Everything about Tuat totally explained
» For other meanings, see Tuat and similar (disambiguation).
Tuat ("Tawat" or, in French, "Touat") is a
Berber name for a people living in the north of
Algeria. The Tuat number some 50,000 and give their name to the
Tuat region of around 48,000 sq.
km. The main population centre is
In-Salah (or "
Insalah"), although the area is dotted with the fertile
oases of the western part of the Algerian
Sahara and there are over 300 "ksurs" or
hamlets. The largest of these is
Adrar.
The Tuat people are mostly
farmers. There are four main groupings: the Tuat; the Zenata Berbers who live in the
Gourara oases; the Tadekelt, and the Kerzaz. The Tuat have their own language, called Tuat (called in some French books "Taznatit"), but most now speak both Berber and
Arabic. The Tuat keep
slaves, mostly the African "
Harratins" and others. Tuat society is divided by
caste, and government is by councils of local men. The religion is Islam, blended with
pagan survivals.
The engineering of traditional
oil wells has reached a very high standard in the area.
Oil exploration was said to be underway in the area during 2004-05.
History
The oases appear to have been inhabited from a very early period. According to tradition, numbers of
Jews migrated there in the
2nd century. They were the predominant element in the oases when the conquests of
Uqba ibn Nafi drove the
Zenata south in the
7th century. These Berbers occupied Tuat and, to a large extent, absorbed those of the Jewish population who hadn't fled to
Sijilmasa. The
Arabs took possession of the oases in the
10th century and islam became the religion of the people. Thereafter the region was governed by Zenata Berbers or by Arab chieftains. In
1492, following the arrival of refugee Jews from
Spain, a local Islamic scholar ordered the massacre of all the Jews of Tuat. No Jews have lived there since the
15th century, although there's speculation that the Ait Mussa and Ait Israel tribes may be of ancient Jewish origin. In
1583 al-Mansur, the sultan of Morocco, occupied the oases, which remained politically dependent upon Morocco. In the
17th century, however, as the influence of the
trans-Saharan slave trade waned in the area, the sovereignty of the sultan had become almost nominal.
The
Treaty of Lalla Maghnia in
1845 between Morocco and France left the question of the possession of Tuat, Gourara and Tidikelt unsettled. By
1901 the whole of the fortified places in the three oases and the town of Igli had been captured by the French. The French later built roads and railways. Under the French, the area was known as the "Territoire des oasis sahariennes". It was then the entreport that commanded the new road and rail routes southwards to
Timbuktu from both
Morocco and
Algeria, and was thus once again a significant centre of trade. After the French left Algeria, the roads and rail lines rapidly declined.
Morocco briefly
invaded the Tuat area after Algerian independence, claiming the area as its
rightful territory.
Further Information
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