Daghaghra
| Daghaghra | |
|---|---|
 Postal card of the Daghaghra's ksar | |
| Ethnicity | Ouerghemma |
| Nisba | ad-Daghari |
| Location | Tataouine, Tunisia |
| Parent tribe | Ouled Selim of Ouderna |
| Language | Tamazight, Arabic |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
The Daghaghra, also spelled Deghaghra or Deghagha, are an tribe belonging to the Ouled Slim fraction of the Ouderna tribe in the region of Tataouine, southern Tunisia.[1][2]
Origins
[edit]The Daghaghra originate from the Ouled Slim fraction of the Ouderna tribe. They are a Bedouin[3][4][5][6][7] tribe from the Bani Sulaym[8][9] confederation, like many historian said, like Mohamed Bouzerara, a Tunisian historian from Tataouine. A legend tells that during the flight of the Ouled Yacoub, a woman from this tribe abandoned her child. The child was found by a man from the Ouled-Debbab, who entrusted him to his wife, who raised him as her own. When he became an adult, he worked as a laborer in a Berber village to earn a living and took a wife from the neighboring Aouadid tribe. This woman, while pregnant, asked her father for a piece of ox hide. She cut it into strips and demanded the land covered by these strips. Her father exclaimed, "Daghaghretni, you have deceived me!"; this is said to be the origin of the tribe's name.[10]
Etymology
[edit]Mentioned under the name "Dghrara" in medieval sources[11], "Ghrara" means goat hair in the Berber language of the region.[12]
History
[edit]Descended from the Ouled-Selim, along with the other clans that contributed to this fraction (Ouled-Debbab, Ouled-Chehida and Adjerda), they lived around the ksar of Guettoufa and had arable land, both located in the territory of the Ouled-Abd-el-Hamid, another fraction of the Ouderna.[13] André Louis described them as lords due to their nomadic status, while sedentary people were described as serfs of the Bedouins.[14] As members of the Ouderna confederation, the Daghaghra and other allied tribes were described at the beginning of the 20th century as great nomadic raiders much feared by their neighbors, before being sedentarized and becoming herders and farmers described as peaceful.[15][16] The ksour among the Daghaghra are not living spaces like those of other tribes in the region, due to their nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyle depending on the period. Instead, they serve only as warehouses, bearing the name of the tribe (explaining the origin of the Ksar Dghaghra), where food resources or other wealth are stored[17]. Among tribes, these ksours (plural of ksar) were once a way to display power—the more one possessed, the greater their influence. The Daghaghra had six: Ksar Dghaghra, Ksar Ouled Abd'Allah, Ksar Bouziri, Ksar el-Mraa, Ksar Bhir, and Ksar Namous[18]. The Daghaghra mounted strong resistance that made colonization difficult for the French administration. The Daghariyoun were led by the chief Mabrouk ben Ali ad-Daghari, partly because a portion of their territory was seized to establish a market controlled by the same administration.[19] The ksar Bouziri, which Abdesmad Zaïed classifies among the "ancient Berber hilltop villages", is located at the foot of a hill in a defensive position and is not easily visible from afar. According to Zaïed, it is very old, while Kamel Laroussi dates its foundation back to the 18th century.[20] On January 10, 2020, the Tunisian government proposed the site for future inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List[21].The Ksar was founded by a certain Bou Ziri, a name meaning "Moon" in the Berber language[22].
Inter-tribal relationships
[edit]With Berber cheikhdoms of Sedra and Tazardanet
[edit]The Sedra and Tazardanet are little Berber tribes (known as a cheikhdoms) who were allies of Bedouin arab tribes who owned the lands, the Sedra were allies of the Daghaghra and Tazardanet of Ouled Chahida. The sedentary berbers cultivated and inhabited the land in exchange of the bedouin tribes who had the quality of warriors[23] in the region[24].
Subdivisions
[edit]The tribe consists of three sub-fractions, spread across several villages or encampments:[25]
- Rakhaïsa
- Makaraa
- Ouled Abdallah
Each is composed of several smaller sub-tribes.
Notable people
[edit]- Ahmed ben Amor Larbi, sheikh of the Daghaghra[26]
- Ali ben Mabrouk, chaouch of the Oulad Abdallah[27]
- Mohamed Bourkhis al-Daghari, poet of the Daghaghra[28]
References
[edit]- ↑ Mohamed Hassan (1999). المدينة و البادية بإفريقية في العهد الحفصي [La ville et le désert en Afrique à l'époque hafside] (in Arabic). Vol. 1. Tunis: Faculté des sciences humaines et sociales de Tunis. p. 280. ISBN 978-9973-922-48-9..
- ↑ Znadi, Manel (2018). Habiter la grotte à Tataouine (Sud tunisien): de la maison creusée à la maison construite (in French). Aix-en-Provence: Institut de recherches et d'études sur le monde arabe et musulman. p. 140-141.
