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Miknasa
The Miknasa (Berber: ''Imeknasen'') was a Zenata Berber tribe of the Maghreb. History The Miknasa Berbers historically populated the Aurès and are part of the Dharisa tribe belonging to Botr who descended from Madghis, coming from the Aures mountains in Algeria. The Aures and the regions north of it were traditionally the home of the Miknasa, they were also mentioned to have been situated there by Ibn Khaldun, Al Yaqubi and Al Bakri at the time of the foundation of Tahert.Zerouki, Brahim.L'Imamat de Tahart: Histoire politico-socio-religieuse.�France: L'Harmattan, 1987.”Les Miknassa, traditionnellement, avaient pour demeure les Awras ainsi que la région située au nord de ces montagnes (228). Ils y sont en effet signalés par Ibn Haldun (229) qui situe son propos au moment des bouleversements qui provoquèrent la fondation de Tahart, ainsi que par Al Ya'qubi (230) ainsi que par Al Bakri (231)” In antiquity Ptolomey referred to three groups who had inhabited a certain mou ...
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Zenata
The Zenata (; ) are a group of Berber tribes, historically one of the largest Berber confederations along with the Sanhaja and Masmuda. Their lifestyle was either nomadic or semi-nomadic. Society The 14th-century historiographer Ibn Khaldun reports that the Zenata were divided into three large tribes: Jarawa, Maghrawa, and Banu Ifran. Formerly occupying a large portion of the Maghreb, they were displaced to the south and west in conflicts with the more powerful Kutama and Houara. The Zenata adopted Islam early, in the 7th century. While other Berber tribes continued to resist the Umayyad Caliphate conquest well into the 8th century, they were quickly Islamized. They also formed a substantial contingent in the subsequent Muslim conquest of Iberia. Language As Berbers, the Zenata spoke one of the Berber languages. Ibn Khaldun wrote that their dialect was distinct from other Berber dialects. French linguist Edmond Destaing in 1915 proposed " Zenati" as a loose subgrouping wi ...
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Banu Midrar
The Midrarid dynasty () was a Berber dynasty that ruled the Sijilmasa region in Morocco from their capital of Sijilmasa, starting in the late 8th or early 9th century to 976/7. History The exact origin or date of foundation of the Midrarid dynasty are unclear, as the main sources—in the main, al-Bakri, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Idhari, and Qadi al-Nu'man—are not in agreement over the details, and two different traditions are reported. According to the first, the family was founded by a Sufri Miknasa Berber, Samgu ibn Wasul. Samgu led the establishment of the town of Sijilmasa in 757/8, and in 772, became its second ruler. According to the second version, the dynasty was established by a smith called Midrar, who fled the suppression of the revolt in Córdoba against al-Hakam I in 818, and settled at the site where Sijilmasa was later established. According to Charles Pellat, it is clear that Sijilmasa was already in existence by the late 8th century, but on the other hand, the arri ...
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Samgu Ibn Wasul Al-Miknasi
Abu'l-Qasim Samgu ibn Wasul al-Miknasi (died 784/5) was a Miknasa Berber leader who according to tradition founded the oasis town of Sijilmasa and became its second ruler. According to the traditional account, as narrated by the medieval sources (chiefly the 11th-century geographer al-Bakri), Samgu (or Samgun) was a Miknasa Berber who adopted Sufri Kharijism, and was a student of the famous Berber Khariji missionary Ikrimah Mawla Ibn Abbas. He chose the site of Sijilmasa, which he used as pasture for his flocks, and with 40 followers established a town there in 757/8. The establishment of the town was part of a larger westward movement of Sufri Kharijites in the Maghreb, fleeing the westward expansion of Abbasid power in Ifriqiya, and the establishment of the rival Ibadi Kharijite Rustamid emirate of Tahert. Somewhat surprisingly, as Charles Pellat comments, the community chose a black African, Isa ibn Mazyad al-Aswad Isa ibn Mazyad al-Aswad (died 772) was the first ruler of the ...
