An ''agadir'' (, plural: ''igudar'' or ''iguidar'', "the wall" or "the fortified compound") is a fortified communal
granary
A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...
found in the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
. Some of these date back to the 10th century.
These structures are typically composed of a granary and a
citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
In ...
, and are located in rocky, elevated locations to protect surrounding farms and livestock from enemies.
In addition to harvested grains, Amazigh communities inhabiting the mountainous south of Morocco would use these structures to store all kinds of valuable belongings, including deeds and records, money, jewelry, clothing, carpets, and sometimes clothes and munitions.
Name
The term ''agadir'' is
Amazigh
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, pop2 ...
, borrowed from ( phn, 𐤀𐤂𐤃𐤓, )
meaning "the wall", "the compound", or (by
metonymy
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
) "the stronghold".
["Phoenician and Punic Inscriptions"]
p. 141
''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland''. Accessed 24 July 2013. The word ''agadir'' is common in
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
n place names, such as
Agadir
Agadir ( ar, أݣادير, ʾagādīr; shi, ⴰⴳⴰⴷⵉⵔ) is a major city in Morocco, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean near the foot of the Atlas Mountains, just north of the point where the Souss River flows into the ocean, and south ...
,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
, and the cities
Cádiz
Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.
Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...
and
Gedera are also etymologically related.
The word ''
al-Makhzen'' (), used to refer to the Moroccan state apparatus, also means storehouse, but in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
.
Souss-Massa
Souss-Massa ( ar, سوس ماسة, sūs māssa; ber, ⵙⵓⵙ ⵎⴰⵙⵙⴰ, sus massa) is one of the twelve regions of Morocco. It covers an area of 51,642 km² and had a population of 2,676,847 as of the 2014 Moroccan census. The cap ...
region.
File:Id aissa 0667.JPG, The Id Aissa Agadir near Amtoudi
Amtoudi is a Berber village of 1,000 people in the Anti-Atlas region of Morocco. Amtoudi is 235 km southeast of the city of Agadir. It is in Guelmim Province in the Guelmim-Oued Noun
Guelmim-Oued Noun ( ar, ڭلميم-وادي نون, gulmī ...
.
References
Berber
Buildings and structures in Morocco
{{Morocco-struct-stub