Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

BERBERS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 767 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

BERBERS , the name under which are included the various branches of the indigenous " Libyan " See also:

race of See also:North See also:Africa. Since the See also:dawn of See also:history the Berbers have occu- See also:Ethnology. pied the See also:tract between the Mediterranean and the See also:Sahara from See also:Egypt to the See also:Atlantic. The origin of the name is doubtful. Some believe it to be derived from the word (3apj3apoc (barbarians), employed first by the Greeks and later by the See also:Romans. Others attribute the first use of the See also:term to the Arab conquerors. However this may be, tribal titles, Barabara and Beraberata, appear in See also:Egyptian See also:inscriptions of 1700 and 1300 B.C., and the Berbers were probably intimately related with the Egyptians in very See also:early times. Thus the true ethnical name may have become confused with Barbari, the designation naturally used by classical conquerors. To the Egyptians they were known as " Lebu," " Mashuasha," " Tamahu," " Tehennu " and " Kahaka "; a See also:long See also:list of names is found in See also:Herodotus, and the Romans called them Numidae, Gaetuli and Mauri, terms which have been derived respectively from the See also:Greek voµabes (nomads), the name Gued'oula, of a See also:great See also:Berber tribe, and the See also:Hebrew mahur (western). To speak of more See also:modern times there can be enumerated the Zouaoua and Jebalia (See also:Tripoli and See also:Tunisia); the Chauwia, Kabyfes and Beni-Mzab (See also:Algeria); the Shhih (Chlouah), Amazigh and Berbers (See also:Morocco); the See also:Tuareg, Atnoshagh, Sorgu, &c. (Sahara). These tribes have many sub-tribes, each with a distinctive name. Among the Azgar, an important See also:division of the Tuareg, one of the See also:noble or See also:free tribes, styled Aouraghen, is said to descend from a tribe named Avrigha.

The Avrigha, or Afrigha, in See also:

ancient times occupied the See also:coast lands near See also:Carthage, and some scholars derive the word Africa from their name (see AFRICA, See also:ROMAN). In regard to the ethnic relations of the Berbers there has been much dispute. The antiquity of their type is evidenced by the monuments of Egypt, where their ancestors are pictured with the same comparatively blond features which many of them still display. The See also:aborigines of the See also:Canary, Islands, the See also:Guanches, would seem almost certainly, from the remains of their See also:language, to have been Berbers. But the problem of the actual origin of the Berber race has not yet been solved. Perhaps the most satisfactory theory is that of Sergi, who includes the Berbers in the " Mediterranean Race." See also:General L. L. C. See also:Faidherbe regards them as indigenous Libyans mingled with a See also:fair-skinned See also:people of See also:European origin. Dr See also:Franz Pruner-See also:Bey, See also:Henri See also:Duveyrier and Prof. See also:Flinders See also:Petrie maintain that they are closely related to the ancient Egyptians. Connexion has been traced between the early Libyan race and the Cro-Magnon and other early European races and, later, the Basque peoples, See also:Iberians, Picts, Celts and Gauls.

The megalithic monuments of Iberia and See also:

Celtic See also:Europe have their See also:counter-parts in See also:northern Africa, and it is suggested that these were all erected by the same race, by whatever name they be known, Berbers and Libyans in Africa, Iberians in See also:Spain, Celts, Gauls and Picts in See also:France and See also:Britain. In spite of a history of See also:foreign conquest—Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Vandal, Arab and French—the Berber See also:physical type and the Berber temperament and See also:nationality have See also:Character- istics. Persisted since the See also:stone See also:age. The numerous invasions have naturally introduced a certain amount of foreign See also:blood among the tribes fringing the Mediterranean, but those farther inland have preserved their racial purity to a surprising degree. Though considerable individual See also:differences of type may be found in every See also:village, the Berbers are distinctively a " See also:white " race, and the See also:majority would, if clad in European See also:costume, pass unchallenged as Europeans. Dark See also:hair and See also:brown or See also:hazel eyes are the See also:rule; See also:blue-eyed blonds are found, but their frequency has been considerably overstated. The invaders who have most affected the Berber race are the See also:Arabs, but the two races, with a See also:common See also:religion, often a common See also:government, with the same tribal groupings, have failed to amalgamate to any great extent. This fact has been emphasized by Dr R. G. Latham, who writes: " All that is not Arabic in the See also:kingdom of Morocco, all that is not Arabic in the See also:French provinces of Algeria, and all that is not Arabic in See also:Tunis, Tripoli and See also:Fezzan, is Berber." The explanation lies ~in a profound distinction of character. The Arab is a herdsman and a See also:nomad; the Berber is an agriculturist and a townsman. The Arab has built-his social structure on the See also:Koran, which inculcates See also:absolutism,--See also:aristocracy, See also:theocracy; the Berber, despite his nominal Mahommedanism, is a democrat, with his Jemda or " Witangemot " and his Kanum or unwritten See also:code, the Magna Carta of the individual's See also:liberty as opposed to the community's See also:good.

