Search

, the name given by Arab writers to that part of Africa which Europeans have called Barbary or Africa Minor and then North Africa, and which includes Tripolitania, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. The word mag̲h̲rib means the west, the setting sun, in opposition to mas̲h̲riḳ , the east, the rising sun (Levant), but as Ibn K̲h̲aldūn remarks, the general denomination was applied to a particular region. The extent of this area, moreover, varies according to different authors. Some oriental writers (e.g. al-Muḳaddasī) includ…

, Alcazarquívir, a town in Northern Morocco, about 50 miles south of Tangier on the right bank of the Wādī Lukkus; at one time, this ran through it, but the course of the stream was diverted to prevent inundations. Lying in a vast plain commanded on the east by heights, it is divided into two parts, al-S̲h̲arīʿa in the north and Bāb al-Wād on the south, between which lies the market-place. The only buildings of any importance are the great mosque which is pre-Almohad, the mosque of Sīdī al-Azmīrī and the Djāmiʿ al-Sayda, finished in 1100/1689. Within and around the town are many ḳubbas …

(Aurès; Αύράοɩον ὄρος in Procopius, De bello vand., i, 8, ii, 12-13. 19-20) mountain massif of Algeria, forming part of the Eastern Saharan Atlas. So far it has not been possible to discover the meaning of the word Awrās. The Awrās is a compact massif 8,000 sq. km. in area, which extends from the depression leading from Batna to Biskra as far, Khenchela and the valley of the Wādi ’l-ʿArab, between the high plains of southern Constantino. (Sbāk̲h̲) and the Saharan depression of the Zibān. Its summits (Ḏj̲ibāl Chélia, 2,327 m., and Kef…

, a town in Morocco, ow in ruins. It lay on the south bank of the Straits of Gibraltar, 14 miles W. of Ceuta, 23 miles ¶ E. of Tangier, at the head of a bay sheltered by a spur of the Ḏj̲ebel G̲h̲omāri at the mouth of a navigable river. In ancient times this site was perhaps occupied by a Phoenician factory and then by a Roman town (Lissa or Exilissa of Ptolemy). A fortress was erected there quite early in the period of Muslim occupation, in 90/708-9, according to al-Ziyānī, in Archives Marocaines , vi, 494, on the territory of the Maṣmūda, whence the name of Ḳaṣr Maṣmūda (cf. Ibn K̲h̲aldūn, Hist , des Berb…

, al-Madya , Lemdiya , in French Médéa , a town of Algeria situated about 100 km./60 miles to the south of Algiers (in lat. 36° 15′ 50′′ N., long. 2° 45′ E.), at an altitude of 920 m./3,018 ft. and on the northern border of the mountainous massif which divides the high plateau from the Mittīd̲j̲a. Down to the French occupation, it could only be reached by a bridle-path over the Muzāya pass (979 m./3,270 ft.). The bui…

(Mʿaskar in the local pronunciation; in French, Mascara ), Arabic “military encampment”, a town of Algeria, situated in lat. ¶ 35°26′ N. and long. 4°32′ W. at a distance of 60 miles/96 km. to the south-east of Oran (Wahrān). It lies on the southern slope of the Beni Chougran (Banū S̲h̲uḳrān) range (which rise to 3,054 feet/900 m.), called by the local people S̲h̲āreb errīḥ “drinker of the wind”, and is built on the edge of a ravine at the bottom of which flows the Wādī Sīdī Tūd̲j̲imān and on the other side of which…

(Gegel in Leo Atricanus; Zizeri, Zigeri-Gigerry, Gigeri in western writers), a coastal town in Algeria, 70 km. west of Bougie and 50 km. east of Collo. Geographical position 36° 49′ 54″ N. 5° 44′ 38″ E. Population 21,200 inhabitants (1955). The ancient town of Djidjelli stood high up, where the citadel still stands, on a rocky peninsula which juts out between two bays, one to the west, small and very sheltered, the other lying to the east in a deep basin divided from the open sea by a line of reefs. The present town was built after th…

, a town in Algeria (department of Oran), 50 miles S. W. of Mostaganem and 60 S. E. of Oran. Its position is 35° 26′ N. Lat. and 8′ E. of Greenwich. It lies on the southern slope of the Benī S̲h̲ūgran range, called by the Arabs S̲h̲ārib al-Riḥ and is built on the edge of a ravine at the bottom of which runs the Wād Sīdī Tūd̲j̲iman on the other side of which to the N.W. lies the native faubourg of Bāb ʿAlī. Mascara commands the plain of Eghris, which measures 25 to 30 miles from W. to E. and ,10 …

(French Bône), a town on the Algerian coast in the department of Cons tan tine, situated at the mouth of the Sebus on the western shore of the gulf of the same name, which lies between Cape Garde in the west and Cape Rosa on the east. The town is built between the sea and the wooded heights, which form the outer buttresses of the massif of the Edough (). It is called Bōna by the Arab geographers and ʿAnnāba by the natives. The population (census of 1906) is 42,934 of whom 16,457 are French, 11,880 foreigners, 1662 Jews and 12,935 natives. ¶ The modern town of Bōna is about 1 ½ miles from the site of Hippōne ( Hi…

, a Roman town in Algeria, 25 miles E. of Batna (department of Constantine). Timgad during the first century B. C. was only a little military station intended to watch the northern slopes of the Awrās. In 100 a. d. Trajan decided to build a town there. This was built for the most part by soldiers of the Third Legion, who were stationed at Lambessa, and peopled by colonists, veterans and natives from the country round. It prospered rapidly and was raised to the rank of a colony. The walls which surrounded it had even to be taken away …

, famous passes in Algiers, called Demir Ḳapū, “Iron Gates” by the Turks, and still called “Portes de Fer” by the French. They are breaches made by erosion in the mountains ¶ of the same name, which form the northern border of the plateau of Seṭīf and connect Dire d’Aumale with the Babors of Little Kabylia [cf. the articles algeria, atlas and kabylia]. There are two of these narrow passes, the “Great Gate” ( Bāb al-Kebīr), in the depths of which flows the Wād S̲h̲ebba and through which the road and railway from Algiers to Constantine pass; and the “little gate” ( Bāb al-Ṣeg̲h̲īr), the valley of w…

, a town in Algeria, 106 miles S. E. of Constantine and 12 from the Tunisian frontier in 35° 25′ N. Lat. and 8° 5′ E. Long. (Greenwich); the population is 10,399 of whom 1,614 are Europeans. It is the capital of a mixed commune of 425 sq. miles, corresponding to the territory formerly occupied by the confederation of the Namāns̲h̲a, with 56,991 inhabitants, of whom 56,963 are natives. Tebessa lies in the centre of a plateau of an ¶ average height of 3,000 feet bounded by the massifs of the Osmor and of the Ḏj̲ebel Dukkān, eastern extensions of the Awrās, well watered by wā…

