How far can the tribes which are known to exist to-day or whose names have been recorded by modern travellers be associated with these groups of early immigrants? A critical examination[410] of the tribes reveals at least six main tribal groups of the People of the King in Air itself, that is to say, six groups in which the respective tribes either acknowledge themselves to be, or can be shown to possess, certain affinities pointing to a descent from single stocks; but not all of these can with certainty be identified with Bello’s named clans. These six extant groups are the Kel Ferwan, Kel Tadek, Immikitan, Imezegzil, Imaqoaran and Ifadeyen.
Two of them, in some ways the most important, have no proper names of their own at all: both the Kel Ferwan and Kel Tadek are named after places, respectively Iferuan in the Ighazar of Northern Air, and the Tadek valley. Neither of these groups, which have the reputation of great antiquity and nobility, can be affiliated to any of the other four groups; they are indubitably separate clans which in the course of ages have lost their old “I names.” Returning to the five old tribes of Bello we nevertheless find certain points of contact between records and actual conditions, as well as certain differences:
| Bello’s tribes. | Modern groups. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Immikitan | = | ⎰ ⎱ | Immikitan. |
| Imezegzil. | |||
| Igdalen | = | Igdalen. | |
| Ijaranen | = | Ijanarnen (of the Itesan). | |
| Sendal | = | ? | |
| Tamgak | = | ? | |
| ? | = | Kel Ferwan. | |
| ? | = | Kel Tadek. | |
| ? | = | Imaqoaran. | |
| ? | = | Ifadeyen. | |
| (Itesan) | = | Itesan. | |
In discussing tribal origins in Air and comparing my results with those of Jean, I found the greatest difficulty in sorting out the tribes of the Immikitan and Imezegzil groups: so much so that I am inclined to think that both clans represent the old Immikitan stock which split into two main branches some time ago. The widespread use of the name Immikitan for Tuareg makes it possible that the original stock of the People of the King was Immikitan in the first instance; in that event, on the analogy of other Tuareg tribes, when one clan grew unmanageable in size, new groups were formed, only one of which retained the original nomenclature as a proper or individual name—a process which no doubt occurred before any migration out of the Chad area took place. But that is too far back to consider.
Leaving the Ifadeyen out of account for the moment we are left with the Kel Ferwan, the Kel Tadek and the Imaqoaran to compete for the right of descent from the Tamgak and Sendal. A remote ancestry is indicated by their undoubted nobility and antiquity. The original home of the Kel Tadek in a valley flowing out of Tamgak and the association of the Tamgak tribe with the Tamgak massif suggest that these groups may be identified, in which case the Sendal might be the ancestors of the Kel Ferwan. Nevertheless there is also a possibility that the descendants of the Sendal are the old tribes of Damergu. That the descendants of the Sendal are to be sought for south of, rather than in Air proper, is further indicated by the record of a war between the People of Air against the Sendal in Elakkos as late as 1727.[411] The Kel Ferwan, would, thus, be descended from the Damergu-Elakkos Tuareg directly, and from the Sendal therefore only indirectly, if their origin indeed is to be sought in this early wave of immigration at all.
The selection of the Sultan of Agades being in the hands of the tribes who traditionally sent the deputation to Constantinople after the arrival of the Kel Geres in Air, and the object of the mission being to settle a dispute as to who should be king, it would be natural to find all the contestant groups represented on the delegation. The Kel Owi would, of course, not figure among them, for they had not at that time reached Air. Now the names of tribes charged with sending the delegation is given by Jean, and I accept his version because all the information which I procured on the subject was very contradictory; and the list is most interesting. It is given as: the Itesan and the Dzianara of the modern Itesan-Kel Geres group, and the Izagaran, Ifadalen, Imaqoaran and Immikitan of the other Tuareg. The Itesan we know about; the Dzianara were a noble part of the Kel Geres but are now extinct: it is natural that both these should be represented. The Izagaran and Ifadalen survive as names of noble Damergu tribes, while the Immikitan and Imaqoaran represent the older clans of Air proper, all four, of course, owing allegiance to the King. From their “I names” these tribes all seem to be old; we have no reason from any other evidence to believe that any recent arrivals are represented in the list. The very choice of representatives from each of three groups may consequently be taken to indicate that these tribes were regarded as the oldest or most important units in each division. It is tempting, therefore, to suppose that the Izagaran and Ifadalen are the descendants of one of the tribes in the first wave of Tuareg which came from the south-east, and therefore perhaps of Bello’s Sendal.
