Early History Of Tunisia - Cuff Bracelet Watch Manufacturer - Sport Wrist Watches

Berber background

Berber background

The people commonly known today as the Berbers were anciently more often known as Libyans; yet many "Berbers" have for long self-identified as Imazighen or "free people" (etymology uncertain). Mommsen, a widely acclaimed historian of the 19th century, wrote:

"They call themselves in the Riff near Tangier Amzigh, in the Sahara Imshagh, and the same name meets us, referred to particular tribes, on several occasions among the Greeks and Romans, thus as Maxyes at the founding of Carthage, as Mazices in the Roman period at different places in the Mauretanian north coast; the similar designation that has remained with the scattered remnants proves that this great people has once had a consciousness, and has permanently retained the impression, of the relationship of its members."

Other names were used by their ancient neighbors: Libyans (by Egyptians and later by Greeks), Nomades (by Greeks), Numidians (by Romans), and later Berbers (by the Arabs); also the self-descriptive Mauri in the west; and Gaetulians in the south.

Berbers together with their relations and descendants have been the major population group to inhabit the North African regions since about eight kya (thousand years ago). This anciently included terrain from the Nile to the Atlantic, encompassing the vast Sahara with its mountain heights of Ahaggar and Tibesti, and the long Mediterranean coast which in the west has an elevated hinterland, and which includes the region now known as the Republic of Tunisia.

Evidence of human habitation in the region, however, stretches back one or two million years. Cavalli-Sforza includes the Berbers in a much larger genetic group, one which includes S.W. Asians, Iranians, Europeans, Sardinians, Indians, S.E. Indians, and Lapps. Cavalli-Sforza also makes two related observations. The Berbers and those S.W. Asians who speak Semitic idioms, in addition, together belong to a large and ancient language family (the Afroasiatic). This large language family incorporates in its ranks members from two different genetic groups, i.e., the one listed by Cavalli-Sforza immediately above, and one called by him the Ethiopian group, who inhabit lands from the Horn to the Sahel region of Africa. In confirmation of Cavalli-Sforza's genetic conclusions, recent demographic study indicates a common Neolithic origin for both the Berber and Semitic populations.

Saharan cave painting from Tassili n'Ajjer [Berber: Plateau of the Chasms].

Dating to the Mesolithic era, stone blades and tools, as well as small stone figurines, of the Capsian culture (named after Gafsa, Tunisia) are connected to the prehistoric presence of the Berbers in North Africa. Also connected are some of the monuments built of very large rocks (dolmens), found throughout the western Mediterranean. A commonly held view of Berber origins is that Paleo-Mediterranean peoples long occupying the region combined with several other largely Mediterranean groups, two from the east near S.W.Asia and bringing the Berber languages circa eight to ten kya, (one traveling west along the coast and the other by way of the Sahel and the Sahara), with a third intermingling earlier from Iberia. Seasonal migration routes evidence their ancient journeys.

Saharan rock art, inscriptions and paintings that show design patterns as well as figures of animals and of humans, are attributed to the Berbers and also to black Africans from the south. Dating these art works has proven difficult and unsatisfactory. Egyptian influence is considered very unlikely. Some images infer a terrain much better watered. Among the animals depicted, alone or in staged scenes, are large-horned buffalo (the extinct bubalus antiquus), elephants, donkeys, colts, rams, herds of cattle, a lion and lioness with three cubs, leopards or cheetahs, hogs, jackles, rhinoceroses, giraffes, hippopotamus, a hunting dog, and various antelope. Human hunters may wear animal masks and carry their weapons. Herders are shown with elaborate head ornamentation; a few dance. Other human figures drive chariots, or ride camels.

By five kya (thousand years ago) a neolithic culture was evolving among the Berbers of northwest Africa, characterized by agriculture and animal domestication, pottery and finely chipped stone implements including arrowheads. Wheat and barley were sown, beans and chick peas cultivated. Ceramic bowls and basins, goblets, large plates, dishes elevated by a central stem, were in daily use; they were hung up on the wall. Evidence indicates hooded cloaks, and cloth woven into stripes of different color. Sheep, goats, and cattle measured wealth. From physical evidence unearthed in Tunisia archaeologists present the Berbers as already "farmers with a strong pastoral element in their economy and fairly elaborate cemeteries," well over a thousand years before the Phoenicians arrived to found Carthage.