(also called gada in the Sahara Atlas and tasili in Berber), a form assumed by elevations of the ground in the Sahara, according to E. F. Gautier ( Sahara Algérien, Chap. I), “the form assumed by the desert in the plateaus”, usually appears as a broad flat surface which is sometimes slightly undulating but rarely traversed by ravines. The edge of the plateau often consists of long series of steep slopes with rather well marked contours which are called bāṭen or d̲j̲ebel. The upper surface is devoid of vegetation on account of the utter absence of soil and covered with stones…

(Bog̲h̲ār = Abū G̲h̲ār?), a small town in Algeria (department of Algiers) about 50 miles from Medea (Lamdīya) on the left bank of the S̲h̲alif, at a height of 2800 feet above sealevel; the population is 2386 of whom 2041 are natives. The situation of Boghar, the “Balcony of the South” on the borders of the plateaus, on the natural road, formed by the S̲h̲alif where it enters the Tell, which is followed by the nomads on their migrations, has always been of the highest strategic importance. The Roman…

, a town and oasis in the Sahara, 300 miles S.W. of Tripoli and 280 miles S.S.W. of Gabes, in 30° 7′ 48″ N. Lat. and 8° 28′ E. Long. (Greenw.), with 5000—6000 inhabitants. The town occupies the southwestern part of the oasis. It forms a ḳṣar of about 1300 houses surrounded by a dilapidated wall and intersected by narrow streets which are vaulted over almost their whole length. The only architectural monuments are the mosques (14 in number) of unpretending exteriors. According to al-Has̲h̲āʾis̲h̲ī the tombs of two companions of t…

(Arabic Ḳusṭanṭīna, with numerous variants) a town in Algeria, the capital of the département of Constantine, 330 miles cast of Algiers and 50 miles southeast of Philippeville, which is the port of Constantine and is connected with it by railway; it lies in 36° 22′ N. Lat. and 18° 56′ E. Long. (Greenwich). In 1906 the population was 52,247, of whom 15,779 were Europeans, 8,427 Jews and 28,041 natives. The situation of Constantine makes the town a natural fortress. It is built on a rocky plateau in the form of a trapezoid, bounded on the S. E., N. E. and N. W., by…

(French Cherchel), a town in Algeria, 60 miles W. of Algeria; long. L. 10′ E. Long., 36° 37′ N. lat. — Population: 5500 of whom 1490 are Europeans. — The town is built on a plateau 1000 yards broad lying between the sea on the north and wooded hills, the outer buttresses of the massif of the Bani Menaser, in the south. The calcareous rocks of the plateau provide excellent building materials, the fertility of the soil and humidity of the climate are conducive to the growth of all kinds of produce.…

, the name given by Arab writers to the district of Tunisia adjoining the S̲h̲uṭṭ’s and to Tawzer, the most important area in Tunisia. Its boundaries are rather difficult to determine. The descriptions by Ibn Ḥawḳal and al-Idrīsī refer only to the town of Ḳasṭīliya. Al-Bakrī, on the other hand, distinctly distinguishes between the town and the district. “The land of Ḳasṭīliya”, he says, “contains several towns, such as Tawzer, al-Ḥamma and Nefṭa. Tawzer, which is its metropolis, is a large town”…

(French Kairouan) a town in Tunisia, 112 miles south of Tunis and 40 west of Susa to which it is joined by a railway; it lies in 35° 40′ N. Lat. and 10° 2′ E. Long. (Greenwich). The population in 1910 was 22,000 including 800 foreigners of whom 300 were French. Kairwan lies 250 feet above sea-level in the middle of a great plain traversed by the Wādī Zerūd and the Wādī Merguellil, which ultimately disappear in sebk̲h̲as or salt lakes. These rivers are subject to sudden floods, which sometimes ¶ transform the environs of the town into a lake extending up to the foot of the walls. When…

, a country in Senegal, bounded on the north by the circle of Bakel, on the west by the Sandugu, a tributary of the Gambia, which separates it from Ferlo, on the south by the Fuladūgū, on the east by the Faleme, a tributary of the Senegal which separates it from Bambūk. The Bondū measures about 120 miles from east to west and 110 from north to south; it lies between 13° 12′ and 14° 49′ north Lat. and 16° 40′ and 18° 10′ west Long. (Greenw.) and covers an area of about 15,000 square miles. Bondū presents the appearance of a level plain ¶ over which are scattered isolated mounds from 250 to 300 feet…

, Dey of Algiers (1682— 1683), usually called Baba Ḥasan. He was previously a raʾīs (corsair captain) and took part in the revolution of 1671, which put an end to the rule of the Ag̲h̲as and replaced it by that of the Deys. As son-in-law of Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ Muḥammad, who was the first to fill the office of Dey, he held the actual power in name of his father-in-law. He made many enemies by his arrogance, mistrust, and cruelty but suppressed with a strong arm all attempts at rebellion. In 1680, under the pretext of r…

(Land of Palms), or as it is popularly called al-Ḏj̲erīd, a district in Central Tunisia. The name is now given to a group of four oases, viz. Tūzer, Nefṭa, al-Wadiān and al-Ḥamma [cf. the articles tūzer and nefṭa]. The Ḏj̲arīd is a rocky stretch of land bounded on the north by the S̲h̲oṭṭ G̲h̲arsa and in the south by the S̲h̲oṭṭ al-Ḏj̲arīd. The latter forms with its eastern continuation the S̲h̲oṭṭ Fed̲j̲ed̲j̲ an almost ¶ unbroken depression from the shores of the Gulf of Gabes to the Algerian frontier. Shut in by mountains and sand hills against which measures have n…

(Fez from the old Spanish spelling) a town in Morocco and one of the residences of the Sulṭān, situated in 4° 54’ 30” Long W. of Greenwich and 34° 6′ 20″ N. Lat.; it has about 100,000 inhabitants (Erckmann 50,000, Gaillard 90,000, Lamartinière 100,000, Budgett Meakin 120,000). Fās lies at a height of 1155 feet above sea level in the centre of the plain of Saïs, in part on a plateau which lies in front of the outer spurs of the Ḏj̲ebel Zelāg̲h̲a and in part in the hollow through which the waters of the Wādī Fās run to the Sebū which flows abo…

, in Berber Isli (the betrothed), a riverin North Africa. It rises in western Morocco in the S. W. of Ud̲j̲da, runs from S. W. to N. E. through the land of the Angad, passing near Ud̲j̲da, then under the name of Wēd Bū Nuʿaim joins the Muila, a tributary on the left bank of the Tafna. Several battles have been fought on the banks of the Isly. The ʿAbdalwādī Sulṭān Yag̲h̲morāsen was defeated there by the Marīnids in 648 (1250) and 670 (1271). On Aug. 14, 1844 Marshal Bugeaud won a decisive victory there over the Moroccan troops commanded by Mūlāy Muḥam…

(Arabic: Bid̲j̲āya, Kabylian: Bogait̲h̲), a town on the coast of Algeria (department Constantine), Long 5° 9’ (Greenwich), Lat. 36° 49’ N., Population in 1906: 5528. The town is built in an amphitheatre formed by the outermost spurs of the Ḏj̲ebel Gūrāya (2000 feet) around a bay, well sheltered from the winds from the open sea by high cliffs. The temperature is remarkably mild in winter and as the rainfall is very abundant, the vegetation is luxurious (olives, holm-oaks, cork-trees etc.). ¶ Of the history of Bougie for the first three centuries after the Muḥammadan invasion …

