The Mozabite people or Banu Mzab (; )
are a
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
ethnic group
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
inhabiting the
M'zab
The M'zab, or Mzab (Mozabite language, Mozabite: ''Aghlan'', ), is a natural region of the northern Sahara Desert in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. It is located south of Algiers and has approximately 360,000 inhabitants (2005 estimate).
Geolog ...
natural region in the northern
Sahara
The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...
of
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
, numbering about 150,000 to 300,000 people.
They primarily speak the
Mozabite language
Mozabite (endonym: ''tamazight''), also known as Mzab, ''Tumẓabt'' or Ghardaia, is a Zenati language spoken by the Mozabites, an Ibadi Berber group inhabiting the seven cities of the M'zab natural region in the northern Saharan Algeria. It i ...
, one of the
Zenati languages
The Zenati languages are a branch of the Northern Berber language family of North Africa. They were named after the medieval Zenata Berber tribal confederation. They were first proposed in the works of French linguist Edmond Destaing (1915) (19 ...
in the
Berber branch of the
Afroasiatic family
The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the ...
. Mozabites are primarily
Ibadi Muslims
Ibadism (, ) is a school of Islam concentrated in Oman established from within the Kharijites. The followers of the Ibadi sect are known as the Ibadis or, as they call themselves, The People of Truth and Integrity ().
Ibadism emerged around ...
, but there was a small population of Mzabi
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
as well.
Mozabites mainly live in five
oases
In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment[Ghardaïa
Ghardaïa (, ) is the capital city of Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. The commune of Ghardaïa has a population of 93,423 according to the 2008 census, up from 87,599 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 0.7%.
It is located in northern-central A ...]
,
Beni Isguen,
El Atteuf
El Atteuf () is a town and commune in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 14,752, up from 12,713 in 1998,
and an annual population growth rate of 1.5%. It is located in the M'zab valley about east o ...
,
Melika and
Bounoura
Bounoura (, Berber: ⴰⵜ ⴱⵓⵏⵓⵔ, At-Bounour, البونور) is a town and commune in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 35,405, up from 27,775 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 2.5%. ...
, as well as two other isolated oases farther north:
Berriane
Berriane (from Tamazight: ''Bergan'') () is a medium-sized town and commune in the south of Algeria, coextensive with Bérianne District, in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. It is located in the north of the Sahara desert, in the extreme North of ...
and
El Guerrara
El Guerrara () (also written al-Qarārah or Guerara) is a town and commune, coextensive with El Guerrara District, in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 59,514, up from 48,313 in 1998, with an annua ...
. Ghardaïa is the capital of the confederation, followed in importance by
Beni Isguen, the chief commercial centre.
Etymology
According to
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...
, the name Mzab comes from Maṣʿab referring to the supposed ancestor Maṣʿab ibn Sadmān, hence Banī Maṣʿāb. Others claimed that the word Mzab is a corruption of “Muṣʿab”, “Muṣʿāb” or “Muḍāb".
Ibadi
Ibadism (, ) is a school of Islam concentrated in Oman established from within the Kharijites. The followers of the Ibadi sect are known as the Ibadis or, as they call themselves, The People of Truth and Integrity ().
Ibadism emerged around 6 ...
author claims that it derives from the Meccan Arabic word mīzāb (
ميزاب) meaning "gutter" calling them Bani Mizab ("sons of Mizab"). This could have been to establish a sacred link as Mizab refers to the gutter of the sanctuary of the main mosque of Mecca or to establish a Meccan origin for the Ibadis. Mozabite anthropologist Brahim Chérifi argues that it comes from the Berber phrase At n-Zab meaning the "people of Zab".
History
In 767, a refugee
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
Ibadi leader founded the
Rustamid dynasty
The Rustamid dynasty () (or ''Rustumids'', ''Rostemids'') was an Ibadi dynasty of Persian origin which ruled a state that was centered in present-day Algeria. The dynasty governed as a Muslim theocracy for a century and a half from its capital Ta ...
in the region, leading to most of the Berber population adopting Ibadi Islam. After being defeated at
Tiaret
Tiaret () or Tahert () is a major city in northwestern Algeria that gives its name to the wider farming region of Tiaret Province. Both the town and region lie south-west of the capital of Algiers in the western region of the Hautes Plaines, i ...
by the
Fatimid Caliphate
The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, i ...
in 911, they were banished to
Ouargla
Ouargla (Berber: Wargrən, ) is the capital city of Ouargla Province in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria. It has a flourishing petroleum industry and hosts one of Algeria's universities, the University of Ouargla. The commune of Ouargla had ...
in the Sahara
and founded an independent state in the
M'zab
The M'zab, or Mzab (Mozabite language, Mozabite: ''Aghlan'', ), is a natural region of the northern Sahara Desert in Ghardaïa Province, Algeria. It is located south of Algiers and has approximately 360,000 inhabitants (2005 estimate).
