Thus we reached the new plantation of Háj Ahmed, the Governor, as he is called, of Ghát, and found, at the entrance of the outbuilding, which had been destined for our use, the principal men of the town, who received us with great kindness and politeness. The most interesting among them was Háj Ahmed himself, a man of grave and dignified manners, who, although a stranger to the place, and a native of Tawát, has succeeded, through his address and his mercantile prosperity, in obtaining for himself here an almost princely position, and has founded in reality a new town, with large and splendid improvements, by the side of the old city. His situation as Governor of Ghát, in reference, and in some degree in opposition, to the Tuarek chiefs, is a very peculiar one, and requires, on his part, a good deal of address, patience, and forbearance. I am convinced that when we first arrived he did not view us with displeasure, but, on the contrary, was greatly pleased to receive under his roof a mission of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government, with whose immense influence and power, and the noble purpose of whose policy, he was not entirely unacquainted; but his extraordinary and precarious situation did not allow him to act freely, and besides I cannot say that he received from us so warm an acknowledgment as his conduct in the first instance seemed to deserve.
Besides him, the chief parties in our first conversation were his nephew Ahmed Mohammed Sheríf (the man who came to meet us), a clever but forward lad, of pleasant manners—whom in the course of my travels I met several times in Sudán—and Mohammed Káfa, a cheerful, good-humoured man. Our quarters, of which the accompanying woodcut gives the ground-plan, were certainly neither airy nor agreeable, but the hot sand wind which blew without made them appear to us quite tolerable.
CHAPTER X.
THE INDIGENOUS BERBER POPULATION.
There can be no doubt that even Fezzán, in ancient times, had a population entirely different from that dwelling near the coast; but the original black inhabitants of that country have been swept away, or mixed up entirely with the Arabs, who seem to have invaded this country not earlier than the fifteenth century of our era, for in Makrizi’s time Fezzán was still a Berber country. But few names now remain which evidently bespeak a Central African origin, such as those terminating in awa, as Tasáwa or Tessáwa (a town already mentioned by Edrísi), Portukawa, and others. But in the country of Ghát, which we have now entered, the case is very different; for here the former state of things has not been so entirely altered as not to leave some unmistakable testimonies behind it.
All the original population of North Africa appear to have been a race of the Semitic stock, who, by intermarriage with tribes which came from Egypt, or by way of it, had received a certain admixture. The consequence was that several distinct tribes were produced, designated by the ancients as Libyans, Moors, Numidians, Libyphœnicians, Getulians, and others, and traced by the native historians to two different families, the Beránes and the Abtar, who, however, diverge from one common source, Mazigh or Madaghs. The native widespread African race, either from the name of their supposed ancestor, Ber, which we recognize in the name Afer, or in consequence of the Roman term barbari, has been generally called Berber, and in some regions Shawi and Shelluh. The general character and language of these people seem to have been the same, while the complexion alone was the distinguishing point of difference.
How far southward the settlements of this North African race originally extended, it is difficult to say; but it may be gathered, even from ancient writers, that they did not extend to the very border of the naked desert, and that they were bounded on the south by a region occupied by Æthiopian races,—an observation which is confirmed by the present state of things. Wárgela evidently belonged originally to the dominion of the Blacks, as well as Tawát. The Berbers seem in general to have kept within their borders till driven from their native seats by the Arabs; for they had been mildly treated by the former conquerors of the country (the Phœnicians, the Romans, Vandals, and Byzantines), and they appear even to have partly embraced Christianity.
In the central part of Barbary the flight of the Berbers seems to have been connected with that numerous immigration of Arab families into North Africa which took place in the first half of the eleventh century, in the time and at the instigation of Ahmed ben ʿAli el Jerjeráni, who died in A.H. 436, or 1044-5 of our era. The fugitives pushed forward in several great divisions, which it is not essential here to enumerate, as, with a few exceptions, they have become extinct. It seems only necessary to advert here to the fact that of all the reports handed down to us by the ancient Arab historians and geographers respecting the different Berber nations existing in the desert, the name of Tarki, or Tuarek, by which they are at present generally designated, occurs only in Ebn Khaldún, under the form Tarká or Táriká; and after him Leo Africanus is the first who, in mentioning the five great tribes, names one of them Terga. This name, which has been given to the Berber inhabitants of the desert, and which Hodgson erroneously supposed to mean “tribe,” is quite foreign to them. The truly indigenous name by which these people call themselves is the same by which they were already known to the Greeks and Romans, and which was given to their ancestors by Ebn Khaldún and other Arabic writers, viz. Amázigh, Mázigh, Mazix, Masix, Mazys, Mazax, and even Maxitanus in the singular form. The general form now used in these regions is Amóshagh in the singular, Imóshagh in the plural, and Temáshight in the neutral form. This is the native name by which the so-called Tawárek designate their whole nation, which is divided into several great families. And if the reader inquires who gave them the other name, I answer, with full confidence, the Arabs; and the reason why they called them so was probably from their having left or abandoned their religion, from the verb “tereku dinihum;” for, from evidence which I have collected elsewhere, it seems clear that a great part of the Berbers of the desert were once Christians (they are still called by some Arabs “the Christians of the desert”), and that they afterwards changed their religion and adopted Islam; notwithstanding which they still call God “Mesí,” and an angel “anyelús,” and have preserved many curious customs which bear testimony to their ancient creed.
The tribe which now possesses the country, the Imóshagh or Tuarek of Ghát, are generally called Azkár or Azgar; but they are named also Hogár or Hágara, though the latter name is very often employed to denote another tribe. Upon this point, also, we have received full and credible information from Ebn Khaldún, who tells us that the name Hogár was formed from that of Hauwára, and served to designate that section of the great Berber tribe which had retired into the desert about Gógó; and it is very remarkable that the Hogár were described just about the same time, in those same regions, by the traveller Ebn Batúta. Hogár therefore seems to be the more general name, while Azkár serves to designate a section of this tribe. However, this name also appears to be an ancient one, being mentioned already by Edrísi (A.H. 453) as the name of a tribe evidently identical with that of which we are speaking, the settlements of which he indicates as being distant twelve days’ journey from Tasáwa, and eighteen from Ghadámes. It is mentioned about a century later by Ebn Sáid as dwelling in the same place. The Tinýlkum Ibrahim was of opinion that Azkár means that section of the Hogár who had remained (at some period unknown to us) “faithful to the established authority.” But this interpretation of the name, if we consider the early period at which it occurs, does not seem quite probable, and I suspect that those may be right who give to the name a more general meaning.