, Beylerbey of Algiers. He was the son of Ḵh̲air al-Dīn [q. v.] and a Mooress. His father’s influence with the Porte obtained him the office of Pas̲h̲a of Algiers in 1544 and he was entrusted with the task of restoring Turkish power in western Algeria where it had been considerably weakened. In 1546, Ḥasan conducted a campaign against the Spaniards in the Tlemcen district, but just as he had come face to face with the Christian troops near Arbal he had to return to Algiers as his father had died…

, an oasis of the Sahara on the caravan route from the Lake of Chad to Tripoli at a height of 1016 feet, belongs to the group of oases, called Kawār by the Arabs, and Henneri Tug̲h̲e by the Tebbu (= Rocky Valley according to Nachtigal). Kawār occupies the centre of a sandstone basin of the cretaceous period beneath which impermeable schists collect, not far from the surface, the water which filters down from the mountains of Tibesti. It is a valley running from north to south, about 60 miles lon…

(al-Ṣaḥrāʾ), an African desert. Ṣaḥrāʾ is the feminine of the adjective aṣḥar, “of a fawn colour”. The word is applied by some writers to a combination of stony soil, steppes and sands (cf. al-Idrīsī, ed. de Goeje, p. 37 note), while the word mud̲j̲diba, is more particularly applied to areas covered with moving sands and absolutely devoid of water (cf. Abu ’l-Fidāʾ, Taḳwīm al-Buldān, ed. Reinaud and de Slane, p. 137; transl. Reinaud, it. 190). Leo African us uses it as a synonym for desert in general (Schefer I, i. 5). The Sahara lies between Barbary, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Marma…

, an oasis in the Sahara, about 180 miles south of the coast of the Gulf of Sidra, and about 300 south-east of Tripoli, a valley in the form of an ellipse running from east to west, surrounded by hills rising to a height of 700 feet, viz. the Ḏj̲abal Mas̲h̲riḳ in the N. W., the Ḏj̲abal Ḥōn and Ḏj̲abal Waddān in the N. E., the Ḏj̲abal Miutr in the W. and the Ḏj̲abal al-Soda in the S. A low ridge running from N. to S. cuts the valley into almost equal parts. Of the 1000 square miles of this valley…

, a town and oasis in Southern Algeria in the department of Constantine; 5° 42’ East Long. (Greenwich) and 39° 27’ North Lat. The oasis of Biskra, lying at the foot of the Awrās, at a height of 428 feet above sea-level is the principal oasis of the Zībān (cf. the article Zāb). It extends for 3 miles along the Wād Biskra, has an area of 3200 acres and encloses 150,000 palm trees. The native population is distributed over the villages of Mṣid and Dār al-Ḥarb on the east, Rās al-Guerria, Sidi Barkā…

, an ancient town in the Western Sūdān which has now disappeared. According to Barth it lay in 18° N. Lat. and 7° 8′ W. Long. (Greenw.) not far from Walāta. M. Delafosse however, relying on certain statements by Arab geographers, notably al-Bakrī, places G̲h̲āna in the Awkār district within the triangle Walāta, Nema, Bassikūnū, i. e. about 240 miles north of the Niger on the meridian of Sansanding. Martin Hartmann (and this is also Desborough-Cooley’s opinion) thinks that G̲h̲āna must have been nearer the Niger, not far from Timbuktu. [Cf. in addition J. Marquart, Die Bcnin-Sammlung des N…

(English: Algeria) is a possession of France in northern Africa, bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, on the south by the Sahara, on the east by Tunis and on the west by Morocco. It is situated between 30° and 37° N. Lat., 6° E. Long. and 5° W. Long. (meridian of Paris). a. Geography. Algeria occupies the central part of the Mag̲h̲rib or Barbary. It is a country of varied relief, which is formed by a compact mass of highlands, separated from the mediterranean littoral on the one side and the desert of the Sahara on the other by two mountainous borders, the Tell Atlas and the Sahara Atlas [see atlas…

(Figig), an oasis in Morocco, 76 miles S. of ʿAin Sefra and 3 miles W. of the French station of Benī Unīf (32° 18’ 54” N. Lat. and 1° 26’ 54” W. Long., Greenwich). For long closed to Europeans, it was visited only by the two travellers, Rohlfs and Schaudt; the district was practically only known from information collected by the Service des Affaires Indigènes and remained somewhat mysterious down to the beginning of the xxth century. Since then the progress of the French occupation of the Sahara, the conclusion of the Moroccan agreements and lastly the building of a ra…

, a town in the Central Mag̲h̲rib, which has now disappeared, but was in the vth (xith) century the capital of the Ḥammādid empire (cf. the article ḥammādids ii. 252). Al-Ḳalʿa (Ḳalʿat Abī Ṭawīl in al-Bakrī and in the Kit. al-Istibṣār) was founded by Ḥammād b. Bulukkīn [q. v.] in 398 = 1007-8 on a flank of a mountain called Kiyāna or ʿAd̲j̲īsa by Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn and Tāḳarbast (now Ḏj̲abal Takerbust) by al-Idrīsī. A Roman fort had perhaps previously occupied this site; in the ivth (xth) century Abū Yazīd [q. v.] had tried to check in these regions the Fāṭimid troops, who were pursui…

(Bulaida), a town in Algeria (department of Algiers) with 29,000 inhabitants of whom 6,000 are Europeans. It is built on the southern edge of the plain of Mitīd̲j̲a at a height of 770 feet. The Wēd el-Kebīr (Wādi ’l-Kabīr) runs through the town, bearing to the S̲h̲ifa the waters of the Ḏj̲ebel ʿAbd al-Ḳādir, the highest peak of the Atlas in this part of Algeria. It is surrounded by gardens and orange-groves. Blida is a town of modem origin, the foundation of which is not earlier than the xth century of the Hid̲j̲ra. According to the legend it was founded by a celebrated Marabut of …

, a town in Algeria (department of Oran), 110 miles from Oran and 60 miles S.S.E. of Mascara, 2900 feet above sea-level, on the Wādī Saïda, a branch of the Habra, in a fertile and well-watered country, suitable for the cultivation of cereals and vines. Population: 12,232 inhabitants of whom 5,410 are Europeans. Saïda is the chief town of a mixed commune of 42,469 inhabitants of whom 39,500 are natives. Owing to its position on the very edge of the high plateaux, Saïda has always been of considerable military importance. There was a Roman station here. ʿAbd al-Ḳādi…

, a salt lagoon. The sebk̲h̲a is one of the characteristic features of the hydrography of North Africa and the Sahara, very common in the high plains, without communication with the sea. It is the terminus of a network of streams either above ground or subterranean, which have spread out and disappear in the ground; it is a shallow basin with well marked contours sometimes delineated by steep sides. After rain it is more or less completely filled with water impregnated with mineral substances wh…

