Emirate of Trarza

The Emirate of Trarza was a precolonial state in what is today southwest Mauritania, which has survived as a traditional confederation of semi-nomadic peoples to the present day. Its name is shared with the modern Region of Trarza. The population, a mixture of Berber tribes, were later conquered by Hassaniya Arabic speakers from the north. Europeans called these people Moors/"Maures", and thus have titled this group "the Trarza Moors".

Early History

Trarza, founded in the midst of the final wars between the local Berber Bedouins and the Arab conquerors of the Maghrib, was a semi-nomadic state led by a Muslim prince, or Emir. Trarza was one of three powerful emirates controlling the northwest bank of the Senegal river from the 17th to the 19th centuries CE: the Trarza, the Emirate of Brakna, and the Emirate of Tagant.

Society and Structure

The result of the Arab conquests left a highly divided society, based on caste and ethnicity.

At the peak of society were the aristocratic "warrior" lineages or clans, the Hassane, supposed descendants of the Beni Hassan Arab immigrants (cf. Oulad Delim). Below them stood the "scholarly" or "clerical" lineages. These were called marabout (by the French) or Zawiya tribes (cf. Oulad Tidrarine). The zawiya tribes were protected by Hassane overlords in exchange for their religious services and payment of the horma, a tributary tax in cattle or goods; while they were in a sense exploited, the relationship was often more or less symbiotic. Under both these groups, but still part of the Western Sahara society, stood the znaga tribes - tribal groups laboring in demeaning occupations, such as fishermen (cf. Imraguen), as well as peripheral semi-tribal groups working in the same fields (among them the "professional" castes, mallemin and igawen). All these groups were considered to be among the "bidan", or whites.

Below them ranked servile groups known as Haratin, a black population, according to some sources they were the descendants of the original Sahara population, but they are more generally seen as the descendants of freed slaves of African origins. (Note that "Haratin", a term of obscure origin, has a different meaning in the Berber regions of Morocco.) They often lived serving affiliated "bidan" (white) families, and as such formed part of the tribe, not tribes of their own. Below them came the slaves themselves, who were owned individually or in family groups, and could hope at best to be freed and rise to the status of Haratin. Rich bidan families would normally own a few slaves at the most, as nomadic societies have less use of slave labor than sedentary societies; however, in some cases, slaves were used to work oasis plantations, farming dates, digging wells etc. [Best reference on Sahrawui population ethnography is the work of Spanish anthropologist Julio Caro Baroja, who in 1952-53 spent several months among native tribes all along the then Spanish Sahara. He published in 1955 a monumental book on the subject, whose thoroughness and depth have not been equaled so far. Julio Caro Baroja, Estudios Saharianos, Instituto de Estudios Africanos, Madrid, 1955. Re-edited 1990: Ediciones Júcar. ISBN 84-334-7027-2 ]

These interrelated tribes formed distinct entities: the Emirates of Trarza Brakna, and Tagant were the political reflection of Hassane caste tribes in southern Mauritania.

The resentments inherent in this system enabled French colonial expansion at the beginning of the 20th century to quickly overthrow Trarza and its neighbors.

Interactions with the South and Europeans: 18th Century

The French had established a trading post at the island Saint-Louis in the mouth of the Senegal river in the 17th century, and Bedouins of Mauritania came to control much of the trade which reach the French from the interior. Trarza and other emirates profited from raids against non-Muslims to their south by the seizure of slaves and by the taxes they levied on Muslim states of the area. From the mid-18th century Trarza became involved deeply in the internal politics of the south bank of the Senegal, raiding, briefly conquering, and backing factions in the kingdoms of Cayor, Djolof, and Waalo. [ [http://www.mr.refer.org/lerhi/mass4/14-Saad.pdf Mohamed Mokhtar Ould Saad. L’Emirat du Trarza et ses relations avec les royaumes soudanais de la vallée du fleuve Sénégal au cours des XVIIIème et XIXème siècles] . Département d’histoire/FLSH, Université de Nouakchott.]

Trade and War: Early 19th Century

As the Atlantic Slave Trade weakened in the early 19th century, Trarza and its neighbors collected taxes on trade, especially acacia gum ("Gum Arabic"), which the French purchased in every increasing quantities for its use in industrial fabric production. West Africa had become the sole supplier of world Gum Arabic by the 18th century, and its export at Saint-Louis doubled in the decade of 1830 alone. [James L. A. Webb Jr. The Trade in Gum Arabic: Prelude to French Conquest in Senegal. The Journal of African History, Vol. 26, No. 2/3 (1985), pp. 149-168.]

