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Ghardaïa
Ghardaïa (, ) is the capital city of Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. The commune of Ghardaïa has a population of 93,423 according to the 2008 census, up from 87,599 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 0.7%. It is located in northern-central Algeria in the Sahara and lies along the left bank of the Wadi Mzab. The M'zab in the Ghardaïa Province was made a World Heritage Site in 1982, as a cultural property evaluated under the criteria II (for its settlement affecting urban planning even to the present century), III (for its Ibadi cultural values), and V (a settlement culture which has prevailed to the present century). Ghardaïa is part of a pentapolis, a hilltop city amongst four others, built almost a thousand years ago in the M’Zab valley. It was founded by the Mozabites, an Ibadi sect of the Berber Muslims. It is a major centre of date production and the manufacture of rugs and cloths. Divided into three walled sectors, it is a fortified town. At the centre is the histo ...
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Ghardaïa (province)
Ghardaïa (, ) is the capital city of Ghardaïa (province), Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. The commune of Ghardaïa has a population of 93,423 according to the 2008 census, up from 87,599 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 0.7%. It is located in northern-central Algeria in the Sahara and lies along the left bank of the Wadi Mzab. The M'zab in the Ghardaïa Province was made a World Heritage Site in 1982, as a cultural property evaluated under the criteria II (for its settlement affecting urban planning even to the present century), III (for its Ibadi cultural values), and V (a settlement culture which has prevailed to the present century). Ghardaïa is part of a pentapolis, a hilltop city amongst four others, built almost a thousand years ago in the M’Zab valley. It was founded by the Mozabite people, Mozabites, an Ibadi sect of the Berbers, Berber Muslims. It is a major centre of date production and the manufacture of rugs and cloths. Divided into three walled sectors, it i ...
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Ghardaïa District
Ghardaïa (, ) is the capital city of Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. The commune of Ghardaïa has a population of 93,423 according to the 2008 census, up from 87,599 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 0.7%. It is located in northern-central Algeria in the Sahara and lies along the left bank of the Wadi Mzab. The M'zab in the Ghardaïa Province was made a World Heritage Site in 1982, as a cultural property evaluated under the criteria II (for its settlement affecting urban planning even to the present century), III (for its Ibadi cultural values), and V (a settlement culture which has prevailed to the present century). Ghardaïa is part of a pentapolis, a hilltop city amongst four others, built almost a thousand years ago in the M’Zab valley. It was founded by the Mozabites, an Ibadi sect of the Berber Muslims. It is a major centre of date production and the manufacture of rugs and cloths. Divided into three walled sectors, it is a fortified town. At the centre is the histor ...
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Ghardaïa Province
Ghardaïa () is an Algerian province located in the north of the Algerian desert. Its administrative center is the city of Ghardaia, located south of the capital Algiers. Its total area is estimated at , from north to south, and from east to west. It rises above sea level. Geographical location The province is bordered by the province of Djelfa and the province of Laghouat to the north, the province of El Menia in the south, the province of Ouargla to the east and the province of El Bayadh in the west. The city of Ghardaia, the capital of the province, is from Laghouat, 200 km from Ouargla, from El Menia and from El Bayadh, and is crossed by the national road 1 linking the Algerian capital to the Great South. Climate Since the state is located in desert areas, the climate of the region is arid desert, the temperature range is wide between day and night, and between winter and summer; the winter temperature ranges between , and between in summer. The weath ...
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M'zab
The M'zab, or Mzab (Mozabite language, Mozabite: ''Aghlan'', ), is a natural region of the northern Sahara Desert in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. It is located south of Algiers and has approximately 360,000 inhabitants (2005 estimate). Geology The M'zab is a limestone plateau, centred on the Wadi, Wad M'zab (''Oued Mzab'') valley. History The Mozabite people, Mozabites ("Ath Mzab") are a branch of a large Berber people, Berber tribe, the Zenata, Iznaten, which lived in large areas of middle southern Algeria. Many Tifinagh letters and symbols are engraved around the Mzab Valley. After the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, the Mozabites became Muslims of the Mu'tazili school. The indigenous Christian population persisted until the 11th century. After the fall of the Rustamid dynasty, Rustamid state, the Rustamid royal family with some of their citizens chose the Mzab Valley as their refuge. However, the Rostemids were Ibadi and sent a dawah, preacher (Abu Bakr an-Nafusi) who ...
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M'Zab Valley
The M'zab, or Mzab ( Mozabite: ''Aghlan'', ), is a natural region of the northern Sahara Desert in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. It is located south of Algiers and has approximately 360,000 inhabitants (2005 estimate). Geology The M'zab is a limestone plateau, centred on the Wad M'zab (''Oued Mzab'') valley. History The Mozabites ("Ath Mzab") are a branch of a large Berber tribe, the Iznaten, which lived in large areas of middle southern Algeria. Many Tifinagh letters and symbols are engraved around the Mzab Valley. After the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, the Mozabites became Muslims of the Mu'tazili school. The indigenous Christian population persisted until the 11th century. After the fall of the Rustamid state, the Rustamid royal family with some of their citizens chose the Mzab Valley as their refuge. However, the Rostemids were Ibadi and sent a preacher (Abu Bakr an-Nafusi) who successfully converted the indigenous Mozabites. France conquered Algeria in 1830. ...