The Kanum forbids no sort of exercise of individual will, so long as it is not inimical to the right or rights of other individuals. The Arabizing of the Berbers is indeed limited to little beyond the See also:

conversion of the latter to See also:Islam. The Arab, transported to a See also:soil which does not always suit him, so far from thriving, tends to disappear, whereas the Berber becomes more and more aggressive, and yearly increases in See also:numbers. At See also:present he forms at least three-fifths of the See also:population in Algeria, and in Morocco the proportion is greater. The difference between the Berber and the Arab of the See also:Barbary States is summed up by Dr See also:Randall-Maclver in the following words:—" The Berber gives the impression of being, as he is, the descendant of men who have lived in sturdy See also:independence, self-governing and self-reliant. The Arab is the degenerate offspring of a race which only from its history and past records can claim any See also:title to respect. Cringing, venal, avaricious, dishonest, the Arab combines all the faults of a vicious nature with those which a degraded religion inculcates or encourages. The Berber, on the other See also:hand, is straightforward, honest, by no means averse to See also:money-making, but not unscrupulous in the methods which he employs to this end, intelligent in a degree to which the See also:ordinary Arab never approaches, and trustworthy as no Arab can be." The Berber's village is his See also:state, and the government is vested in an See also:assembly, the Jemda, formed of all See also:males old enough to observe the fast of See also:Ramadan. By them are deter-See also:mined all matters of See also:peace or See also:war, legislation, ent. See also:taxation See also:meat:" and See also:justice. The executive officer is the Amin, a See also:kind of See also:mayor, elected from some influential See also:family in which the dignity is often in practice hereditary. He owes his position to the good-will of his See also:fellows, receives no remuneration, and resigns as soon as he loses the confidence of the people.

By him are appointed certain Temman (sing. Tamen) who See also:

act as over-seers, though without executive See also:powers, in the various quarters of the village. The poorest Berber has as great a See also:voice in affairs as the richest. The undue See also:power of the Jemda is checked by See also:vendetta and a sort of See also:lynch See also:law, and by the formation of parties (sofs), within or without the assembly, for See also:trade, See also:political and other purposes. The Berbers are a warlike people who have never been completely subjugated. Every boy as soon as he reaches sixteen is brought into the Jemda and given weapons which he carries till he is sixty. Though each village is absolutely See also:independent as far as its See also:internal affairs are concerned, two or more are often connected by administrative ties to See also:form an Arsh or tribe. A number of these tribes form a Thakebilt or See also:confederation, which is an extremely loose organization. An exception to this form of government is constituted by the Tuareg, whose organization, owing to their See also:peculiar circumstances of See also:life, is monarchical. See also:Wars are declared by See also:special messengers; the See also:exchange of sticks or guns renders an See also:armistice inviolable. In some tribes a tablet, on which is inscribed the name of every See also:man See also:fit to, See also:bear arms, is placed in the See also:mosque. The Berbers, though Mahommedans, do not often observe the prescribed ablutions; they break their fast at Ramadan; and eat See also:wild See also:boar's flesh and drink fig See also:brandy.

On the other hand, See also:

saints, both male and See also:female, are paid more reverence by Berbers than by Arabs. Around their tombs their descendants See also:settle, and thus sacred villages, often of considerable See also:size, See also:spring up. Almost every village, too, has its See also:saint or See also:prophet, and disputes as to their relative sanctity and powers cause fierce feuds. The hereditary See also:caste known as Marabouts are frequently in open opposition to the See also:absolute authority of the Jemda. They are possessed of certain privileges, such as exemption from the See also:chief taxes and the See also:duty of bearing arms. They, however, often take a foremost See also:part in tribal See also:administration, and arc frequently called upon to perform the See also:office of arbitrators in questions of disputed policy, &c. In the Jemda, too, the See also:Marabout at times takes the See also:place of See also:honour and keeps See also:order. The Berbers, if irreligious, are very superstitious, never leaving their homes without exorcizing evil See also:spirits, and have a good and evil See also:interpretation for every See also:day of the See also:week. Many Berbers still retain certain See also:Christian and Jewish usages, See also:relics of the pre-Islamitic days in North Africa, but of their See also:primitive religion there is no trace. They are seldom good scholars, but those under French rule take all the See also:advantage they can of the See also:schools instituted by the government. Their social tendencies are distinctly communistic; See also:property is often owned by the family in common, and a man can See also:call upon the services of his See also:fellow villagers for certain purposes, as the See also:building of a See also:house. See also:Provision for the poor is often made by the community.

The See also:

dress of the Berbers was formerly made of See also:home-See also:woven See also:cloth, and the manufacture of woollen stuffs has always been one of the chief occupations of their See also:women. The men customs. See also:wear a See also:tunic reaching to the knees, the women a longer garment. For See also:work the men use a See also:leather See also:apron, and in the See also:cold See also:season and in travelling a See also:burnous, usually a family See also:heirloom, old and ragged; the women, in See also:winter, throw a coloured cloth over their shoulders. The men's hair is cut See also:short but their beards are allowed to grow. In some districts there are peculiar customs, such as the wearing of small See also:silver See also:nose-rings, seen in El-Jofra. The Berbers' weapons are those of the Arab: the long. straight See also:sword, the slightly curved and highly ornamented See also:dagger; and the long See also:gun. Berbers are not great See also:town-builders. Their villages, however, are often of substantial See also:appearance: with houses of untrimmed stones, occasionally with two storeys, built on hills, and invariably defended by a See also:bank, a stone See also:wall or a hedge. Sometimes their homes are See also:mere huts of See also:turf, or of See also:clay tiles, with See also:mortar made from See also:lime and clay or cow-dung. The sloping roof is covered with reeds, See also:straw or stones. The living See also:room is on the right, the See also:cattle-See also:stall on the See also:left. The dwelling is surrounded by a See also:garden or small See also:field of See also:grain.

The second See also:

storey is not added till a son marries. In the villages of the western See also:Atlas the greater part of the upper storey consists of a sort of rough See also:verandah. In this See also:mountain See also:district the natives spend the winter in vaults beneath the houses, and, for the See also:sake of warmth, the tenements are built very See also:close. See also:Agriculture, which is carried on even in the mountain districts by means of laboriously constructed terraces, is antiquated in its methods. The plough, often replaced on the steeper slopes by the See also:hoe, is similar to that depicted in ancient Egyptian drawings, and hand See also:irrigation is usual. A sickle, toothed like a saw, is used for See also:reaping. See also:Corn is trodden by oxen, and kept in See also:osier baskets narrowing to the See also:top, or clay See also:granaries. The See also:staple See also:crop is See also:barley, but See also:wheat, lentils, vetches, See also:flax and gourds are also cultivated. See also:Tobacco, See also:maize and potatoes have been introduced; and the See also:aloe and prickly See also:pear, called in Morocco the Christian fig, are also found. The See also:Kabyles understand grafting, have See also:fine orchards and grow vines. The Beni-Abbas tribe in the Algerian Atlas is famed for its walnuts, and many tribes keep bees, chiefly for the commercial value of the See also:wax. The Berber See also:diet largely consists of cucumbers, gourds, See also:water-melons and onions, and a small See also:artichoke (Cynara humilis) which grows wild.

At the beginning and end of their See also:

meal they drink a strongly sweetened liquid made from See also:green See also:tea and See also:mint. Tea-drinking probably became a See also:habit in Morocco about the beginning of the 19th See also:century; See also:coffee came by way of See also:Algiers. At feasts the See also:food is served on large earthenware dishes with high See also:basket-work covers, like See also:bee-skeps but twice as high. The Berbers have many See also:industries. They mine and work See also:iron, See also:lead and See also:copper. They have See also:olive presses and See also:flour See also:mills, and their own millstone quarries, even travelling into See also:Indus- Arab districts to build mills for the Arabs. They tries. make lime, tiles, woodwork for the houses, domestic utensils and agricultural implements. They weave and dye several kinds of cloth, tan and dress leather and manufacture oil and See also:soap. Without the assistance of the See also:wheel the women produce a variety of pottery utensils, often of very graceful See also:design, and decorated with patterns in red and See also:black. Whole tribes, such as the Beni-Sliman, are occupied in the iron trade; the Beni-Abbas made firearms before the French See also:conquest, and _ven See also:cannon are said to have been made by See also:boring. Before it was proscribed by the French, the manufacture of See also:gunpowder was general.

