Berbers and Islam
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The Berbers are a tribal group that had, until recently, no links to Arabs. They have existed in Mauretania, Numidia, Ifriqiya and Tripolitania, (nowadays Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya respectively) for several thousands of years. Many Berbers have converted to Islam over the course of time.
[edit] Background
Until approximately 1965, the region of North Africa practiced many religions including various forms of pagan rituals, Judaism (The Jewish population had to flee due to the creation of Israel but also to France and North America), and Christianity. Any non-Roman population of ethnic group, until the 7th century, was harshly persecuted in Europe and Roman-occupied territories. The first Islamic troops were met with fierce opposition by the various city-states resulting from the departure of the Romans. The weakest of them in the southern and south-western part of the Amazigh territory were the first to fall to the Islamic troops under the Egyptian Qalif in a locally initiated attempt of expansion westward. This first attempt in late 7th century(660 A.D.) resulted in a miserable defeat of the Islamic troops. It is not until 750 when the qalifs centralized their command in Damascus that a coalition of islamic forces from Mediana (modern Saoudi), Damascus (Syria), Bagdad (Iraq) and Egypt returned in a second attempt following successive defeats in Greece, remains of which conflict are present in modern Cyprus. The Islamic forces in a coalition resumed their conquest of the Mediterranean sea from the south, through north Africa. The more diplomatic second attempt resulted in a successful alliance with mainly the desert Mauritanean tribes(south and west of modern Algeria) then Numidia. The newly Moslim north-African(Mauritanian (modern Mauritania and Morocco) tribes in turn became ambassadors of the moslim qalifs, and brokers on their behalf in an attempt to assemble a coalition of forces to engage their common enemy Rome. The new approach was better received by the Numedian 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 Numedian Chief by the name of Tarik headed the new and stronger allied forces under the same green flag of Islam and embarked for Europe. It is then that North Africa was referred to as "The Maghreb" or the "West" by the peoples of the middle-East.
In 670, therefore, the Islamic coalition under the command of Uqba ibn Nafi established its camp which later became the Tunisian town of Qayrawan about 160 kilometers south of present-day Tunis and used it as a base for further operations against Numedians in the West and along the Highlands of modern Algeria. Successive and repeated attacks on the villages of the lower Numedian agricultural valleys by Abu al Muhajir Dinar, Uqba's successor, forced the uncoordinated Numidian Tribes to eventually work out a modus vivendi through Kusaila, a converted Numidian chief on behalf of an extensive confederation of Christian Berbers. Kusaila, who had been based in Tilimsan (Tlemcen), became a Muslim and moved his headquarters to Takirwan, near Al Qayrawan.
This harmony was short-lived, however. The tolerance of Islam preachers among the Berbers did not guarantee their support for the Arab caliphate. Their ruling proxies alienated the Berbers by taxing them heavily; treating converts as second-class Muslims; and, at worst, by enslaving them in the southern and weaker nomadic tribes and territories. As a result, widespread opposition took the form of open revolt in 739-40 under the banner of Kharijite(Protestant) Islam. The Kharijites objected to Ali, the fourth caliph, making peace with the Umayyads in 657 and left Ali's camp (khariji means "those who leave"). The Kharijites had been fighting Umayyad rule in the East, and many Berbers were attracted by the sect's egalitarian precepts. The issue at hand is the same Numedians had fought against with the Romans (State Religion) whereby the control of the faith is an inherited right of the those in control of the state. Accordingly a 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 Prophet Muhammad.
After the revolt, Kharijites established a number of highlands tribal kingdoms, most of which simply abandoned and rejected Islam all together, and remained separate thereafter. Their safety was purchased with taxation without representation. A set of Islamic representatives and tax collectors were established as attache's, and known as the Marabouts from the Arabic word "mourabitoun" or Attaches whose role was restricted to that of a relay between local tribal council of elders of the tribes Aarch and the central authority in Tunis. They had neither mosqs nor authority. Their houses served as their quarters and commonly constructed with a dome above whose Abavic term is Qoba and Amazigh one Ta qobe tt(little dome). Other regions and tribes, however, like Sijilmasa and Tilimsan, which straddled the principal trade routes, proved more viable and prospered. In 750, the Abbasids, who succeeded the Umayyads as Muslim rulers, moved the caliphate to Baghdad and reestablished caliphal authority in Ifriqiya, appointing Ibrahim ibn al Aghlab as governor in Kairouan. 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.
Just to the west of Aghlabid lands, Abd ar Rahman ibn Rustam ruled most of the central-west Maghreb from Tahert, southwest of Algiers. The rulers of the Rustamid imamate, which lasted from 761 to 909, each an Ibadi Kharijite imam, were elected by leading citizens. The imams gained a reputation for honesty, piety, and justice. The court at Tahert was noted for its support of scholarship in mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, as well as theology and law. The Rustamid imams, however, failed, by choice or by neglect, to organize a reliable standing army. This important factor, accompanied by the dynasty's eventual collapse into decadence, opened the way for Tahert's demise under the assault of the Fatimids.
[edit] Berbers in Al-Andalus
The Muslims who entered Iberia in 711 were mainly Berbers, and were led by a Berber, Tariq ibn Ziyad, though under the suzerainty of the Arab Caliph of Damascus Abd al-Malik and his North African Viceroy, Musa ibn Nusayr. A second mixed army of Arabs and Berbers came in 712 under Ibn Nusayr himself. It is claimed they formed approximately 66% of the Islamic population in Iberia; supposedly they helped the Umayyad caliph Abd ar-Rahman I in Al-Andalus, because his mother was a Berber. During the Taifa era, the petty kings came from a variety of ethnic groups; some-- for instance the Zirid kings of Granada--were of Berber origin. The Taifa period ended when a Berber dynasty--the Almoravids from modern-day Western Sahara and Mauritania--took over Al-Andalus; they were succeeded by the Almohad dynasty from Morocco, during which time al-Andalus flourished.
In the power hierarchy, Berbers were situated between the Arabic aristocracy and the Muladi populace. Ethnic rivalries were one of the factors of Andalusi politics.
After the fall of the Caliphate, the taifa kingdoms of Toledo, Badajoz, Málaga and Granada had Berber rulers.
