Berbers and Islam

The weakest of them in the southern and southwestern parts of the Berber territory were the first to fall to the Islamic troops under the Egyptian Caliph in a locally initiated attempt of expansion westward.

For five years she ruled a free Berber state from the Aurès Mountains to the oasis of Gadames (695–700 CE) but finally was killed in combat near a well that still bears her name, Bir al Kahina in Aures.

A more diplomatic second attempt resulted in a successful alliance with the mainly desert-based Mauretanian tribes (Morocco and west of modern Algeria) then Numidia.

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 Moorish 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.

Their ruling proxies alienated the Berbers by taxing them heavily; treating converts as second-class citizens; and enslaving the southern and weaker nomadic tribes.

The 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 Islamic prophet Muhammad.

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.

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.

[5] Other Arab-Islamic Bedouin groups, such as the Banū Hilāl (Sons of the Crescent Moon), subsequently migrated with their families and herds into the territories of the Berber tribes that had not yet been Islamized.

Resistance to Islamization varied: many tribes avoided violent conflicts and retreated to the sparsely populated areas of the Sahara.

Islamic armies conquered Iberia "under the suzerainty of the Arab Caliph of Damascus Abd al-Malik and his North African Viceroy, Musa ibn Nusayr.

"[13] Berbers would make up as about 10 percent of Al-Andalusia's population, in the mountainous areas in the north and northwest, and in central Iberia, where they made al-ṭawā’if or (Taifa) kingdoms, including Toledo, Badajoz, Málaga and Granada.

[16] During the initial Umayyad conquest of Iberia in 711-712 A.D., Berbers formed their own military units based on tribal allegiances, with little contact with the Arabs.

[17] Uthman ibn Naissa, a Berber commander stationed in Cerdanya (eastern Pyrenees), signed an alliance with Odo the Great, duke over Vasconia and Aquitaine, detached himself from central Cordovan rule and shortly established a realm, but was suppressed in 731 by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi.

The explorer and ethnographer Henri Lhote, who wrote a respectable standard work on the Tuareg, wrote in a chapter about the Kel Ahaggar of Algeria and the religious conditions of the Saharan inhabitants:[22] “Even if, like all new converts, they try to conceal old religious customs, it is nevertheless true that such customs can be recognized here and there.”[22] It is possible that the Almovarid Agag Alemin, who was a famous Ulama (Koran scholar) and had formed a schoolmaster group around him, was able to give the Tuareg class of the "Islandemen" (sing.

In Agadez, the Kaosen uprising in 1917 made it drastically clear that the religious leaders were dangerously influential and that was precisely why they were subjected to a cruel bloodbath.

The Nigerien population, who are stuck in a nomadic way of life, speak primarily the Tuareg language Tamasheq and write Tifinagh.

Ramadan is interpreted generously, often with the argument that the people suffer from hunger too often outside of the fasting month or that the Tuareg, as "travellers" (nomads), are free of such duties.

A nomenclature is distinguished that ranges from the "nobles" ("Imajeren") to the "Koran scholars" ("Ineslemen"), "vassals" ("Imrad"), "black farmers" ("Izzegarren" - called "Haratin" by the Arabs) and the "slaves" to the "blacksmiths" ("Inaden").

[25] The "Ineslemen" correspond to Marabouts, and thus represent the religious class of Koran scholars who were able to gain this position through inheritance or through suitable academic degrees.

They also record their experiences in "slips of paper" and deal with magical formulas; these were often sewn into items of clothing or kept in metal containers that were worn as neck amulets.

However, a festival that is not regularly celebrated by the rest of the Islamic population is of great importance to the Tuareg: the holiday Mawlid an-Nabi in honor of Muhammad's birthday.

Mawlid an-Nabi is celebrated on the 12th day of the month Rabi' al-Awwal of the Islamic calendar, but is rejected by many Muslims as an unacceptable bidʿa (innovation).

Various goods are not transferable at all and can only be used ("ach iddaren"), which means that they remain in the woman's family, provided that matrilocal rules apply here too.

By removing them from the cycle of goods and remaining in the maternal line of inheritance, these animals also become the object of "ach ebowel" (milk of the nest).