Prior to written records about them, sedentary rural Berbers apparently lived in semi-independent farming villages, composed of small tribal units under a local leader. Yet seasonally the villagers might have left to find pasture for their herds and flocks. Modern conjecture is that feuding between neighborhood clans at first impeded organized political life among these ancient Berber farmers, so that social coordination did not develop beyond the village level. On the more marginal lands, pastoral Berbers roamed to find grazing for their animals. Tribal authority was strongest among the latter wandering pastoralists, much weaker among the agricultural villagers, and would attenuate with the advent of cities. By particularly fertile regions, larger villages arose. In the west of the Maghrib, the Berbers reacted to a growing military threat from colonies started by Phoenician traders. Eventually Carthage and its sister city-states would inspire Berber villages to join together in order to marshall large-scale armies, which naturally called for strong centralizing leadership. Punic social techniques from the nearby polities were adopted by the Berbers, to be modified for their own use. To the east, the Berbero-Libyans had interacted with the Egyptians during the earlier rise of the ancient Nile civilization.

Accounts of the Berbers

Meshwesh (mw.w)

in hieroglyphs

Egyptian hieroglyphs from early dynasties testify to Libyans, the Berbers of the "western desert". First mentioned as the Tehenou during the pre-dynastic reigns of Scorpion (c. 3050) and of Narmer (on an ivory cylinder), their appearance is later shown in a bas relief of the Fifth Dynasty temple of Sahure. Ramses II (r.1279-1213) placed Libyan contingents in his army. Tombs of the 13th century contain paintings of Libu leaders wearing fine robes, with ostrich feathers in their "dreadlocks", short pointed beards, and tattoos on their shoulders and arms. Evidently, Osorkon the Elder (Akheperre setepenamun), a Berber leader of the Meshwesh tribe, became the first Libyan pharaoh. Several decades later, his nephew Shoshenq I (r.945-924) became Pharaoh of Egypt, and the founder of its Twenty-second Dynasty (945-715). In 926 Shoshenq (Shishak of the Bible) successfully campaigned to Jerusalem then under Solomon's heir. For several centuries Egypt was governed by a decentralized system based on the Libyan tribal organization of the Meshwesh. Becoming acculturated, Libyans also served as high priests at centers of Egyptian religion. Hence during the classical era of the Mediterranean, all of the Berber peoples of North Africa were often known collectively as Libyans.

Farther west, foreigners knew of some Berbers as Gaetulians (who lived in remote areas); those Bebers more familiar were known as Numidians, and also as the Mauri or Maurisi (later the Moors). The western Berbers are mentioned in ancient literature regarding specific military events during the fifth century B.C., and thereafter they are entering into the early light given us by various Greek and Roman historical works; apart from the Punic inscriptions, little Carthaginian literature has survived. During this period, however, the Berbers of the western regions traded and interacted most frequently with Carthage, founded by Phoenicians; the name Libyphoenicians was coined for the cultural and ethnic mix surrounding the city. Political skills and civic arrangements encountered in Carthage, as well as material culture, were adopted by the Berber for their own use. In the fourth century Berber kingdoms are mentioned; Agathocles (361-289), a Greek ruler in Sicily, dealt with the Libyo-Berber king Aelymas.

A bilingual (Punic and Berber) inscription of the 2nd century B.C. from urban Numidia, specifically from the ancient city of Thugga (modern Dougga, Tunisia), indicates a complex city administration, with the Berber title GLD (cognate to modern Berber Aguellid, or paramount tribal chief) designating the ruling municipal officer. This top position apparently rotated among the selected members of the leading Berber families. Since the Numidian titles of the offices mentioned (GLD, MSSKWI, GZBI, GLDGIML) were not translated into Punic but left in Berber, it suggests an indigenous development.

Masinissa (c.240-148).

Circa 220 B.C., three large kingdoms had arisen among the Berbers (west to east): (1) the Mauri (in modern Morocco) under king Baga; (2) the Masaesyli (in northern Algeria) under Syphax who ruled from two capitals, Siga (near modern Oran) and to the east Cirta (modern Constantine); and (3) the Massyli (south of Cirta, west and south of Carthage) ruled by Gala [Gaia], father of Masinissa. Following the Second Punic War, Masinissa received the honor befitting a respected King from both Roman and Hellenic states.