Geolog ...
in 1012.
In 1012, further persecutions made them flee to their present location, where they long remained invulnerable.
In the 1500s, they recognized nominal
Ottoman authority. After the
capture of Laghouat by the
French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
in 1852, the Mozabites concluded a convention in 1853. They agreed to pay an annual contribution of 1800
franc
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th century ...
s in return for their independence. In November 1882, the M'zab country was annexed by
French Algeria
French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...
.
Since the establishment of French control, Beni Isguen has become the depot for the sale of goods from
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
.
The Mozabite engineers built a system of
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
works that made the oases much more fertile than before.
Language
Mozabites speak the
Mozabite language
Mozabite (endonym: ''tamazight''), also known as Mzab, ''Tumẓabt'' or Ghardaia, is a Zenati language spoken by the Mozabites, an Ibadi Berber group inhabiting the seven cities of the M'zab natural region in the northern Saharan Algeria. It i ...
, a branch of the Zenati group of Berber languages. Many also speak
Algerian Arabic
Algerian Arabic (, romanized: ), natively known as , or , is a variety of Arabic spoken in Algeria. It belongs to the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum and is mostly intelligible with the Tunisian and Moroccan dialects. Darja () means "eve ...
as a second language. The Mozabite language is spoken by around 150,000 people.
Mozabite Jews in French Algeria
It is not canonically agreed when Jews first came to Southern Algeria, but one theory suggests they were sent there by the Ibadite leadership in the 14th century from Tunisia, as part of a merchant trade route. They continued as a merchant community, with subsequent waves of immigration during times of anti-Semitism across the Sahara, Europe, and the Middle East. In 1881, one year before the French annexed the M'zab, there were estimated 3,000 Mozabite Jews out of the 30,000 Algerian Jews. By 1921, the latter number would grow to 74,000, but the Mozabite Jewish community would remain small, with most Jewish migrants settling in the north.

In 1882, when the French military annexed the M'zab, it began an administrative rule that was separate from the northern departments. Unlike their northern Jewish counterparts, many of the Mozabite Berber Jews in Southern Algeria were classified by the French under the “indigenous code”. Given the diversity of the M'zab Jewish population, the French administration incorporated some “culturally Saharan” but ethnically non-indigenous Jews to the north and gave them citizenship under the
Crémieux Decree of 1870. That perceived distinction by the French between Berber and non-Berber Jews of the Mzab was not a reflection of “technical precision” but rather “a manufactured form of legal difference”. While the French sought to assimilate the Northern Jewry as French citizens, they recognised religious rule of the Mozabite Jewish population and kept them separate under indigenous law, which meant severely limiting its political and social power.

With anti-Semitism on the rise in the late 1800s, the French colonial powers sought to decrease Jewish commerce in the south and prevent further Jewish collaboration with Muslim communities. They continued to distance the Mozabite Jews from other Algerian Jewish affairs by keeping Mozabite, or “Mosaic” laws for civil matters, and French indigenous laws for public and criminal matters. It was not until 1961, with the French National Assembly Law 61-805, that the Mozabite Jews were granted “common law civil status” and French citizenship.
[Stein, Sarah Abrevaya. Saharan Jews and the fate of French Algeria. University of Chicago Press, 2014.]
Genetics
Mozabite people are characterized by a very high level of North African haplogroups
E1b1b1b (M81) (86%) and
U6 (28%).
Y-DNA
mtDNA
See also
*
Mzab (Moroccan tribe)
References
* A. Coyne, ''Le Mzab'' (Algiers, 1879); Rinn, ''Occupation du Mzab'' (Algiers, 1885)
* Amat, ''Le M'Zab el les M'Zabites'' (Paris, 1888)
{{authority control
Berber peoples and tribes
Berbers in Algeria
Ethnic groups in Algeria
Muslim communities in Africa
Indigenous peoples of North Africa