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Maysara Al-Matghari
Maysar al-Matghari (Berber: ''Maysar Amteghri'' or ''Maysar Amdeghri'', ; sometimes rendered ''Maisar'' or ''Meicer''; in older Arab sources, bitterly called: ''al-Ḥaqir'' ('the ignoble'); died in September/October 740) was a Berber rebel leader and original architect of the Great Berber Revolt that erupted in 739-743 against the Umayyad Muslim empire. However, he was deposed by the rebels, replaced with another Berber leader, and died or possibly was executed by them in 740. The Berber Revolt succeeded 3 years after his death in defeating the Umayyad armies. Background Maysara Amteghri takes his surname from the Berber tribe ''Imteghren''. The exact biographical details of Maysara are obscure, and made more complicated by what are likely scurrilous stories circulated by his enemies. Chroniclers have recorded allegations that Maysara was a low-born Berber water-seller in Kairouan or Tangiers, possibly a water-carrier in the caliphal army. Chronicles routinely refer to him b ...
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Sijilmasa
Sijilmasa (; also transliterated Sijilmassa, Sidjilmasa, Sidjilmassa and Sigilmassa) was a medieval Moroccan city and trade entrepôt at the northern edge of the Sahara in Morocco. The ruins of the town extend for five miles along the River Ziz in the Tafilalt oasis near the town of Rissani. The town's history was marked by several successive invasions by Berber dynasties. Up until the 14th century, as the northern terminus for the western trans-Sahara trade route, it was one of the most important trade centres in the Maghreb during the Middle Ages. History Foundation and early Middle Ages According to al-Bakri's ''Book of Routes and Places'', Sufrite Kharijites first settled the town in the wake of the Berber revolts against the Umayyads. Al-Bakri recounts that others joined these early settlers there, until they numbered around four thousand, at which point they laid the groundwork for the city. They elected a leader, 'Isa bin Mazid al-Aswad (the Black), to handle their ...
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Berber Revolt
The Berber Revolt or the Kharijite Revolt of 740–743 AD (122–125 AH in the Islamic calendar) took place during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik and marked the first successful secession from the Arab caliphate (ruled from Damascus). Fired up by Kharijite puritan preachers, the Berber revolt against their Umayyad Arab rulers began in Tangier in 740, and was led initially by Maysara al-Matghari. The revolt soon spread through the rest of the Maghreb and across the straits to al-Andalus. Although the Berbers managed to end Umayyad rule in the western Maghreb following the battles of Badgoura and of the Nobles, the Umayyads scrambled and managed to prevent the core of Ifriqiya (Tunisia, eastern Algeria and western Libya) and al-Andalus (Spain and Portugal) from falling into rebel hands, notably securing victory in the decisive battle of al-Asnam. However, the rest of the Maghreb was never brought back under Umayyad rule. After failing to capture the ...
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Aftasid Dynasty
The Aftasid dynasty (Arabic: بنو الأفطس ''Banu al-Aftas'') was an Arabization, Arabized Muladí, Iberian-Berbers, Berber dynasty that ruled the Taifa of Badajoz in Al-Andalus. History When the Caliphate of Cordoba broke up into the Taifa kingdoms, the Berber mercenary Abdallah ibn Al-Aftas, Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Maslamah ibn al-Aftas (1022–1045) took control of Badajoz, by death of Sabur al-Saqlabi, Sabur Al-Saqlabi, who was a Slavic serf, previously serving at the court of Caliph al-Hakam II, that had proclaimed himself Lord of Badajoz in 1009, and that Ibn al-Aftas served. Ibn al-Aftas added to his name the Arabic name#Laqab, Laqab ''al-Mansur Billah'', ''Victorious by Grace of God'', and ruled over an extensive part of the Al Garb Al Andalus, from the Douro river to the south of Tagus river, establishing the Taifa of Badajoz. Ibn al-Aftas died in 1045. Under Ibn al-Aftas' successors, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abdallah al-Muzzaffar (1045–1065) and his two sons 'Umar ...