(Gegel in Leo Africanus; the Zi-zeri, Zigeri-Gigerry, Gigeri of western writers) a town on the Algerian coast, 50 miles west of Bougie and 30 east of Collo in 36° 49′ 54″ N. Lat. and 5° 44′ 23″ E. Long. (Greenwich) with 6300 inhabitants including 1300 Europeans. The old town of Ḏj̲ijelli was built on a rocky peninsula where the citadel still stands, extending between two bays, one on the west, small and well sheltered, and the eastern, wind-swept, separated from the open sea by a ridge of rock. The mod…

, a town in the French Sūdān, 200 miles S. W. of Timbuktu and 100 N. E. of Segu Sikoro, in Lat. 13° 35’ N. and Long 9° E. (of Greenw.). From the name Ḏj̲enne, pronounced Ḏj̲inni or Ginni, is probably derived the name Guinea given by the Portuguese in the xvith century to West Africa. The first European to reach Ḏj̲enne was the Frenchman René Caillié (11th March 1828). Ḏj̲enne lies at some distance from the left bank of the Bani, a tributary of the Niger on a rocky plateau in the midst of a wide plain which is covered with water in the rainy season. This remarkable…

(Ḏj̲ebel), a mountain massif of Southern Algeria, situated between the Ḳṣūr mountains in the S. W. and the mountains of the Awlād Nail in the N. E. [see algeria, atlas]. It is an elevation stretching from N. E. to S. W. at a length of about 62 and a breadth of about 37 miles, and covers an area of about 2700 square miles. Its height is only from 650 to 975 feet above the plateaux from which it rises in gentle slopes; towards the Sahara, however, it slopes down fairly abruptly. The structure of the massif is rather irregular…

b. His̲h̲ām, emperor of Morocco, born in 1778. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was the son of Mūlāi His̲h̲ām, governor of Mogador, brother of the sultan Mūlāi Sulaimān. His uncle nominated him on two occasions as his successor. On the death of Mūlāi Sulaimān on the 4th Rabīʿ I 1238 (22d Nov. 1822), ʿAbd al-Raḥmān had little difficulty in having himself proclaimed sultan. The Bok̲h̲arī handed over to him the 40000 piastres accumulated by his predecessor; two claimants, Ibrāhīm b. Yazīd and Sulaimān, his own cousin, who was proclaimed sultan by the people of T…

(Ḳafṣa), a town in Tunisia, 146 miles S. of Ḳairawān, 26 miles from Tunis and 130 from Sfax, with which it is connected by a railroad built to serve the phosphate deposits of Metlawī, 26 miles E. of Gafsa; it lies in 36° 24′ 32″ N. Lat. and 8° 40′ E. Long (Greenw.). It has a population of about 5000 including 360 Europeans and 379 Jews. Gafsa occupies a remarkable geographical and strategic position. The town, built on a rounded eminence 1150 feet high, commands the ravine of the Wādī Bāʾis̲h̲, between the mountainous massif of the Ḏj̲ebel Orbata in the S. E.,…

, in the Arab authors: Benzert, a town on the northern coast of Tunisia, about 40 miles to the N. E. of Tunis; 9° 53’ East Long. (Greenwich) and 37° 17’ N. Lat., Population 35,000. Bizerta lies between the sea and a lake which runs 11 miles inland and covers an area of 35 square miles. The location of Bizerta, commanding the strait between Sicily and the African coast, renders its position of the highest strategic importance. Bizerta occupies the site of the Phoenician town of Hippo-Diarrhytus (It. Hippone Zarito, Ar. Benzert). It became a Carthaginian possession, was ne…

, Arabie S̲h̲aṭṭ [q. v.]. The principal S̲h̲oṭṭ are, on the high plateaus, the Tigri S̲h̲oṭṭ in Moroccan territory; the S̲h̲oṭṭ G̲h̲arbī formed by two basins, the S̲h̲oṭṭ of the Hamyan to the East and the S̲h̲oṭṭ of Mahaia to the West, and the S̲h̲oṭṭ S̲h̲erḳī situated to the South of Saida. In the central district between the Tell Atlas and the mountains of the Ūled Naʾil, the Ẓahr al-S̲h̲erḳī and the Ẓahr al-G̲h̲arbī; more to the East the S̲h̲oṭṭ of the Hodna occupies the centre of the depressio…

, the government offices of the Mak̲h̲zen in Marocco. The Benīḳa are large rooms in one of the courts of the Dār al-Mak̲h̲zen in Fās (Fez) or wherever the Sulṭān is for the time. The viziers reside there with their secretaries and see that business is dispatched. The following nine officials are each entitled to a “benīḳa”: the Wazīr (Minister for the Interior), the Wazīr al-Baḥr (Foreign Minister), the Amīn al-Umanāʾ (Minister of Finance), the Amīn al-Dak̲h̲al (in charge of the revenues), the Amīn al-S̲h̲kāra (entrusted with the expenditure), the Amīn al-Ḥisāb (Accountant-General), t…

, a town in Algeria (department of Constantine) 24 miles N.E. of Burd̲j̲ Bū ʿArrarīd̲j̲. Ḳalʿa occupies at the height of 3,500 feet a natural fortress formed by a plateau surrounded on three sides by rugged and deep ravines, 1800 to 2000 feet high and joined to the adjoining country by a narrow tongue with precipices on either side. The town is divided into four quarters, which formerly were frequently fighting with one another and one of which is now almost in ruins. It is the most important ce…

(Baḳīrmī or Bakīrmī), a country in the Central Sudan, to the south of Lake Chad. Bagirmi was for a long time unknown to Europeans. Denham visited the northern part in 1824, being the first European to do so. Barth, setting out from Bornū, reached Massenya and gathered important historical information on his journey (5 March—22 August 1852). Nachtigal, in 1872, ascended the S̲h̲āri as far as Baing̲h̲anné, but could not penetrate into the interior on account of the troubled state of the country. To …

(ḳṣar al-kebīr), a town in Northern Morocco, about 50 miles south of Tangier on the right bank of the Wādī Lukkos, which at one time ran through it, but the course of the stream was diverted to prevent inundations. Lying in a vast plain commanded on the east by heights it is divided into two parts, al-S̲h̲ariʿa in the north and Bāb al-Wād on the south, between which lies the sūḳ or market-place. The only buildings of any importance are the great mosque which is pre-Almohad, the mosque of Sīdī al-Azmīrī and the Ḏj̲āmiʿ al-Saida, finished in 1689. Within and around the town are many ḳubba’s dedicated…

, famous Turkish Corsair, co-founder of the Algerian-Turkish state. Christian authors often give him the name Barbarossa, which however rather belongs to his brother Ḵh̲air al-Dīn [q.v.] His origin has been much disputed. Some take him to be the son of a Turkish captain, others that of a Greek or Albanian renegade or even of a nobleman of Saintonge. The most probable view is that his father was a potter of the island Metelino (the ancient Lesbos). From earliest youth along with his two brothers Ḵh̲air al-Dīn, Elias and Is…

