The Sanhaja (, or زناگة Znāga; , pl. Iẓnagen, and also Aẓnaj, pl. Iẓnajen) were once one of the largest Berbers tribal confederations, along with the Zenata and Masmuda confederations.
Other names for the population include Zenaga, Znaga, Sanhája, Sanhâdja and Senhaja.
Triad
Ibn Khaldun and others defined the Sanhaja as a grouping made up of three separate confederations, not as a single confederation.
The distinction is usually made with a diacritical point placed above or below that is present in the Arabic text and often lost in English.
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Danhāǧa/Sanhaja Sanhaja is a confederation of: Kutama-Igawawen of the Kabyle people mountains, including some areas like Algiers and Constantine that no longer speak Kabyle language dialects (they occupied all the northern part of the region of the Constantincis, between the Awrās/Aures q.v. and the sea, that is the region containing the towns of Īkd̲j̲ān, Seṭīf, Bāg̲h̲āya, Ngaus/Niḳāwus, Tiguist/Tikist, Mīla, Constantine, Skīkda, D̲j̲id̲j̲ellī, Bellezma). This confederation includes the Massissenses of the Quinquegentiani, which we identify with the Masinissa of the Massylii, on the right bank of the Soummam River.
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Aznag/Iẓnagen (زناگة, Znaga) Sanhaja is a confederation of: Lemta, Massufa, Warith/Banū Warit, Lamtuna, Godala, Anifa, Charta, Mandala. The Gezoula-Heskoura are defined as the brothers of the Aznag (from Teskee) as opposed to being part of the Aznag confederation. The Toubou people speakers of Tebu languages are defined as Znaga according to Agnosti, Lemta by al-Yaqubi. This confederation is located primarily around the Western Sahara, Mauritania and Senegal. The Almoravids stem from the Lamtuna confederation.
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Ṣanhāja Sanhaja is a confederation of: Masmuda-(Ghomaras/Hintata/Barghawata) speakers of Shilha language. This confederation is located primarily in the area of the Moroccan Atlas' Shilha speakers. Some Rifians today have these tribe names (Sanhadjan Rif, as a result of the later Zenati integration into this branch of the Sanhaja under the Almohads). The Almohads and Hafsid dynasty stem from this confederation.
Origins
Berber tribes such as the Sanhadja or
Kutama are often attributed Himyarite origins by Arab historians (which the Sanhadja likely adopted themselves for political legitimacy). The historian Al-Idrīsī presents one example of the Himyarite myth as following:
History
After the arrival of the religion of Islam, the Sanhaja spread out to the borders of the Sudan as far as the Senegal River and the Niger.
Sanhaja Berbers were a large part of the Berber population. From the 9th century, Sanhaja tribes were established in the Middle Atlas range, in the Rif and on the Atlantic coast of Morocco as well as large parts of the Sanhaja, such as the Kutâma, were settled in central and eastern parts Algeria (Kabylia, Setif, Algiers, Msila) and also in northern Niger. The Kutama created the empire of the Fatimids conquering all North African countries and parts of the Middle East.
In the mid-11th century, a group of Sanhaja chieftains returning from the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) invited the theologian Ibn Yasin to preach among their tribes. Ibn Yasin united the tribes in the alliance of the Almoravids in the middle of the 11th century. This confederacy subsequently established Morocco, and conquered western Algeria and Al-Andalus (part of present-day Spain).[Nelson 15-16]
The Sanhaja tribes would remain in roles as either exploited semi-sedentary agriculturalists and fishermen, or higher up on the social ladder, as religious (Marabout or Zawiya) tribes. Though often Arabization in culture and language, they are believed to be descended from Sanhaja Berber population present in the area before the arrival of the Arab Maqil tribes in the 12th century, which was finally subjected to domination by Arab-descended warrior castes in the 17th century Char Bouba war.
According to Mercer, the words Zenaga or Znaga (from the Berber root ẓnag or ẓnaj, giving the noun Aẓnag or Aẓnaj with the additional masculine singular prefix a-, or Taẓnagt or Taẓnajt with the additional feminine singular circumfix ta--t, or Iẓnagen or Iẓnajen with the additional masculine plural circumfix i--en, or Tiẓnagen or Tiẓnajen with the additional feminine plural circumfix ti--en) are thought to be a romanized distortion of Zenata and Sanhaja from Arabic.
Present day
The descendants of the Sanhaja and their languages are still found today in the
Middle Atlas mountains, eastern Morocco, northern Morocco (Rif), western Algeria, Kabylia and Kabyle territories.
The Zenaga, a group believed to be of Godala (the southernmost Sanhaja tribe) origin, inhabit southwestern Mauritania and parts of northern Senegal. However, they are a small population.[ "Sanhaja tribe", Library of Congress]
See also
Further reading
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John O. Hunwick (ed.), West Africa, Islam and the Arab World: Studies in Honor of Basil Davidson Paperback
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John Mercer (1976), Spanish Sahara, George Allen & Unwin Ltd ()
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Anthony G. Pazzanita (2006), Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, Scarecrow Press
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Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff (1980), The Western Saharans. Background to Conflict, Barnes & Noble Books ()