- ↑ تطاوين التونسية موطن الديناصورات والقصور الصحراوية والتآخي بين الأعراق. Al-Quds al-Arabi (in Arabic). 11 April 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ↑ مدينة تطاوين في تونس. Mawdoo3 (in Arabic). Retrieved 3 January 2026.
- ↑ Fozzard, Adrian (1987). Tribesmen and the colonial encounter: Southern Tunisia during the French protectorate 1882 to 1940 - Volume 2 - page 44 (Doctoral thesis). Durham University.
- ↑ Pouillon, François (1 January 2017). "Berbères, Arabes, colonisation(s)". Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain (IRMC): 119–120.
- ↑ فتحي ليسير (Fathi Layssir) (2001). خليفة بن عسكر بيوغرافيا قائد غامض ["Khalifa bin Askar, biography of a mysterious chief"] (in Arabic). pp. 68 and 107.
- ↑ Bouzerara, Mohamed (2014). التخوم التونسية الليبية عبر التاريخ نجع الذهيبات و جيرانه [The Tunisian-Libyan border through history : People of Dhehibat and their neighbors] (in Arabic) (Edition Saidate ed.). p. 145.
- ↑ العرب و العروبة الجزاء 3 [The Arabs and the Arabity - Volume 3] (in Arabic). p. 367.
- ↑ Martin, Roland; Martin, Alix (21 January 2007). "Les forteresses sahariennes". Le Temps (in French). Retrieved 15 December 2024.
- ↑ https://www.persee.fr/doc/remmm_0035-1474_1972_num_11_1_1145 Le monde "berbère" de l'extrême sud tunisien André Louis
- ↑ Le Gasr : vestige des temps nomades By Kamel Laroussi (2008), p.56
- ↑ Association française pour l'avancement des sciences (1896). La Tunisie: histoire et description (in French). Paris: Berger-Levrault. p. 477.
- ↑ Znadi, Manel (2018). Habiter la grotte à Tataouine (South Tunisia): from dug house to built house (in French). Aix-en-Provence: Institut de recherches et d'études sur le monde arabe et musulman. pp. 140–141..
- ↑ Émile Violard (1905). La Tunisie du Nord (in French). Vol. 1. Tunis: Société anonyme de l'imprimerie rapide. p. 38..
- ↑ Jean Thomas (1939). À travers le Sud Tunisien (in French). Paris: Société d'éditions géographiques, maritimes et coloniales. p. 45..
- ↑ Martel, André (1 January 1965). Les confins saharo-tripolitains de la Tunisie, 1881-1911 (1) (in French). FeniXX. p. 79. ISBN 978-2-7059-3801-7. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
- ↑ عالم القصور : تراث و تنمية. الحياة الثقافية (in Arabic): 37. April 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
- ↑ محمد بوزرارة (June 2014). التخوم التونسية الليبية عبر التاريخ نجع الذهيبات و جيرانه (in Arabic). Éditions Saidane. p. 146. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
- ↑ Herbert Popp and Abdelfettah Kassah, Les ksour du Sud tunisien : atlas illustré d'un patrimoine culturel, Bayreuth, Naturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Bayreuth, 2010, p. 342 (ISBN 978-3-939-14604-9)
- ↑ UNESCO: Habitat troglodytique et le monde des ksour du Sud tunisien
- ↑ http://journals.openedition.org/encyclopedieberbere/368?lang=en Lune, S. Chaker
- ↑ Pouillon, François (1 January 2017). "Berbères, Arabes, colonisation(s)". Mohamed Ali éditions: 119.
- ↑ Fozzard, Adrian (1987). Tribesmen and the colonial encounter: Southern Tunisia during the French protectorate 1882 to 1940 - Volume 2 - page 44 (Doctoral thesis). Durham University.
- ↑ Bouzrara, Mohamed (2014). التخوم التونسية الليبية عبر التاريخ نجع الذهيبات و جيرانه [La frontière tuniso-libyenne à travers l'histoire : Najaa al-Dhahibat et ses voisins] (in Arabic). Sousse: Éditions Saidane. p. 145. ISBN 978-9973251244..
- ↑ Chevance, Maurice (5 July 1951). "À l'honneur". Climats (in French). p. 6. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via Gallica.
- ↑ Sebaut, Auguste (1896). Dictionnaire de la législation tunisienne (in French). Dijon: Sirodet-Carré. p. 393.
- ↑ Oueslati, Noura (2019). تمثل البداوة : مقاربات في التاريخ الثقافي بين المغاربي والمحلي [Representing Bedouinism: cultural history approaches between Maghrebi and local] (in Arabic). Tunis: Sotumedias. p. 78. ISBN 978-9938918434.