Sanhaja

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Sanhaja

The Sanhaja (also "Sanhadja"; Arabic:??????) were one of the largest Berber

Berber people

Berbers are the indigenous ethnic groups of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River....
tribal

Tribe

A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups ....
confederations of the Maghreb

Maghreb

The Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea....
, along with the Zanata and Masmuda

Masmuda

The Masmuda were one of the largest Berber people tribal confederacies in the Maghreb, along with the Zanata and the Sanhaja....
.

History
The tribes of the Sanhaja settled at first in the northern Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometers , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe....
. After the arrival of Islam

Islam

Islam is a Monotheism, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure....
they also spread out in the Sudan as far as the Senegal River

Sénégal River

The S?n?gal River is a 1790 km long river in West Africa, that forms the border between Senegal and Mauritania. It was called Bambotus by Pliny the Elder and Nias by Claudius Ptolemy....
and the Niger

Niger

Niger , officially the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east....
. From the 9th century Sanhaja tribes began to establish themselves in the Middle Atlas

Middle Atlas

The Middle Atlas is part of the Atlas Mountains lying in Morocco, a mountainous country with more than 100,000 km? or 22% of the surface rising above 2,000 meters....
range, in the Rif Mountains and on the Atlantic coast of Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
.

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Encyclopedia

The Sanhaja (also "Sanhadja"; Arabic:??????) were one of the largest Berber

Berber people

Tribe

Maghreb

Masmuda

The Masmuda were one of the largest Berber people tribal confederacies in the Maghreb, along with the Zanata and the Sanhaja....
.

History

The tribes of the Sanhaja settled at first in the northern Sahara

Sahara

Islam

Sénégal River

Niger

Middle Atlas

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
. A part of the Sanhaja settled in eastern Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
(the Kutama

Kutama

The Kutama were a Berber people tribe,in the region of Jijel, a member of the great Sanhaja confederation of the Maghreb....
), and played an important part in the rise of the Fatimids. The Sanhaja dynasties of the Zirids and Hammadid

Hammadid

The Hammadids, an offshoot of the Zirids, were a Berber people dynasty who ruled an area roughly corresponding to modern Algeria for about a century and a half , until, weakened by the Banu Hilal's incursions, they were destroyed by the Almohads....
s controlled Ifriqiya

Ifriqiya

In Middle Ages, Ifriqiya or Ifriqiyah was the area comprising the coastal regions of what are today western Libya, Tunisia, and eastern Algeria....
until the 12th century.

At the beginning of the 9th century a tribal kingdom of the Masufa and the Lamtuna

Lamtuna

The Lamtuna are a Berber people tribe from the region of Mauritania-Western Sahara-Morocco-Algeria. They claim descent from Himyar, one of the South Arabian eponyms....
formed in what is now Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara on the northwest....
under Tilantan (d.826), which controlled the western Trans-Saharan trade route

Trans-Saharan trade

Trans-Saharan trade is trade across the Sahara between Mediterranean countries and sub-Saharan Africa. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of such trade extended from the eighth century until the late sixteenth century....
and fought the kingdoms of "Bilad as-Sudan" (not to be confused with modern Sudan

Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
). Although this empire fell apart at the beginning of the 10th century, the missionary and theologian Ibn Yasin

Ibn Yasin

Abdallah Ibn Yasin was a theologian and founder of the Almoravid dynasty movement and dynasty of North African rulers and later Iberian Peninsula....
managed to unite the tribes in the alliance of the Almoravids

Almoravids

The Almoravids were a Berbers dynasty from the Sahara that spread over a wide area of North Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the 11th century....
in the middle of the 11th century. This confederacy subsequently conquered Morocco, western Algeria

Algeria

Andalusia

Andalusia is a country in the Spanish State. It is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Spain....
in Spain, as well as the Ghana Empire

Ghana Empire

The Ghana Empire or Wagadou Empire was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, and Western Mali.This is believed to be first of many empires that would rise in that part of Africa....
.

With the invasion of the Maghreb by the Arab Banu Hilal

Banu Hilal

The Banu Hilal were a confederation of Arab tribes that migrated from Arabia into North Africa in the 11th century, having been sent by the Fatimids to punish the Zirids for abandoning Shiism....
tribe in the 11th century, the Sanhaja were gradually Arabized

Arabization

Arabization describes a growing cultural influence on a non-Arab area that gradually changes into one that speaks Arabic language and/or incorporates Arab culture....
.

Sanhaja

History

See also