The native jewellers make excellent ornaments in silver, See also:

coral and See also:enamel. In some places See also:wood-See also:carving has been brought to considerable perfection; and native artists know how to engrave on See also:metal both by See also:etching and the burin. In its collective See also:industry the Berber race is far See also:superior to the Arab. The Berbers are keen traders too, and, after the See also:harvest, See also:hawk small goods, travelling great distances. A Berber woman has in many ways a better position than her Arab See also:sister. True, her See also:birth is regarded as an event of no women. moment, while that of a boy is celebrated by great rejoicings, and his See also:mother acquires the right to wear on her forehead the tafzint, a See also:mark which only the women who have See also:borne an See also:heir can assume. Her See also:husband See also:buys and can dismiss her at will. She has most of the hard work to do, and is little better than a servant. When she is old and past work, especially if she has not been the mother of a male See also:child, she is often abandoned. But she has a voice in public ifairs; she has See also:laws to protect her, manages the See also:household and goes unveiled; she has a right to the money she earns; she can inherit under See also:wills, and bequeath property, though to avoid the See also:alienation of real property, See also:succession to it is denied her. But most characteristic of her social position is the Berber woman's right to enter into a sacred See also:bond or agreement, represented by the giving of the anaya. This is some symbolic See also:object, stick or what not, which passes between the parties to a See also:contract, the obligations under which, if not fulfilled by the contracting parties during their lives, become hereditary.

Female saints, too, are held in high honour; and the Berber pays his wife the compliment of monogamy. The Kabyle women have stood See also:

side by side with their husbands in See also:battle. Among many Berber tribes the law of See also:inheritance is such that the eldest daughter's son succeeds. See also:South of Morocco proper, See also:Gerhard See also:Rohlfs, who travelled extensively in the region (c. 1861-1867), states that a Berber religious See also:corporation, the Sane Kartas, was ruled over by a woman, the chief's wife. The Berbers consult their women in many matters, and only one woman is really held in See also:low esteem. She, curiously, is the kuata or " go-between," even though her services are only employed in the respectable task of arranging marriages. Berber women are intelligent and hard-working, and, when See also:young, very See also:pretty and graceful. The Berbers, unlike the Arabs, do not admire See also:fat women. Among the Kabyles the adulteress is put to See also:death, as are those women who have illegitimate See also:children, the latter suffering with their mothers. Though Arabic has to a considerable extent displaced the Berber language, the latter is still spoken by millions of people from Egypt to the Atlantic and from the Mediterranean Language. to the See also:Sudan. It is spoken nowhere else, though, as has been said, place-names in the Canary Islands and other remains of the aboriginal language there prove it to have been the native See also:tongue.

Although the Berber tongue shows a certain See also:

affinity with Semitic in the construction both of its words and sentences Berber is quite distinct from the Semitic See also:languages; and a remarkable fact is that in spite of the enormous space over which the dialects are spread and the thousands of years that some of the Berber peoples have been isolated from the See also:rest, these dialects show but slight differences from the long-See also:extinct Hamitic speech from which all are derived. Whatever these dialects be called, the Kabyle, the Shilha, the Zenati, the Tuareg or Tamashek, the Berber language is still essentially one, and the similarity between the forms current in Morocco, Algeria, the Sahara and the far-distant See also:oasis of See also:Siwa is much more marked than between the Norse and See also:English in the sub-See also:Aryan See also:Teutonic See also:group. The Berbers have, moreover, a See also:writing of their own, peculiar and little used or known, the antiquity of which is proved by monuments and inscriptions ranging over the whole of North Africa.. The various spoken dialects, though apparently very unlike each other, are not more dissimilar than are Portuguese, See also:Spanish, French and See also:Italian, and their differences are doubtless attributable to the lack of a See also:literary See also:standard. Even where different words are used, there is See also:evidence of a common See also:stem from which the various branches have sprung. The great difficulty of satisfactory comparison arises from the fact that few of the Beber dialects possess any writings. The Tawahhid (The Unity of See also:God), said to have been written in Moroccan Berber and believed to be the See also:oldest See also:African work in existence, except Egyptian and Ethiopic, was the work of the Muwahhadi See also:leader, See also:Ibn Tumart the See also:Mandi, at a See also:time when the officials of the See also:Kairawan mosque were dismissed because they could not speak Berber. Most of the writings found, however, have been in the form of inscriptions, chiefly on ornaments. A collection of the various signs of the See also:alphabet has shown See also:thirty-two letters, four more than Arabic. De Slane, in his notes on the Berber historian Ibn Khaldun, shows the following points of similarity to the Semitic class:—its tri-literal roots, the inflections of the terb, the formation of derived verbs; the genders of the second and third persons, the pronominal affixes, the aoristic See also:style of tense, the whole and broken plurals and the construction of the phrase. Among the peculiar grammatical features of Berber may be mentioned two numbers (no dual), two genders and six cases, and verbs with one, two, three and four radicals, and imperative and See also:aorist tense only. As might be expected the Berber tongue is most common in Morocco and the western Sahara—the regions where Arab dominion was least exercised.