, a town in Algeria on the coast, 125 miles from Algiers, 100 miles E. of Mostaganem and 35 N. of Orleans, a town in the valley of the Chelif; its position is 36° 30’ 50” N. Lat. 1° 18’ E. Long (Greenwich). The town is built on a rocky plateau commanding the sea; the harbour lies below in a bay sheltered from the east winds by the bulk of Cape Tenes, but unprotected against the north and west which makes the anchorage unsafe in spite of the considerable work done to secure the protection of ship…

(Barbarossa), the famous Turkish corsair and Beylerbey of Algiers and brother of ʿArūd̲j̲ [q. v.]. In spite of the statement to the contrary by Haëdo, it is he who is referred to by the epithet Barberousse (Barbarossa, Aenobarbus) in the diplomatic correspondence of the French court. Born at Metellin about 888 (1483) he was at first a pirate under the command of his brother and acquired a great reputation for skill and bravery. When ʿArūd̲j̲ set out on his expedition against Tlemcen he gave his …

(Ḥōḍ), a semi-desert region in Western Africa. It is a plain, lying to the east of Timbuktu between the Sahel on the south and the Tagant on the north, stretching over a distance of about 200 miles. A zone of steppes called Mrāya (mirror) separates the Hodh from that part of the western Sahara known by the name of al-Ḏj̲ūf. Three well-defined divisions may be distinguished in the Hodh. In the south is a region of sand and thorny brushwood, fairly rich in wells and sustaining quite a numerous pop…

, Ḵh̲alīfa of Ḵh̲air al-Dīn in Algiers. He was born in Sardinia and had been taken prisoner by Ḵh̲air al-Dīn on a raid and enrolled among his eunuchs. He soon won the confidence of his master who made him kiaya (major-domo) and entrusted him with the government of Algiers during his campaign against Tunis [see k̲h̲air al-dīn]. When Ḵh̲air al-Dīn was recalled to Turkey in 1636, he left the government in his hands and Ḥasan filled his office to the general satisfaction. “To this day”, writes Haedo, “many of those who knew him say that there never was a more just Pas̲h̲a”. Charles V’s attack on Alg…

, a maritime town in Morocco on the Strait of Gibraltar, 10 miles south of Gibraltar, 40 north-west of Tetwān and 140 north of Fas (Fez), with 9694 inhabitants; Lat. 35° 54′ N. Long. 5° 18′ W. (Greenw.). It is fortified and is the most important of the Spanish presidios. Ceuta is built on a peninsula running from west to east terminating in a rocky mass (Ḏj̲ebel al-Mīna) surmounted by a lighthouse. The peninsula itself is dominated in the centre by the Monte del Hacho which rises to a height of 600 feet. The town is divided into two parts, the …

(Kerkenna), a group of islands off the eastern coast of Tunisia on a level with Sfax in 34° 35′—34° 50′ N. Lat. An arm of the sea about 25 miles broad and full of shallows which make navigation impossible for ships of large tonnage separates them from the coast. The islands are two in number — S̲h̲arḳī (Charki; the Cercina of the ancients) to the N. E. and G̲h̲arbī (Cercinitis) to the S. E. The first is 15 miles long and 4½ miles broad on an average. The coast is much indented and fringed on the…

(Aurès; in the sixth century Αὐράσιον ὄροΣ in Procopius, De bell. Vandal., i. 8, ii. 12— 13, 19—20) a mountainmass in Algeria in the Sahara Atlas [see Algeria, Atlas]. The meaning of the word Awrās has not yet been ascertained. It is probably a word of Berber origin that appears in several mountainnames. Possibly the Ḏj̲ebel Awrās to the South of Ḵh̲ens̲h̲ela hats given its name to the whole system. The Awrās forms a quadrangle which from ¶ North to South and from East to West measures about 65 miles and in the south of the province of Constantine covers an area of about…

b. Muhyi’l-Dīn al-Ḥasanī, the Emīr, born in 1223 (1808) near al-Maʿaskar (Mascara). His family was one of the most influential in the Hās̲h̲im tribe, which, after having resided for a longtime in Morocco, removed and established itself in the 18th century in the beylic of Oran. In addition to the prestige derived by this family from its princely source was added the reputation for holiness gained by Muṣṭafā b. Muḥammed b. Muk̲h̲tār, the grandfather of ʿAbd al-Ḳādir, and above all by Muḥyi’l-Dīn, his father. ʿAbd al-Ḳādir, then, grew …

, a town on the Tunisian coast, 75 miles W.N.W. of Tunis and 10 miles E. of the Algerian frontier. It is built on a sandy bay surrounded by hills at the mouth of a rather narrow fertile valley watered by the Wād al-Kabīr, which descends from the mountains of Ain-Draham (Ḵh̲umiria). Three quarters of a mile from the shore lies a rocky islet, 2,000 yards long and 500 broad. A roadstead lies between this island and the mainland accessible on the east side to ships of medium tonnage but only possibl…

, the valley of a river of the Quaternian epoch in the Sahara, which has now disappeared and is reduced to a subterranean sheet of water. The Ig̲h̲arg̲h̲ar, according to Duveyrier, rises near Azakān-n-Akūr, in ¶ the massif of the Haggar at a height of about 6000 feet. It ends near the oasis of Gūg, in the south of Tuggūrt, after a course of about 800 miles (900, if one includes the Wād G̲h̲ir, which is its continuation). Its basin extends from the. crests of Tademayt in the west to the oasis of G̲h̲āt in the east and from the Haggar to the S̲h̲ott Melg̲h̲ir, i. e. from the 23rd to the 34th degree of North…

, a people of the Eastern Sahara. The Tūbū are distributed over an immense territory lying between the Libyan desert on the east and the Haggar on the west, Fezzan in the north and the region of Tchad in the south. In Fezzan, they constitute the greater part of the district of Gatrūn; they are found in Kūfra; they occupy Tibesti, Borkū, Bodele, the northern port of Wadai, the valley of the Baḥr al-G̲h̲azal; they are very numerous in Kanem and in the oasis of Kawar. The name Tūbū or Tibbū was giv…

, the region of the French Sudan between the upper waters of the Senegal and the Sahara. The boundaries of Kaarta are in the north the land of the Dowais̲h̲ Moors and the Hōd̲h̲ [q. v.], in the east Bakhunu, in the south Beledugu and Fuladugu, and in the west the Senegal from the western branch of the Kulu pool to the confluence with the Baulé. It is a vast schistose plateau inclining towards the S. E. so that the majority of its rivers run towards the Senegal. The climate is that of the Sahelia…

, residence of the Beys of Tunis, lying 1¼ miles to the southwest of it. The site of Bardo, famous for its coolness in summer, appears to have been early visited by rich citizens who had gardens and country houses here. Here was the park of Abū Fahr laid out by the Ḥafṣid Emīr al-Mustanṣir (1249—1277) with its groves of rare trees, its lake watered by the aqueduct of Zag̲h̲wān, which was large enough to be sailed on by the ladies of the Ḥarem in boats, its summerhouses inlaid with mosaic and decorated with woodcarvings (see Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn, Histoire des Berbers, transl, de Slane, ii. 339). In the xvith c…

b. al-Ḥusain, last Dey of Algiers (1818—1830). Born in Smyrna about 1765, Ḥusain was filling the office of Ḵh̲ōd̲j̲a al-Ḵh̲ail when the Dey ʿAlī struck down by the plague appointed him his successor. Ḥusain was proclaimed without opposition. He was a well educated man, moderate in his views, who did not desire power and only accepted it with reluctance. He was considered benevolent and just, and hastened to inaugurate his reign by an amnesty and the abolition of various violent measures taken by his predecessors. …