Taxes, and a threat to bypass Saint-Louis by sending gum to the British traders at Portendick, eventually brought the Emirate of Trarza into direct conflict with the French. In the 1820s, the French launched the Franco-Trarzan War of 1825. The new emir, Muhammad al Habib, had signed an agreement with the Waalo Kingdom, directly to the south of the river. In return for an end to raids in Waalo territory, the Emir took the heiress of Waalo as a bride. The prospect that Trarza might inherit control of both banks of the Senegal struck at the security of French traders, and the French responded by sending a large expeditionary force that crushed Muhammad's army. The war incited the French to expand to the north of the Senegal River.

Second Franco-Trarza War

In the 1840s and 1850s, the French in Saint-Louis began a policy of expansion along the Senegal river valley through the creation of fortified trading posts and militarily enforced protectorate treaties with the smaller states in today's Senegal. This began with governor Protet, but reached its climax under Louis Faidherbe. This was laid out in "The Plan of 1854" a series of ministerial orders given to Governor Protet that originated in petitions from the powerful Bordeaux based Maurel and Prom company, the largest shipping interest in St. Louis. The plan specified in detail the creation of forts along the Senegal river to end African control of the acacia gum trade from the interior. [Leland C. Barrows. Faidherbe and Senegal: A Critical Discussion in African Studies Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Apr., 1976), pp. 95-117,]

Trarza had renewed their alliance with Waalo, and Mohammed's son Ely now sat on the Waalo throne as Brak (king). Trarza had also set aside rivalry and formed a pact with the neighboring Emirate of Brakna to resist French expansion. A raid on Saint-Louis almost led to its capture in 1855, but the French punitive expedition was swift and decisive. At the Battle of Jubuldu on 25 February 1855, the French defeated a combined Waalo and Moorish force and formally assimilated (the then depopulated) Waalo territory into the French colony.

By 1860, Faidherbe had built a series of inland forts up the Senegal River, to Médine just below the Félou waterfall, and forced Trarza and their neighbors to accept the Senegal river as a formal boundary. But with the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, colonial expansion slowed. The Emirate of Trarza was left alone so long as it kept north the French possessions and did not interfere in trade. During the next thirty years, Trarza fell into internecine conflict with neighboring states over control of the Chemama, the area of agricultural settlements just north of the river. Traders in Saint-Louis profited by buying goods from Mauritania and selling the various Moorish forces weapons, and the French rarely interfered.

"Pacification":1900-1905

In 1901, French administrator Xavier Coppolani began a plan of "peaceful penetration" into the territories of Trarza and its fellow emirates. This consisted a divide-and-conquer strategy in which the French promised the Zawiya tribes greater independence and protection from Hassane warriors and by extension the Haratin tribes. In the space of four years (1901-1905) Coppolani traveled the area signing "protectorates" over much of what is now Mauritania, and beginning the expansion of French forces.

The Zawiya tribes, descendents of the earlier berber led tribes conquered in the 17th century, remained a religious caste within moorish society, producing leaders that the French called (perhaps erroneously) Marabouts. Forcibly disarmed centuries earlier, they relied upon their Hassane rulers for protection, and their leaders grevances with Trarza's rulers were skillfully expoited by the French.

During this period, there were three marabouts of great influence in Mauritania: Shaykh Sidiya Baba, whose authority was strongest in Trarza, Brakna, and Tagant; Shaykh Saad Bu, whose importance extended to Tagant and northeast Senegal; and Shaykh Ma al Aynin, who exerted leadership in Adrar and the north, as well as in Spanish Sahara and southern Morocco. By enlisting the support of Shaykh Sidiya and Shaykh Saad against the depredations of the warrior clans and in favor of a "Pax Gallica", Coppolani was able to exploit the fundamental conflicts in Maure society. His task was made difficult by opposition from the administration in Senegal, which saw no value in the wastelands north of the Senegal River, and by the Saint Louis commercial companies, to whom pacification meant the end of the lucrative arms trade. Nevertheless, by 1904 Coppolani had peacefully subdued Trarza, Brakna, and Tagant and had established French military posts across the central region of southern Mauritania.

