhaja and the
Zenata- engaged in an epic struggle. The fiercely brave, camel-
borne nomads of the western desert and steppe as well as the
sedentary farmers of the Kabylie region to the east swore
allegiance to the Sanhaja. Their traditional enemies, the
Zenata, were tough, resourceful horsemen from the cold plateau of
the northern interior of Morocco and the western Tell in Algeria.
In addition, raiders from Genoa, pisa, and Norman Sicily
attacked ports and disrupted coastal trade. Trans-Saharan trade
shifted to Fatimid Egypt and to routes in the west leading to
Spanish markets. The countryside was being overtaxed by growing
cities.
Contributing to these political and economic dislocations
was a large incursion of Arab bediun from Egypt starting in the
first half of the eleventh century. Part of this movement was an
invasion by the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym tribes, apparently
sent by the Fatimids to weaken the Zirids. These Arab bediun
overcame the Zirids and Hammadids and in 1057 sacked Al Qayrawan.
They sent farmers fleeing from the fertile plains to the
mountains and left cities and towns in ruin. For the first time,
the extensive use of Arabic spread to the countryside. Sedentary
Berbers who sought protection from the Hilalians were gradually
arabized.
The Almoravid movement developed early in the eleventh
century among the Sanhaja of the western Sahara, whose control of
trans-Saharan trade routes was under pressure from the Zenata
Berbers in the north and the state of Ghana in the south. Yahya
ibn Ibrahim al Jaddali, a leader of the lamtuna tribe of the
Sanhaja confederation, decided to raise the level of Islamic
knowledge and practice among his people. To accomplish this, on
his return from the hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1048-49,
he brought with him Abd Allah ibn Yasin al Juzuli, a Moroccan
scholar. In the early years of the movement, the scholar was
concerned only with imposing moral discipline and a strict
adherence to Islamic principles among his followers. Abd Allah
ibn Yasin also became known as one of the marabouts, or holy
persons (from al murabitun, “those who have made a religious
retreat.” Almoravids is the Spanish transliteration of al
murabitun).
The Almoravid movement shifted from promoting religious
reform to engaging in military conquest after 1054 an was led by
Lamtuna leaders:first Yahya, then his brother Abu Bakr, and then
his cousin Yusuf ibn Tashfin. With Marrakech as their capital,
the Almoravids had conquered Morocco, the Maghrib as far east as
Algiers, and Spain up to the Ebro River by 1106. Under the
Almoravids, the Maghrib and Spain acknowledged the spiritual
authority of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, reuniting them
temporarily with the Islamic community in the Mashriq.
Although it was not an entirely peaceful time, North Africa
benefited economically and culturally during the Almoravid
period, which lasted until 1147. Muslim Spain (Andalus in
Arabic) was a great source of artistic and intellectual
inspiration. The most famous writers of Andalus worked in the
Almoravid court, and the builders of the Grand Mosque of
Tilimsan, completed in 1136, used as a model the Grand Mosque of
Cordoba.
Like the Almoravids, the Almohads found their initial
inspiration in Islamic reform. Their spiritual leader, the
Moroccan Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart, sought to reform
Almoravid decadence. Rejected in Marrakech and other cities, he
turned to his Masmuda tribe in the Atlas Mountains for support.
Because of their emphasis on the unity of God, his followers were
known as Al Muwahhidun (unitarians, or Almohads).
Although declaring himself mahdi, imam, and masum
(infallible leader sent by God), Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart
consulted with a council of ten of his oldest disciples.
Influenced by the Berber tradition of representative government,
he later added an assembly composed of fifty leaders from various
tribes. The Almohad rebellion began in 1125 with attacks on
Moroccan cities, including Sus and Marrakech.
Upon Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart’s death in 1130, his
successor Abd al Mumin took the title of caliph and placed
members of his own family in power, converting the system into a
traditional monarchy. The Almohads entered Spain at the
invitation of the Andalusian amirs, who had risen against the
Almoravids there. Abd al Mumin forced the submission of the
amirs and reestablished the caliphate of Cordoba, giving the
Almohad sultan supreme religious as well as political authority
within his domains. The Almohads took control of Morocco in
1146, captured Algiers around 1151, and by 1160 had completed the
conquest of the central Maghrib and advanced to Tripolitania.
Nonetheless, pockets of Almoravid resistance continued to hold
out in the Kabylie region for at least fifty years.
After Abd al Mumin’s death in 1163, his son Abu Yaqub Yusuf
(ruled 1163-1184) and grandson Yaqub al Mansur (ruled 1184-1199)
presided over the zenith of Almohad power. For the first time,
the Maghrib was united under a local regime, and although the
empire was troubled by conflict on its fringes, handcrafts and
agriculture flourished at its center and an efficient bureaucracy
filled the tax coffers. In 1229 the Almohad court renounced the
teachings of Muhammad ibn Tumart, opting instead for greater
tolerence and a return to the Maliki school of law. As evidence
of this change, the Almohads hosted two of the greatest thinkers
of Anadalus: Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushid (Averroes).
The Almohads shared the crusading instincts of their
Christian adversaries, but the continuing wars in Spain over-
taxed their resources. In the Maghrib, the Almohad position was
compromised by factional strife and was challenged by a renewal
of tribal warfare. The Bani Merin (Zenata Berbers) took
advantage of declining Almohad power to establish a tribal state
in Morocco, initiating nearly sixty years of warfare there that
concluded with their capture of Marrakech, the last Almohad
stronghold, in 1271. Despite repeated efforts to subjugate the
central Maghrib, however, the Merinids were never able to restore
the frontiers of the Almohad Empire.
From its capital at Tunis, the Hafsid Dynasty made good its
claim to be the legitimate successor of the Almohads in Ifriqiya,
while, in the central Maghrib, the Zayanids founded a dynasty at
Tlemcen. Based on a Zenata tribe, the Bani Abd el Wad, which had
been settled in the region by Abd al Mumin, the Zayanids also
emphasized their links with the Almohads.
For more than 300 years, until the region came under Ottoman
suzerainty in the sixteenth century, the Zayanids kept a tenuous
hold in the central Maghrib. The regime, which depended on the
administrative skills of Andalusians, was plagued by frequent
rebellions but learned to survive as the vassal of the Merinids
or Hafsids or later as an ally of Spain.
In conclusion, to the strong loyalties of the tribe, the
Berber added individualism, democratic participation in inter-
tribal affairs and fierce opposition to foreign invaders. Over
the centuries, many conquerors came to the Maghrib, but few
established durable empires, and few exercised a significant
cultural influence. In the religious sphere, the Berbers
continued to practice their animistic beliefs, while often
adopting religious heresies to oppose their Christian, Jewish or
Islamic overlords.
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