, a town in Algeria (department of Algiers), 60 miles S. W. of Algiers. It is built on a plateau at a height of 2,400 feet on the flank of the Zaccar G̲h̲arbī (5,270 feet) and commands on the east and south the valley of the S̲h̲elif. Owing to the comparative mildness of the climate and the abundance of running water it is surrounded by gardens and vineyards tilled by natives, while European colonists have created on the adjoining slopes a vine-growing district whose produce is famous. It is an …

, a region of Algeria. The name Zāb (plur. Zibān) is given to the area around Biskra measuring about 125 miles from W. to E. and 30 to 40 from N. to S. It is a rather flat plain shading in the south into the Sahara and bordered on the north by the southern slopes of the Saharan Atlas, but having easy communication with the depression of the Hodna and the plateaus of Constantine through a wide gap which opens up between the hills of Zāb and the Awrās. Being subject to desert influences Zāb has only rare a…

The collective designation of the whole mountain system which forms the skeleton of North Africa and stretches from the Atlantic Ocean through Morocco, Algeria and Tunis to the Gulf of Tunis. The name, which was already in use among the Greeks, seems to be a corruption of the Berber word Adrār (“mountain”). Although North Africa was a Roman possession the ancients appear to have had only very indistinct notions of the Atlas, ¶ Strabo (Book xvii) identifies the Atlas of the Greeks with the mountain called Dyrin (Berber: Deren) by the natives, which lay in the extreme west of Maureta…

(), a town in Tunisia, 110 miles S. W. of Tunis and about 20 from the Algerian frontier, situated in 36° 11′ N. Lat. and 8° 30′E. Long. The population in 1911 was 6,312, including 1,200 Europeans and 800 Jews. Many of the latter are descended from the jews who used to live among the Beduins, whose customs and dress they had adopted. The word kef means “rock”. It is. given on account of the situation of the town on a spur of the Ḏj̲abal Dyr at a height varying from 2,486 feet in the S.W. to 2,853 in the N.E. Before the establishment of the French protectorate,…

, a Berber dynasty in Central Mag̲h̲rib, which was founded in 405 (1014) ¶ by Ḥammād b. Bulukkīn [q. v.] and overthrown in 547 (1152) by the Almohads. They had to wage continual warfare on the Zenāta, who threatened them from the west, the Zīrīds, the former lords of the central Mag̲h̲rib and lastly from the second half of the xith century onwards against the Hilālī Arabs also. Al-Ḳāʾid, Ḥammād’s successor (419—446 = 1028—1154-1055), defeated Ḥammāma, son of Muʿizz b. Zīrī b. ʿAṭīya and forced his cousin, the Zīrīd al-Muʿizz b. Bādīs, the ruler of Ḳairaw…

b. ʿAlī, the last Zīrīd ruler of Mahdīya (515—543 = 1121-1122—1148-1149). He was still a child when his father ʿAlī died and had to leave the administration to his freemen. They were particularly occupied with warding off the attacks of the Normans of Sicily. In 1122 Admiral George of Antioch seized the island of Cossira (Pantellaria) and the castle of Cape Dimas and began to lay siege to Mahdīya, but was forced to return to his ships after severe fighting in which he lost heavily. In 1135 the Ch…

, a town in Southern Tunisia, 230 miles S.S.W. of Tunis and 120 W. of Gabes in 33° 54′ 48″ N. Lat. and 8° 8′ E. Long. (Greenwich). Tūzer is the most important place in al-Ḏj̲arīd [cf. bilād al-d̲j̲arīd]. Situated on the isthmus which separates the S̲h̲oṭṭ G̲h̲arsa in the N. from the S̲h̲oṭṭ al-Ḏj̲arīd in the S. and in the immediate neighbourhood of the latter; it consists of a town and a few scattered villages in the oasis which runs southwards over an area of about four sq. miles. The principal town is quite regularly ¶ built; the majority of the houses are built of bricks arranged in geo…

(Banū), a Tunisian dynasty. The establishment of the Banū Ḵh̲orāsān in Tunis was a consequence of the Ḥilālī invasion. Irritated because the Zīrid Sulṭān al-Muʿizz did not protect them against the brigandage of the Arabs, the inhabitants of Tunis in 451 (1059) asked the Ḥammādid sovereign of al-Ḳalʿa to send them a governor. This prince chose for this office ʿAbd al-Ḥaḳḳ b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Ḵh̲orāsān, a personage originally from Tunis according to certain authors, but belonging, according to Ibn…

, Berber Ait Iraten (cf. Ait), Arabic Banū Raten, a tribe of Great Kabylia, whose territory is bounded on the north by the Sebau, in the west by the Wādi Aisi, which separates them from the Banū Yenni, in the south by the district of the Ait Yaḥyā and in the east by that of the Ait Frausen, and forms a hilly country from 3000 ¶ to. 3500 feet in height, yielding olives and figs and some corn. The inhabitants are settled in several villages, of which the most important are ʿAdeni, Tawrirt Amoḳrān, Usammör, and Agemun. To-day the Banū Raten form a single dwār community (cf. dawār at the end) of 9781 sou…

(Baiḍāʾ), called Casablanca in Europe, a town on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, about 200 miles S. E. of Tangier and 200 N. W. of Mogador, in 33° 37’ N. Lat. and 12° 15’ W. Long. (Greenw.), with 30,000 inhabitants, including 4000—5000 Jews and 500—600 Europeans (Spaniards, French, English, German and Portuguese). The town is surrounded by walls crowned with towers and pierced by four gates. It is divided into three sections: the Madīna with houses built of stone in the Moorish style but with outer windows, traversed by broad irregular streets; the Mallāḥ or Jewish quarter; the Tnākar, a quar…

(Ḳābis), a town in Southern Tunisia, in 33° 52′ 58″ N. Lat., 10° 4′ 6″ E. Long. (Greenw.), 80 miles south of Sfax and 250 south of Tunis, on the west coast of the Gulf of Gabes or Lesser Syrtis, on the side of a rocky isthmus, which separates the sea from S̲h̲oṭṭ al-Fed̲j̲ed̲j̲. It is the capital of the district of Arad. Gabes includes three settlements; the town of Gabes, a European suburb with 1200 inhabitants of whom 500 are French, and the native villages of Ḏj̲ara (4000 inh.), Chenini (1000) and Menzel (3500). The European town lies on the right bank o…