As Faidherbe had suggested fifty years earlier, the key to the pacification of Mauritania lay in the Adrar. There, Shaykh Ma al Aynin had begun a campaign to counteract the influence of his two rivals--the southern marabouts, Shaykh Sidiya and Shaykh Saad--and to stop the advance of the French. Because Shaykh Ma al Aynin enjoyed military as well as moral support from Morocco, the policy of peaceful pacification gave way to active conquest. In return for support, Shaykh Ma al Aynin recognized the Moroccan sultan's claims to sovereignty over Mauritania, which formed the basis for much of Morocco's claim to Mauritania in the late twentieth century. In May 1905, before the French column could set out for Adrar, Coppolani was killed in Tidjikdja. [The two previous paragraphs are taken from the Library of Congress country study of Mauritania, specifically Robert E. Handloff, ed. Mauritania: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1988. "History, Pacification" section, available at [http://countrystudies.us/mauritania/11.htm http://countrystudies.us/mauritania/11.htm] , and released into the public domain.]

Resistance and Occupation: 1905-1934

With the death of Coppolani, the tide turned in favor of Shaykh Ma al Aynin, who was able to rally many of the Maures with promises of Moroccan help. The French government hesitated for three years while Shaykh Ma al Aynin urged a jihad to drive the French back across the Senegal. In 1908 Colonel Gouraud, who had defeated a resistance movement in the French Sudan (present day Mali), took command of French forces as the government commissioner of the new Civil Territory of Mauritania (created in 1904), captured Atar, and received the submission of all the Adrar peoples the following year. By 1912 all resistance in Adrar and southern Mauritania had been put down. As a result of the conquest of Adrar, the fighting ability of the French was established, and the ascendancy of the French-supported marabouts over the warrior clans within Maure society was assured.

The fighting took a large toll on the animal herds of the nomadic Maures, who sought to replenish their herds in the traditional manner--by raiding other camps. From 1912 to 1934, French security forces repeatedly thwarted such raids. The last raid of the particularly troublesome and far-ranging northern nomads, the Reguibat, occurred in 1934, covered a distance of 6,000 kilometers, and netted 800 head of cattle, 270 camels, and 10 slaves. Yet, except for minor raids and occasional attacks-- Port-Etienne (present-day Nouadhibou) was attacked in 1924 and 1927--the Maures generally acquiesced to French authority. With pacification, the French acquired responsibility for governing the vast territory of Mauritania. [The two previous paragraphs are taken from the Library of Congress country study of Mauritania, specifically Robert E. Handloff, ed. Mauritania: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1988. "History, Pacification" section, available at [http://countrystudies.us/mauritania/11.htm http://countrystudies.us/mauritania/11.htm] , and released into the public domain.]

Important Dates

c.1640 Trarza confederation founded.
15 Dec 1902 French protectorate.

Emirs

c.1660 - 1703 Addi I
1703 - 1727 Ali Sandura
1727 - c.1758 `Umar
c. 1758 - 17.. Mukhtar wuld `Umar
17.. - 17.. Muhammad Babana
17.. - 17.. Addi II
1795 - 1800 `Umar wuld Mukhtar "wuld Kumba"
1800 - 1827 `Umar wuld Mukhtar: "distinct from preceding"
1827 - 1860 Muhammad wuld `Umar al-Habib (d. 1860)
1860 - Jul 1871 Sidi Mubayrika wuld Muhammad (d. 1871)
Jul 1871 - 1873 Ahmad Salum wuld `Umar (d. 1873)
1873 - Oct 1886 `Ali Dyombot wuld Muhammad (d. 1886)
Oct 1886 - Dec 1886 Muhammad Fadil wuld `Ali (d. 1886)
Dec 1886 - 1891 `Umar Salum wuld `Umar (d. 1893)
1891 - 18 Apr 1905 Ahmad Salum wuld `Ali (d. 1905)
bef.1903 Muhammad Salum wuld Ibrahim ("in rebellion")
1903 - 1917 Shaykh Sa`d wuld Muhammad Fadil (d. 1917)
1917 - 1932 Shaykh Khalifa wuld Sa`d (d. 1932)
1932 - 1958 "Vacant?"
1958 - Muhammad Fadil wuld `Umayr

ee also

* History of Mauritania
* Franco-Trarzan War of 1825
* Ma al-'Aynayn: (b. c:a 1830-31, d. 1910) religious and political leader who fought French and Spanish colonization

References

* M. Th. Houtsma, E. van Donzel. E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936. BRILL, New York City (1993 ed) ISBN 9004082654
* Boubacar Barry. Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade. Cambridge University Press (1998) ISBN 0521597609
* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Mauritania_native.html Ruler list at worldstatesmen.org] .
*Muhammed Al Muhtar W. As-sa'd, « Émirats et espace émiral maure : le cas du Trârza aux XVIIIe-XIXe siècles », "Mauritanie, entre arabité et africanité", "Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée", n° 54, juillet 1990, p. 53-82)