Another version of the method adopted to select the first Amenokal is recorded in the Agades Chronicle, which states that the persons responsible for the task were the Agoalla[412] T’Sidderak, Agoalla Mafinet and Agoalla Kel Tagei. The story relates how the Agumbulum, the title of the ruler of the first Tuareg to enter Air, namely the Kel Innek, desired to settle the differences which had arisen in regard to the government, but was unable to find anyone to send to Stambul until an old woman called Tagirit offered to send her grandsons, who were the chieftains in question. The story emphasises what will have been noticed on the subject of the origin of the Kel Owi, namely, that the tribes of Air generally claim a woman either as ancestress or as a prominent head. The first two names are those of certain Itesan sub-tribes who, from residence in these mountain areas, which still bear the same names in Central Air, had adopted geographical Kel names, and conserve them to this day in their modern habitats in the Southland. The Kel Tagei is another subdivision of the Itesan, and, though a servile tribe of this name exists in the Imarsutan section of the Kel Owi, it is probably a portion of the former enslaved during the later civil wars of Air.[413]
This alternative story is not necessarily contradictory to the first version of the deputation to Stambul, even though it does not allow the remaining tribes of the People of the King to have a share in the election. Since, however, the Itesan were certainly the dominant tribe in Air until the arrival of the Kel Owi, the omission is comprehensible; it is a statement of a part for the whole. If it has any significance it tends to support the view that the Itesan were, in fact, a tribe of the Kel Innek from the Chad lands, as I have supposed, and not a part of the Kel Geres group.
The Imaqoaran and Kel Ferwan, however, remain a difficult problem. The latter are in many ways peculiar and seem to differ in many ways so much from their other friends in the division of the People of the King, that although I have no direct evidence on the subject, I half suspect them of having come to Air from some other part than the south-east and at a later period than the first wave. Certain it is that they specialised in raiding westward, where they obtained their numerous dependent Imghad. Furthermore, in Cortier’s account of the history of the Ifoghas n’Adghar there are stories of the formation of this western group of Tuareg tending to show that while a part of the division probably came from the north, the bulk of the immigration was from the east. He says that after the Kel el Suk reached the southern parts of the Sahara, they divided into two groups. The two groups fought, and one section, which had apparently settled in Air, was victorious, whereupon a part migrated into the Adghar, where the other section had already established itself and had founded the town of Tademekka. In the fighting, which continued, there seems to have been considerable movement between the two mountain groups; the Kel Ferwan portion of the People of the King in Air may therefore be more nearly related to the western group than to the other Air folk.
The Ifadeyen are associated with Fadé, which is the northernmost part of the Air plateau. To-day they are very friendly with the Kel Tadek, and some people have even suggested that they were of the same stock. There is, however, another tribe, the Kel Fadé, the similarity of whose name suggests, quite erroneously, an identification. The Ifadeyen are known to be a very old tribe, while the Kel Fadé are known to have been formed at about the time of the arrival of the Kel Owi in Air and to have lived in the Fadé mountains, whence the Ifadeyen were already moving south. Barth speaks of the Kel Fadé as a collection of brigands and vagabonds, and implies that they were mainly outlaws of mixed parentage. A part of them is certainly Kel Owi and composed of those elements which went on living in the northern mountains when the main body entered Air, while another part is almost certainly Ifadeyen; as a whole they remained outside the Kel Owi Confederation as People of the King. Until about thirty years ago the Kel Fadé used to maintain that the Ifadeyen were their serfs; after many disputes the matter was referred to the paramount chief of the Kel Owi, who, after consulting various authorities, decided that the Ifadeyen were noble and free. Their chief, Matali, nevertheless preferred to evacuate the northern mountains completely in favour of the Kel Fadé in order to avoid further friction, and since then, a full generation ago, they have been gradually moving south to the Azawagh, where they pasture in the winter, withdrawing to Damergu in the dry season. Their original history might have been easier to ascertain had it not been for the fact that despite its “I form” their name is a placename, though it is possible that they gave their name to Fadé and did not take it from their habitat. The presence of the Ifadeyen in an area west and north of country which we know the Kel Tadek held, and their association with the latter, render it likely that we are, in fact, dealing with one and the same stock, namely, the descendants of the Tamgak.