, plural of the Arabic word ʿirḳ (literally ‘vein’). As a geographical term this word, or more frequently the singular ʿerg, is used as a name of the vast stretches covered with dunes, which form about one ninth of the area of the Sahara [q. v.]. In the Berber dialects they are called ig’idi or edeïen. The most important of these ‘seas of sand’ are the Libyan desert between the Egyptian oases and Tibesti, — the edeïen of the Touareg country between the Ḥamada of Ting̲h̲ert, the Ḥamada al-Ḥamrāʾ, the Tassili and the Ḥamada of Murzuk, — the Mag̲h̲ter …

, a Zāwiya of the Senūsī in the Oasis of Faredg̲h̲a on the frontier between Tripolitania and Egypt, fifteen days’ journey S.E. of Beng̲h̲āzī and two S. W. of the Oasis of Sīwa: Lat. 29° 47′ N., Long. 24° 20′ E. (Greenw.). This place was uninhabited when S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Sīdī Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Senūsī, founder of the Senūsīya order, settled there on his return from Mecca and Cairo in 1855. He built a Zāwiya on a rocky spur commanding the oasis, dug a spring out of the rocks and planted gardens and a palm-grove. He died and was buried there in 1859; beside him lies one of his sons Sīdī Muḥammad S̲h̲arīf, (d. 27t…

, a town in Algeria (department of Algiers), 60 miles S. of Algiers, in 36° 15′ 50″ N. Lat. and 2° 45′ E. Long. (Greenwich). Medea lies at an altitude of 3,070 feet on the northern border of the mountainous massif which divides the high plateaus from the Mitid̲j̲a. Down to the French occupation, it could only be reached by a bridle-path over the Muzaia pass (3,270 feet). The building of a road through the gorges of the Chiffa, alongside of which a railway now runs, has made access to it easier. …

, the district of Barḳa, a part of the Turkish Wilāyet Beng̲h̲azi [q. v.], the ancient Cyrenaïca, is a wide chalk plateau from 1200— 1600 feet high and about 100 miles broad. In the north its steep and rugged slopes fall abruptly towards the Mediterranean from which it is separated only by a narrow strip of lowland, while in the south it sinks very slowly down into the Libyan desert. The edge of the plateau is formed by a line of heights which under the names of Ḏj̲ebel Erkula and Ḏj̲ebel al-Dak…

, a negro people in the Sūdān. They occupy the zone included between the Sahara on the north, Bornu on the east, the bend of the Niger on the west and the coast countries ¶ of the Gulf of Guinea (Togo, Dahomey, Benin and the Cameroons) on the south. It is one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa; according to Robinson it numbers about 15,000,000 souls. The Hausas are very clearly distinguished in physique from other black races. As a rule they are tall; their hands and feet are small, their features regular and their physiognomy intelligent. They are active a…

(al-Ḳulaiʿa), a ḳṣar and oasis in the Algerian Sahara, 166 miles south of G̲h̲ardaya, 240 southwest of Wārglā and 245 north of ʿĪn Ṣālaḥ, 30° 31′ 12″ N. Lat., 3° 7′ 30″ E. (Greenw.), population 2500. Al-Goléa, the name of which means “the little fortress”, called in Berber Taurirt, consists of two parts, the ḳṣar proper built on the northern flank of a “garat” which serves as storehouses for the nomads and a lower part occupied by the settled population. The latter is composed of Zenāga, who came from Gurāra and of manumitted negroes ¶ who cultivate the gardens of the oasis. A subterrane…

(or Asben) is a mountainous district of the Sahara between Lat. 20° and 16° N. Air is 280 miles in length from north to south, and 60 in breadth from east to west in its central part. Its area may be estimated at 5800 square miles, the population at a number varying between 60 000 and 100 000 inhabitants. This country is at present one of the least known regions of Africa. Barth explored it in 1850, and it was afterwards visited by E. de Bary, who was prevented by the hostility of the natives fro…

, a Tripolitan oasis situated 150 miles south-southwest of the coast of the Gulf of Gabes and 152 miles east-north-east of Murzuk and distant about 60 hours journey from Beng̲h̲āzī. Ibn Ḥawḳal describes it as a small town which had just shortly before been incorporated in the province of Barka and makes particular mention of its richness in date-palms (Ibn Ḥawḳal, transl. by de Slane, yourn. As., Series 3, xiii. 163). A century later it is mentioned by al-Bakrī as a thickly populated town with bazaars and several mosques and he adds that Awd̲j̲ila is really th…

, a Berber dynasty of northern Africa, which ruled Ifrīḳīya for over three centuries (626—981 = 1228—1574). It took its name from S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Abū Ḥafṣ ʿOmar, chief of the Hintāta, one of the first disciples of Ibn Tūmart and one of ʿAbd al-Muʾmin’s most faithful lieutenants. [Cf. the article almohads, i. 317b]. His descendants enjoyed such esteem that, according to Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn, they alternated with the descendants of ʿAbd al-Muʾmin as governors of Spain, the Mag̲h̲rib and Ifrīḳīya. It thus came about that Abū Muḥammad ¶ b. Abī Ḥafṣ was appointed governor of Ifrīḳīya by the Calip…

, a mountainous country in the Algerian Tell. The name Kabylia or land of the Kabyls (Arab. Bilād al-Ḳabāʾil) is of comparatively modern origin; it is not found in the Arab historians or geographers, nor is it usual among the natives. It seems only to have been introduced as a geographical name by European scholars since the sixteenth century. The name Kabyls is taken from the Arabic ḳabāʾil, plur. of ḳabīla, “tribe”, which some Arab writers use as a synonym for Berbers; this is found as early as the author of the Ḳirṭās, who several times (e. g. p. 217 and 238 of the Arabic text), in …

is a locality in the north of Tunis, at an elevation of 2641 feet, on the very pass between the Ḏj̲ebel Fersig (2998 feet) and the Ḏj̲ebel Bir (3343 feet), through which the road runs, which leads from the valley of the Med̲j̲erda (Soukh el-Arba) to the Mediterranean (Tabarka). Consequently ʿAin Draham is the most important strategical point of Ḵh̲ūmiria, commanding the whole of that mountainous region. During the French expedition of 1881 it was occupied by the troops of General Delebecque. Si…

(the Gerbo of Leo Africanus, and Gelves of Marmol) is an island in the Mediterranean in the Gulf of Gabes. It is in the form of an irregular hexagon, measuring 26 miles from east to west and from north to south from 11 to 26 miles and having an area of 224 sq. miles. An arm of the sea about 40 miles broad separates the western side of the island from the Tunisian coast while in the south it is only separated from the mainland by the “Sea of Bugrara”, which is practically a lake as it only communicates…

, a country in the Central Sūdān, east and north-east of Lake Tchad. Until recent years Kanem was only known from the accounts of Barth, who visited a part of it in 1851, and Nachtigal, who crossed it in 1871 on his way to Borku. But from 1900 onwards, the work of French scientific missions, as well as the explorations of officers and officials entrusted with the administration of the “territoire militaire du Tchad”, have made it possible to rectify and complete the data furnished by these two travellers. The name Kanem, taken in the widest acceptation, is applied, according to Nach…