In his history of Rome Ab urbe condita, Livy (59-A.D.17) provides some indication of the character and career of the Masinissa the Berber king, during the era of the Second Punic War. Livy tells us of Masinissa's early military services to Carthage and of his victory with Carthage over the Masaesyli led by Syphax; next, of his leading cavalry units for Carthage against Rome in Hispania. Masinissa then switches sides to ally with Rome, and personally meets with Scipio Africanus the celebrated Roman general in Hispania. Next follows the death of his father Gala the King of the Massyli, his return home where an usurpation takes over the kingdom of the Massyli, and subsequently his life as a guerilla leader in the mountains of Africa. By persistent struggle Masinissa regains his kingdom; but quickly comes an invasion by Syphax who defeats him and takes over the Massyli kingdom, after which Masinissa escapes into the bush. Later, his forces find the army of Scipio who has landed in Africa; in battle they defeat an army of Carthage. Syphax is captured; Masinissa's envoys meet with the Roman Senate. Hannibal, recalled from Italy to defend Carthage, fights the Battle of Zama (202 B.C.) against the Roman army under Scipio, with Masinissa leading the cavalry on Scipio's right wing. Following victory, Masinissa is restored to his Massyli kingdom, then called Numidia, where he will rule for fifty years.

Ancient Berber religion

Medracen, 19 meters. Numidian, c. 3rd century B.C.

The religion of the ancient Berbers, of course, is difficult to uncover sufficiently to satisfy the imagination. Burial sites provide early indication of religious beliefs; more than sixty thousand tombs are located in the Fezzan alone. The construction of many tombs indicates their continuing use for ceremonies and sacrifices. A grand tomb for a Berber king, traditionally assigned to Masinissa (238-149) but perhaps rather to his father Gala, still stands: the Medracen in eastern Algeria. Architecture for the elegant tower tomb of his contemporary Syphax shows some Greek or Punic influence. Much information about Berber beliefs comes from classical literature. Herodotus (c.484-c.425) mentions that Libyans of the Nasamone tribe, after prayers, slept on the graves of their ancestors in order to induce dreams for divination. The ancestor chosen being regarded the best in life for uprightness and valor, hence a tomb imbued with spiritual power. Oaths also were taken on the graves of the just. In this regard, the Numidian king Masinissa was widely worshipped after his death.

Early Berbers beliefs and practices are often characterized as a religion of nature. Procreative power was symbolized by the bull, the lion, the ram. Fish carvings represented the phallus, a sea shell the female sex, which objects could become charms. The supernatural could reside in the waters, in trees, or come to rest in unusual stones (to which the Berbers would apply oils); such power might inhabit the winds (the Sirocco being formidable across North Africa). Herodotus writes that the Libyans sacrificed to the sun and moon. The moon (Ayyur) was conceived as being masculine.

Later many other supernatural entities became identified and personalized as gods, perhaps influenced by Egyptian or Punic practice; yet the Berbers seemed to be "drawn more to the sacred than to the gods." Early worship sites might be in grottoes, on mountains, in clefts and cavities, along roadways, with the "altars casually made of turf, the vessels used still of clay with the deity himself nowhere," according to the Berber author Apuleius (born c.125 C.E.), commenting on the local worship of earlier times. Often only a little more than the names of the Berber deities are known, e.g., Bonchar, a leading god. Julian Baldick, culling literature covering many eras and regions, provides the names and rles of many Berber deities and spirits.

The Berbero-Libyans came to adopt elements from ancient Egyptian religion. Herodotus writes of the divine oracle, sourced in the Egyptian god Ammon, located among the Libyans at the oasis of Siwa. The god of the Siwa oracle, however, may be a Libyan deity. Later, Berber beliefs would influence the religion of Carthage, the city-state founded by Phoenicians. George Aaron Barton suggested that the prominent goddess of Carthage Tanit originally was a Berbero-Libyan deity whom the newly arriving Phoenicians sought to propitiate by their worship. Later archeological finds show a Tanit from Phoenicia. From linguistic evidence Barton concluded that before developing into an agricultural deity, Tanit probably began as a goddess of fertility, symbolized by a tree bearing fruit. The Phoenician goddess Ashtart was supplanted by Tanit at Carthage.

