People of the veil : $b being an account of the habits, organisation and history of the wandering Tuareg tribes which inhabit the mountains of Air or Asben in the central SaharaRennell of Rodd, Francis James Rennell Rodd, Baron
History
People of the veil : $b being an account of the habits, organisation and history of the wandering Tuareg tribes which inhabit the mountains of Air or Asben in the central Sahara
Rennell of Rodd, Francis James Rennell Rodd, Baron
Aïr (Niger); Tuaregs
They formerly extended further west almost to the sea-board of the
Atlantic; their northern and eastern extension can also be deduced
from what is known of their migrations. Their neighbours to the south
are the negroid Kanuri, Hausa-speaking peoples,[17] and the Fulani;
to the east are the Tebu, and in the west the Arab and Moorish tribes;
finally, in the north the nomadic and sedentary Arabs and sedentary
Libyans of Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania. The N.E. corner of Tuareg
territory, the Fezzan, is ethnically of such mixed population as to
admit of no summary classification; Arab, Libyan, Tebu and negroid
peoples are all inextricably mingled together. The Tuareg wander as
nomads over the country generally, the negroes and sedentary Libyans
till the ground, and, in addition to a proportion of all those already
enumerated, the towns are inhabited by yet another people of noble
origin, whose connection with the ancient Garamantes of classical
authors may be assumed if it cannot be proved. With the exception of
the Fezzan the Tuareg are now predominant within their own country. It
includes two great groups of mountains, Air and Ahaggar, together
with certain smaller adjacent massifs.
It is unfortunately not possible to deal with Air in history nor with
the Tuareg of Air, by considering the mountains and their inhabitants
alone. The migrations of the Tuareg of Air have been so intimately
connected with that part of the Sudan which we now call Nigeria that
the northern fringe of the area and the country intervening between it
and Air must receive attention. This intervening steppe and desert,
largely overrun by Tuareg, lie on the way which I followed to reach
the mountains. The neglect to which these areas have been subjected
justifies me in devoting a chapter to them before coming to Air
itself. Again, the concluding chapters of this volume will deal as
much with the Southland as they do with Air, for the history of the
latter cannot be divorced from that of the former.
Since mention will be continually made of the various Tuareg groups
as they exist to-day, and of the tribes which they contain, it will
be as well to explain that there are to-day four principal divisions
of the people, all of whom possess characteristics common and peculiar
to the whole race.
The main groups are:—
1. The People of Ahaggar, called Ahaggaren, or Kel Ahaggar.
2. The Azjer, or Azger Tuareg; this name is also spelt Askar, Adjeur,
etc.
3. The People of Air called the Kel Air, or, in the Hausa language
which is current in that country, Asbenawa or Absenawa, from Asben,
Azbin or Absen, the Sudanese name for Air.
4. The Tuareg of the south-west.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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