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Provinces Of Algeria
Algeria, as of 2024, is divided into 58 wilaya, wilayas (province, provinces). Prior to December 18, 2019, there were 48 provinces. The 58 provinces are divided into 1,541 baladiyahs (Municipalities of Algeria, municipalities). The name of a province is always that of its capital city. According to the Algerian constitution, a wilaya is a territorial collectivity enjoying economic and diplomatic freedom, the APW, or ''Popular Provincial Parliament/Provincial Popular Parliament'' (the ''Assemblée Populaire Wilayale'', in French) is the political entity governing a province, directed by the Wali (administrative title), ''Wali'' (Governor), who is chosen by the Algerian President to handle the APW's decisions, the APW has also a president, who is elected by the members of the APW, which Algerians elect. List By 1984 the number of Algerian provinces was fixed at 48 and established the list of municipalities or "communes" attached to each province. In 2019, 10 new provinces were ...
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Berbers
Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connections are identified by their usage of Berber languages, most of them mutually unintelligible, which are part of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They are indigenous peoples, indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa, where they live in scattered communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and to a lesser extent Tunisia, Mauritania, northern Mali and northern Niger. Smaller Berber communities are also found in Burkina Faso and Egypt's Siwa Oasis. Descended from Stone Age tribes of North Africa, accounts of the Imazighen were first mentioned in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Ancient Egyptian writings. From about 2000 BC, Berber languages spread westward from the Nile, Nile Valley across the northern Sahara int ...
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Mozabite People
The Mozabite people or Banu Mzab (; ) are a Berbers, Berber ethnic group inhabiting the M'zab natural region in the northern Sahara of Algeria, numbering about 150,000 to 300,000 people. They primarily speak the Mozabite language, one of the Zenati languages in the Berber languages, Berber branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic family. Mozabites are primarily Ibadi Islam, Ibadi Muslims, but there was a small population of Mzabi Jews as well. Mozabites mainly live in five oasis, oases; namely, Ghardaïa, Beni Isguen, El Atteuf, Melika and Bounoura, as well as two other isolated oases farther north: Berriane and El Guerrara. Ghardaïa is the capital of the confederation, followed in importance by Beni Isguen, the chief commercial centre. Etymology According to Ibn Khaldun, the name Mzab comes from Maṣʿab referring to the supposed ancestor Maṣʿab ibn Sadmān, hence Banī Maṣʿāb. Others claimed that the word Mzab is a corruption of “Muṣʿab”, “Muṣʿā ...
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Sahara
The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic. The name "Sahara" is derived from , a broken plural form of ( ), meaning "desert". The desert covers much of North Africa, excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb, and the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt and the Sudan. It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan (region), Sudan region of sub-Saharan Africa. The Sahara can be divided into several regions, including ...
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Ibadi
Ibadism (, ) is a school of Islam concentrated in Oman established from within the Kharijites. The followers of the Ibadi sect are known as the Ibadis or, as they call themselves, The People of Truth and Integrity (). Ibadism emerged around 60 years after the Islamic prophet Muhammad's death in AD 632 as a moderate school of the Kharijite movement, although contemporary Ibadis may object to being classified as Kharijites. Ibadis are much less numerous than the two largest Muslim denominations: Sunnis—who account for 85-90 percent of the Muslim world—and Shias. Today, the largest of these communities is in Oman, where they constitute the majority. It is also practiced to a lesser extent in Algeria (in Mzab), Tunisia (in Djerba), Libya (in Nafusa), and Tanzania (in Zanzibar). History Background The Ibadis began as a moderate branch of the Kharijites, an Islamic sect that split from the Muhakkima and al-Haruriyya. These groups initially supported Ali during the Firs ...
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Daïa
Daïa (fl. 11th century) is an Algerian Berber saint. She is venerated by the Mozabites of the M'zab region of northern-central Algeria. She is reputed to have lived in a cave (ghār) near Wadi Mzab in the M'zab valley. Kharijite Muslims later flocked to the valley and built the town of Ghardaïa to escape persecution from the 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 ... in the north. References Further reading * * Algerian Christian saints 11th-century Algerian people Christian female saints of the Middle Ages 11th-century Christian saints Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown 11th-century women {{Algeria-reli-bio-stub ...
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Pentapolis
A pentapolis (from Ancient Greek, Greek ''penta-'', 'five' and ''polis'', 'city') is a geographic and/or institutional grouping of five cities. Cities in the ancient world probably formed such groups for political, commercial and military reasons, as happened later with the Cinque Ports in England. Significant historical cases * The Philistine Pentapolis: Gaza City, Gaza, Ashdod (ancient city), Ashdod, Ascalon, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath (city), Gath, all combined to make Philistia. * In the biblical Holy Land, describes the region where five cities—Sodom and Gomorrah, Sodom, Sodom and Gomorrah, Gomorrah, Zoara, Admah and Zeboim (Hebrew Bible), Zeboim—united to resist the invasion of Chedorlaomer, and of which four were shortly after destroyed. * The Doric—or Dorian Pentapolis: Kos, on the island of the same name in the Aegean Sea; Knidos, in Caria on the west coast of Asia Minor; Lindus, Ialysus and Camirus, all three on Rhodes. * The Phrygian Pentapolis: Eukarpia, Hier ...
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