When Arabic is mentioned as the language of Morocco it is seldom realized how small a proportion of its inhabitants use it as their mother tongue. Berber is the real language of Morocco, Arabic that of its creed and government. 131B1.loGRAPHY.—General A. Hanoteau and A. Letourneux, La Kabylie et See also:

les coutumes kabyles (3 vols., See also:Paris, 1872–1873) ; D. Randall-Maclver and Antony Wilkin, Libyan Notes (See also:London, 1901) ; Antony Wilkin, Among the Berbers of Algeria (London, 1900) ; G. Sergi, The Mediterranean Race (London, 1901), and Africa, Antropologia della Stirpe Comitica (See also:Turin, 1897) ; Henri Duveyrier, Exploration du Sahara (1864), Les Progres de la geographie en Algerie (1867-1871), See also:Bull. de la See also:Soc. Khediviale de Geog. (1876) ; E. See also:Renan, " La Societe Berbere," Revue See also:des deux mondes, vol. for 1873 ; M. G. See also:Olivier, " Recherches sur 1'origine des Berberes," Bull. de l'Acad. d'Hippone (1867–1868); F.

G. Rohlfs, Reise durch Marokko (1869) ; Quer durch Afrika (1874–1875) ; General Faidherbe, Collection See also:

complete des inscriptions numidiques (lybiques) (187o), and Les Dolmens d'Afrique (1873) ; H. M. Flinders Petrie in The See also:Academy, loth of See also:April 1895; Jules Lionel, Races berberes (1894); See also:Sir H. H. See also:Johnston, " A See also:Journey through the Tunisian Sahara," Geog. See also:Journal, vol. xi., 1898; De Slane's See also:translation of Ibn Khaldun, Hist. des Berberes (Algiers, 1852) ; W. Z. See also:Ripley, Races of Europe (London, 1900) ; Dr Malbot, " Les Chaouias " in L'Anthropologie, 1897 (p. 14) ; General Faidherbe and Dr See also:Paul Topinard, Instructions sur l'anthropologie de l'Algerie (Paris, 1874); E. T. Hamy, La Necropole berbere d'Henchir el-'Assel (Paris, 1896), and Cites et necropoles berberes de l'Enfida (Tunisie moyenne) (ib.

1904). Berber dictionaries:—Venture de Paradis (Paris, 1844); Drosses See also:

lard (ib. 1844) ; Delaporte (ib. 1844, by order of See also:minister of war) ; J. B. Creusat, Essai de dictionnaire frangais-kabyle (Algiers, 1873) ; A. Hanoteau, Essai de grammaire de la langue tamachek, &'c. (Paris, 186o); Minutoli, Siwah See also:Dialect (See also:Berlin, 1827). See also:Folklore, &c.:—J. See also:Riviere, Recueil de conies populaires de la Kabylie (1882); R. See also:Basset, Conies populaires berberes (1887); P. le See also:Blanc de Prebois, Essai de conies kabyles, avec traduction en frangais (Batna, 1897) ; H. Stumine, Marchen der Berbern von Tamazratt in Shdtunisien (See also:Leipzig, 190o).

End of Article: BERBERS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
BERBERINE, CBH17NO4
[next]
BERCEUSE (Fr. for a " lullaby," from berceau, a cra...