Masmuda

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

[edit] History

The Masmuda setted large parts of Morocco, and were largely sedentary and practised agriculture. The residence of the Masmuda aristocracy was Agmat in the High Atlas. From the 10th century the Berber tribes of the Sanhaja and Zanata groups invaded the lands of the Masmuda, followed from the 12th century onwards by Arab Bedouins (see Banu Hilal).

Ibn Tumart united the Masmuda tribes at the beginning of the 12th century and founded the Almohad movement, which subsequently unified the whole of the Maghreb and Andalusia. After the downfall of the Almohads, however, the particularism of the Masmuda peoples prevailed once more, as a result of which they lost their political significance. Remnants of the Masmuda survive in form of the Hhaha of Algeria, and of the Shleuh in the High Atlas.