Amenukal ( Berber: ⵎⵏⴾⵍ, ⴰⵎⵏⵓⴽⴰⵍ) is a title for the highest
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
traditional chiefs; the paramount confederation leader.
History
Prior to the colonial period in the Maghreb and Sahel, the nomadic Tuareg federations chose a chief from among the wise men of their tribes to rule these confederacies.
*In what is now
Kel Ahaggar
Kel Ahaggar ( Berber: ⴾⵍ ⵂⴴⵔ) (trans: "People of Ahaggar") is a Tuareg confederation inhabiting the Hoggar Mountains (Ahaggar mountains) in Algeria. The confederation is believed to have been founded by the Tuareg matriarch Tin Hinan, w ...
Tuareg confederation since its establishment (circa 1750). It was maintained under colonial French suzerainty since 1903 but no longer recognized after the Algerian independence. It was finally abolished in 1977.
*In the northern mountains of what is now
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languagesAïr was founded by the Tuareg confederation there, under an ''amenokal'', who was also designated by the Arabic Muslim title Sultan; hence, it is also called a Berber sultanate.
According to tradition, the first Tuareg chief was a woman,
Tin Hinan
Tin Hinan was a 4th-century Tuareg queen. What may be her monumental tomb is located in the Sahara, at Abalessa in the Hoggar region of Algeria.
Queen of the Hoggar
Legends
Tin Hinan is sometimes referred to as "Queen of the Hoggar", and by th ...