, a religious fanatic and conqueror in the Sūdān, founder of the Tuculor kingdom (1797—1864). Born at Aloar in Futā in Senegal, ʿOmar Saidū Tal began his theological studies under the direction of his father, a celebrated marabout, completed them in Wabata among the Moors of Tagant and made the pilgrimage to Mecca about 1820. During his stay in the holy city he attached himself to S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Muḥammad al-G̲h̲ālī, a pupil of Tid̲j̲ānī’s and entered the Tid̲j̲ānī order. On his return to Africa he s…

, a term applied by the European geographers to the district of north Africa lying near to and along the sea-coast. It is the Arabic word tell “hill”. The Tell area is an undulating region covered with ranges of hills belonging for the most part to the Atlas system interspersed with plateaus of varying extent and height. As a result of the beneficent effect of the moist winds from the Ocean and the Mediterranean, the Tell is the best watered region in North Africa. It is the land of systematic agriculture and forests in …

(Fr. Azemmour), a town on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, 50 miles S.W. of Casablanca and 7 miles N. E. of Mazagan, on the left bank and near the north of the Umm al-Rabīʿa. This river is navigable even by ships of small tonnage on account of a sandbank that bars its entrance. Azemmūr therefore, though it is the natural market for the sale of goods from the ¶ Dukkala district, ranks far behind Mazagan in commercial importance. The town has some 5000 inhabitants including many Jews but no Europeans. It is for this very reason that it has preserved its native chara…

, a Berber tribe, which played an important part in Northern Africa during the first three centuries of the Hid̲j̲ira. The Ifren whom the Berber genealogists trace back to Īfrī b. Iṣlīten b. Masrā b. Zākiyā b. Ursik b. Adīdat b. Ḏj̲ānā were the most powerful of the Zenāta tribes at the time of the Arab conquest. Their various sections were scattered through the south of Ifrīḳiya (Banū Wārgū, Marand̲j̲īṣa) and on the edge of the high Algerian plateaus in the regions of Tāhart and Tlemcen. After h…

, a town of Central Morocco, which no longer exists. The few traces of it, that survive, lie 3 miles south of Barika (department of Constantine) between the Wādī Barika in the north and the Wādī Bit̲h̲am in the south. The advantages of this position, which commands the passage between the Sahara and the plateaus of the Tell, the S̲h̲oṭṭ Hodna. and the mountains bordering the east of this depression, had been recognised by the Romans. They built here on this site the town of Tubuna, which became a municipium in the time of Septimius Severus, and after a fortress had been built there …

, a title borne by the rulers of Algiers and Tunis. The word in Turkish signifies a maternal uncle. According to a legend reported by Venture de Paradis ( Alger au XVIIIe siècle: Rev. Africaine 1896, p. 257) the father of the Barbarossas used to enjoin his sons to obey Ḵh̲air al-Dīn, saying, “He will be your Dey”. In reality this word seems to have been originally ¶ applied to a subaltern in the Janissaries. At Tunis towards the end of the xvith century, it denoted the chief of each of the 40 sections into whom Sinān-Pas̲h̲a had divided the militia. In 1 591 these 40 deys ele…

, a state in Central Sūdān. Bornū is bounded on the north by the Sahara, on the west by the Hausa country, on the south by the Adamaua, in the south-east by the Bagirmi, on the east by Lake Chad. These boundaries are, as Nachtigal points out, rather indefinite in the neighbourhood of the desert, and on the other sides they have continually varied with political circumstances. During the last quarter of the xixth century Bornū might have been regarded as lying between 11° 19′ and 14° 30′ North Lat. and 9° 50′ and 16° 29′ East Long. (Greenw.). Its area may be estimated at about 80,000 square miles. The o…

(Bambarra), the, a negro people in the French Sūdān. The Bambāra country is bounded on the north by the land occupied by Moors, in the south by the Mandingo country and in the east by Masina. It lies between 12° and 14° N. Lat. and 4° and 8° W. Long, of Greenwich. Its boundaries are approximately: in the north, a line drawn from Kulodugu to Tambakara; in the south, the upper course of the Senegal from Medine to Bafulabe, the Bakoy to its confluence with the Baule and lastly the Niger ¶ from Bamako to Sansanding. The Bambāra are here found sometimes in very large bodies as in Beludugu …

(in Berber „mountain range“), name of two African regions: Adrār of the Awelimmiden [see tuareg], situated north of the Middle Niger, and Adrār Tmarr, or West Adrār, to the north of Senegal between the newly organized French territory of Mauritania and Southern Morocco. The pronunciation of the natives is, according to Barth, for the former Aderār, for the latter Aderēr. West Adrār is one of the least known parts of the Sahara. Perhaps in the beginning of the 16th century it was visited by the Portuguese settled in Arguin, who came there now and then to trafic and exploit…

(Gumera in Leo Africanus), a Berber tribe in the western Mag̲h̲rib. Ibn Ḵh̲aldūn numbers it among the Maṣmūdī tribes and traces it back to G̲h̲omār, a son of Maṣmūd, or, according to another tradition, son of Mesṭāf b. Melīl b. Maṣmūd. The G̲h̲omāra are divided into a large number of clans (Benī Ḥamīd, Metīwa, Benī Nāl, Ag̲h̲sāwa, Benī Wazarwāl, Med̲j̲kasa etc.), names which are still to be found at the present day among a number of Rīf tribes. It is rather difficult to define exactly the terri…

(Ḵh̲umir). A people of northern Tunis. Ḵh̲umiria has as its boundaries, to the north the Mediterranean sea, to the west the Algerian frontier, to the south the Wādi G̲h̲ezala, a tributary of the Med̲j̲erda, to the east the country of the Nefza and the Chiahia. The area of this region is about 350 square miles. It is a country with a very hilly surface, occupied by a mountain mass stretching as far as Algeria. Although the average altitude hardly exceeds 3,000 feet, these heights cut by deep ravi…

, a town in Algeria (department of Oran, a mixed commune of Mina) 20 miles N.E. of Mascara, on the Wādī Ḳalʿa, one of the branches of the Hillil. Population (1911): 2072 inhabitants, of whom 2047 natives. Carpetmaking, at one time a flourishing industry here, still employs 500 workmen, although on the decline. Ḳalʿa was founded in the vith (xiith) century by Muḥammad b. Isḥāḳ, chief of the Huwāra, living in the region of Mina. He built a citadel and gathered round it his tribesmen as well as the Masrāta, a Berber clan related to the Huwāra. Isḥāḳ’s desc…

, al-Ag̲h̲wāt, a town andoasis in Southern Algeria, 250 miles south of Algiers in 2° 55’ East. Lat., 33° 48’ N. Lat., at 2,400 feet above sea-level. In 1911 it had 5,598 inhabitants of whom 595 were Europeans. Laghuat which forms part of the “Territoire” of Ghardaïa is the capital of a mixed commune and a native commune of 6,650 square miles with 19,810 inhabitants. The town and the oasis lie on the right bank of the Wēd Mzi, which comes from the Ḏj̲ebel Amūr and finally under the name of Wēd Ḏj̲edi enters the S̲h̲oṭṭ Melg̲h̲ir in the south of the province of…