Berber tribal affiliations

The grand tribal identities of Berber antiquity were said to be the Mauri, the Numidians, and the Gaetulians. The Mauri inhabited the far west (ancient Mauritania, now Morocco and central Algeria). The Numidians were located between the Mauri and the city-state of Carthage. Both had large sedentary populations. The Gaetulians were less settled, with large pastoral elements, and lived in the near south on the margins of the Sahara. The medieval historian of the Maghrib, Ibn Khaldun, is credited or blamed for theorizing a causative dynamic to the different tribal confederacies over time. Issues concerning tribal social-economies and their influence have generated a large literature, which critics say is overblown. Abdallah Laroui discounts the impact of tribes, declaring the subject a form of obfuscation which cloaks suspect colonial ideologies. While Berber tribal society has made an impact on culture and government, their continuance was chiefly due to strong foreign interference which usurped the primary domain of the government institutions, and derailed their natural political development. Rather than there being a predisposition for tribal structures, the Berber's survival strategy in the face of foreign occupation was to figuratively retreat into their own way of life through their enduring tribal networks. On the other hand, as it is accepted and understood, tribal societies in the Middle East have continued over millennia and from time to time flourish.

Berber tribal identities survived undiminished during the long period of dominance by the city-state of Carthage. Under centuries of Roman rule also tribal ways were maintained. The sustaining social customs would include: communal self-defense and group liability, marriage alliances, collective religious practices, reciprocal gift-giving, family working relationships and wealth. Abdallah Laroui summarizes the abiding results under foreign rule (here, by Carthage and by Rome) as: Social (assimilated, nonassimilated, free); Geographical (city, country, desert); Economic (commerce, agriculture, nomadism); and, Linguistic (e.g., Latin, Punico-Berber, Berber).

During the first centuries of the Islamic era, it was said that the Berbers tribes were divided into two blocs, the Butr (Zanata and allies) and the Baranis (Sanhaja, Masmuda, and others). The etymology is unclear, perhaps deriving from tribal customs for clothing ("abtar" and "burnous"), or perhaps words coined to distinguish the nomad (Butr) from the farmer (Baranis). The Arabs drew most of their early recruits from the Butr. Later, legends arose which spoke of an obscure, ancient invasion of North Africa by the Himyarite Arabs of Yemen, from which a prehistoric ancestry was evidently fabricated: Berber descent from two brothers, Burnus and Abtar, who were sons of Barr, the grandson of Canaan (Canaan being the grandson of Noah through his son Ham). Both Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) and Ibn Hazm (994-1064) as well as Berber genealogists held that the Himyarite Arab ancestry was totally unacceptable. This legendary ancestry, however, played a rle in the long Arabization process that continued for centuries among the Berber peoples.

Topography of al-Maghib with modern state borders.

In their medieval Islamic history the Berbers may be divided into three major tribal groups: the Zanata, the Sanhaja, and the Masmuda. These tribal divisions are mentioned by Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). The Zanata early on allied more closely with the Arabs and consequently became more Arabized, although Znatiya Berber is still spoken in small islands across Algeria and in northern Morocco (the Rif and north Middle Atlas). The Sanhaja are also widely dispersed throughout the Maghrib, among which are: the sedentary Kabyle on the coast west of modern Algiers, the nomadic Zanaga of southern Morocco (the south Anti-Atlas) and the western Sahara to Senegal, and the Tuareg (al-Tawarik), the well-known camel breeding nomads of the central Sahara. The descendants of the Masmuda are sedentary Berbers of Morocco, in the High Atlas, and from Rabat inland to Azru and Khanifra, the most populous of the modern Berber regions.

Medieval events in Ifriqiya and al-Maghrib often have tribal assoiciations. Linked to the Kabyle Sanhaja were the Kutama tribes, whose support worked to establish the Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171, only until 1049 in Ifriqiya); their vassals and later successors in Ifriqiya the Zirids (973-1160) were also Sanhaja. The Almoravids (1056-114

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