Tuat

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For other meanings, see Tuat and similar (disambiguation).
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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.

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[edit] 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 had not 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 is 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.

[edit] Further reading

  • A.G.P. Martins, Les Oasis sahariennes (Algiers, 1908). An account of the history and economic condition of the oases.
  • Commandant E. Laquibre, Les Reconnaissances du Giniral Scrvire dans les oasis sahariennes (Paris, 1902).
  • E.F. Gautier, Sahara algérien (Paris, 1908).
  • Hunwick, John, Jews Of A Saharan Oasis (Markus Wiener, 2005).

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