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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Abbuyar in the histories of some Zawaya groups of the western Sahara |
Authors: | Batran, Aziz A. Johnson, Winifred |
Year: | 1981 |
Periodical: | Afrika Zamani: revue d'histoire africaine |
Issue: | 12-13 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 15-20 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Mauritania |
Subjects: | Islamic history urban history History and Exploration Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
Abstract: | Local traditions emphasize that most of the Sahara and Sahilian towns came into existence as seats of Islamic learning, and that agents of Islamic diffusion (i.e. individual teachers, scholars, traders, holy families and Zawaya groups) had their origin in them. One of these most renowned towns is Abbuyar in the region of Adrar in Mauritania (also known to its inhabitants as shinqit and Sahara al-Gharb/al-Maghrib, i.e. Western Sahara). According to Local traditions, 'every group in the furthest Maghrib among the Zawaya once came from Abbuyar'. The early inhabitants of Abbuyar, so Zawaya traditions claim, were all Zawaya, solidly Muslim and either of Sharifian, Bakryan (descendants of Caliph Abu-Bakr al-Siddig), Umayyad or Almoravid origin. Local traditions have preserved the history of the departure from Abbuyar of some Zawaya groups. Here the departure of the Tashedbit and the Idaw 'Ali is related. Notes. |