Berbers and Islam

The Berbers (Imazighen) are an ethnic group that had, until recently, few links to the Arabs. They have existed in ancient Mauretania, Numidia, Ifriqiya and Tripolitania, (present-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya respectively) for thousands of years. Most Berbers have converted to Islam over the course several centuries.

Background

The region of North Africa practiced many religions including various forms of pagan rituals, Judaism, and Christianity. The first Islamic forces encountered fierce opposition by the various city-states resulting from the departure of the Byzantines. The weakest of them in the southern and southwestern parts of the Amazigh territory were the first to fall to the Islamic troops under the Egyptian Qalif in a locally initiated attempt of expansion westward. This first attempt in late 7th century (660 A.D.) resulted in a decisive defeat of the Islamic troops. In 750 the qalifs centralized their command in Damascus and a coalition of Islamic forces from Medina, Damascus, Baghdad and Egypt returned in a second attempt following successive defeats in Greece. The Islamic forces in a coalition resumed their conquest of the Mediterranean Sea from the south, through North Africa. A more diplomatic second attempt resulted in a successful alliance with the mainly desert-based Mauritanian tribes (south and west of modern Algeria) then Numidia. The new Muslim northwest African tribes in turn became ambassadors of the Muslim Qalifs, and brokers on their behalf in an attempt to assemble a coalition of forces to engage their common enemy Rome. The new approach was better received by the Numidian tribes of the highlands and were successfully recruited for a joint military venture into Europe and ultimately to Rome and around the Mediterranean Sea. A Numidian chief Tariq ibn Ziyad headed these stronger forces under the green flag of Islam and embarked for Europe, taking over most of the Iberian Peninsula. It is then that North Africa west of Egypt was referred to as "al-Maghreb" or the "West" by the peoples of the Middle East.

In 670, the Islamic coalition under the command of Uqba ibn Nafi established its camp on the Tunis peninsula and founded the city of Kairouan, about 160 kilometers south of present-day Tunis. The Muslims used the city as a base for further operations against Numedians in the West and along the highlands of modern Algeria. Successive and repeated attacks on the villages of the lower Numedian agricultural valleys by Abu al-Muhajir Dinar, Uqba's successor, forced the uncoordinated Numidian tribes to eventually work out a "modus vivendi" through Kusaila, a converted Numidian chief on behalf of an extensive confederation of Christian Imazighen. Kusaila, who had been based in Tilimsan (Tlemcen), converted to Islam and relocated his headquarters to Takirwan, near Kairouan.

The harmony between the Imazighen and the Muslims was short-lived, however. The tolerance of Islamic preachers among the Imazighen did not guarantee their support for the Ummayad Dynasty - which held control over most of the Islamic Caliphate. Their ruling proxies alienated the Imazighen by taxing them heavily; treating converts as second-class citizens; and enslaving the southern and weaker nomadic tribes. As a result, widespread opposition took the form of open revolt in 739-40 under the banner of Kharijite Islam. The Kharijites objected to Ali, the fourth caliph - and made 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 Imazighen were attracted by the sect's egalitarian precepts. The issue at hand is the same Numidians had fought against with the Romans (State Religion) whereby the control of the faith is an inherited right of the those in control of the state. Accordingly, a new sect known as Kharijism was born on the premise that any suitable Muslim could be elected caliph without regard to race, station, or descent from the Prophet Muhammad.

After the revolt, Kharijites established a number of tribal kingdoms in the North African highlands - most of which simply abandoned and rejected Islam altogether and remained separate thereafter. Their safety was purchased with taxation without representation. A set of Islamic representatives and tax collectors were established as attache's, and known as the "Marabouts" from the Arabic word "mourabitoun" or attaches whose role was restricted to that of a relay between local tribal council of elders of the tribes Aarch and the central authority in Tunis. They had neither mosquss nor authority. Their houses served as their quarters and were commonly constructed with a dome above whose Abavic term is qoba and Amazigh one ta qobe-tt(little dome). Other regions and tribes, however, like Sijilmasa and Tilimsan - which straddled the principal trade routes - proved more viable and prospered. In 750, the Abbasids - who succeeded the Umayyads as the rulers of the Caliphate, moved the caliphate capital to Baghdad and reestablished Islamic authority in Ifriqiya, appointing Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab as governor of Kairouan. Although nominally serving at the caliph's pleasure, al-Aghlab and his successors, the Aghlabids, ruled independently until 909, presiding over a court that became a center for learning and culture.

To the west of Aghlabid lands, Abd ar-Rahman ibn-Rustam ruled most of the central-west Maghreb from Tahert, southwest of Algiers. The rulers of the Rustamid 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 Tahert was noted for its support of scholarship in mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, as well as theology and law. The Rustamid imams, however, failed, by choice or by neglect, to organize a reliable standing army. This major factor, accompanied by the dynasty's eventual collapse into decadence, opened the way for Tahert's demise under the assault of the Fatimids.

Imazighen in Al-Andalus

The Muslims who entered Iberia in 711 were mainly Imazighen (Berbers), and were led by an Amazigh, Tariq ibn Ziyad, though under the suzerainty of the Arab Caliph of Damascus Abd al-Malik and his North African Viceroy, Musa ibn Nusayr. A second mixed army of Arabs and Imazighen came in 712 under Ibn Nusayr himself. It is claimed they formed approximately 66% of the Islamic population in Iberia; supposedly they helped the Umayyad caliph Abd ar-Rahman I in Al-Andalus, because his mother was a Berber. During the Taifa era, the petty kings came from a variety of ethnic groups; some-- for instance the Zirid kings of Granada--were of Amazigh origin. The Taifa period ended when an Amazigh dynasty--the Almoravids from modern-day Western Sahara and Mauritania--took over Al-Andalus; they were succeeded by the Almohad dynasty from Morocco, during which time al-Andalus flourished.

In the power hierarchy, Imazighen were situated between the Arabic aristocracy and the Muladi populace. Ethnic rivalries were one of the factors of Andalusi politics.

After the fall of the Caliphate, the taifa kingdoms of Toledo, Badajoz, Málaga and Granada had Amazigh rulers.

References

ee also

* Berber Revolt
* Muslim conquest of North Africa
* Uqba ibn Nafi
* Musa bin Nusair
* Kahena
* Kusaila
* Umayyads
* Almohads
* Almoravids