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Tiaret
Tiaret () or Tahert () is a major city in northwestern Algeria that gives its name to the wider farming region of Tiaret Province. Both the town and region lie south-west of the capital of Algiers in the western region of the Hautes Plaines, in the Tell Atlas, and about from the Mediterranean coast. It is served by Abdelhafid Boussouf Bou Chekif Airport. Etymology The name means "Lioness" in the Berber language, a reference to the Barbary lions that lived in this region. Maghrebian place names like Oran (''Wahran'') which means "lion", and Souk Ahras which means "Market of Lions" have the same etymological source. Population The town had a population of 178,915 in 2008. The town covered around 20.086.62 km2. Infrastructure and industry A 1992 study by the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis reported significant areas contaminated by industrial pollution, and growing squatter settlements on the periphery. The region is predominantly one of agriculture. There is a ...
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Fatimids
The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, it ranged from the western Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids traced their ancestry to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali, the first Shia, Shi'a imam. The Fatimids were acknowledged as the rightful imams by different Isma'ili communities as well as by denominations in many other Muslim lands and adjacent regions. Originating during the Abbasid Caliphate, the Fatimids initially conquered Ifriqiya (roughly present-day Tunisia and north-eastern Algeria). They extended their rule across the Mediterranean coast and ultimately made Egypt the center of the caliphate. At its height, the caliphate included—in addition to Egypt—varying areas of the M ...
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Maghrawa
The Maghrawa or Meghrawa () were a large Berber tribal confederation in North Africa. They are the largest branch of the Zenata confederation. Their traditional territories around the time of Muslim expansion into the Maghreb in the 7th century were around present-day northeastern Algeria. They ruled parts of the western Maghreb on behalf of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba at the end of the 10th century and during the first half of the 11th century. Origins The origins of the Maghrawa are uncertain. Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, an 11th-century writer, claimed that they arrived to the Maghreb in ancient times. Medieval Berber writers traced the ancestry of the Maghrawa to a leader named Maghrāw. According to Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), they were related to the Banu Ifran, the Banu Jarawa, and the Banu Irniyan. Several tribes descend from the Maghrawa, including the Bani bou Said, Bani Ilit (Ilent), Bani Zendak, Bani Urac (Urtezmir, Urtesminn), Bani Urcifan, Bani Laghouat, Bani Righa, Ban ...
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Tahert
Tiaret () or Tahert () is a major city in northwestern Algeria that gives its name to the wider farming region of Tiaret Province. Both the town and region lie south-west of the capital of Algiers in the western region of the Hautes Plaines, in the Tell Atlas, and about from the Mediterranean coast. It is served by Abdelhafid Boussouf Bou Chekif Airport. Etymology The name means "Lioness" in the Berber language, a reference to the Barbary lions that lived in this region. Maghrebian place names like Oran (''Wahran'') which means "lion", and Souk Ahras which means "Market of Lions" have the same etymological source. Population The town had a population of 178,915 in 2008. The town covered around 20.086.62 km2. Infrastructure and industry A 1992 study by the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis reported significant areas contaminated by industrial pollution, and growing squatter settlements on the periphery. The region is predominantly one of agriculture. There is a la ...
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Kingdom Of Nekor
The Emirate of Nekor or Şālihid Emirate () was an Arab emirate centered in the Rīf area of present-day Morocco. Its capital was initially located at Tamsāmān, and then moved to Nekor. The ruling dynasty presented itself as of Himyarite Arab descent. The emirate was founded in 710 CE by Şālih ibn Mansūr through a Caliphate grant. Under his guidance, the local Berber (Amazigh) tribes adopted Islam, but later deposed him in favor of one Dāwūd al-Rundī (unlikely to have been a native of Ronda) from the Nafza tribe. They subsequently changed their mind and reappointed Şālih ibn Mansūr. His dynasty, the Banū Şālih, thereafter ruled the region until about 1015. Several successive political entities controlled the Rīf In the period between the 8th and 14th centuries. The Emirate of Nekor, established at the beginning of the 8th century, ended with the destruction of its capital city Nekor in 1080. The area was integrated subsequently into the dominions of the Almo ...
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