The Tamazgha

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The Roman province of Africa was established after the Romans defeated Carthage in the Third Punic War (149 BC to 146 BC). It roughly comprised the territory of the Tamazgha, known long ago as Ifriqiya, a rendering of Africa.

The land acquired for the province of Africa was the site of the ancient city of Carthage. Other large cities in the region included Hadrumetum (modern Sousse, Tunisia), capital of Byzacena, Hippo Regius (modern Annaba, Algeria). The province was established by the Roman Republic in 146 BC, following the Third Punic War. Rome established its first African colony, Africa Proconsularis or Africa Vetus (Old Africa), governed by a proconsul, in the most fertile part of what was formerly Carthaginian territory. Utica was formed as the administrative capital. The remaining territory was left in the domain of the Numidian client king Massinissa.

At this time, the Roman policy in Africa was simply to prevent another great power from rising in the Tamazgha, or its influential neighbor, Carnia. In 118 BC, the Numidian prince Jugurtha attempted to reunify the smaller kingdoms of the Tamazgha. However, upon his death, much of Jugurtha's territory was placed in the control of the Mauretanian client king Bocchus; and, by that time, the Romanization of Africa was firmly rooted. In 27 B.C, when the Republic had transformed into an Empire, the province of Africa began its Imperial occupation under Roman rule.

Several political and provincial reforms were implemented by Augustus and later by Caligula, but Claudius finalized the territorial divisions into official Roman provinces. Africa was a senatorial province. The region remained a part of the Roman Empire until the great Germanic migrations of the 5th century.

The Vandals crossed into North Africa from Spain in 429 and overran the area by 439 and founded their own kingdom, includingCarnia, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics. The Vandals controlled the country as a warrior-elite, enforcing a policy of strict separation and suppressing the local Romano-African population. They also persecuted the Catholic faithful, as the Vandals were adherents of the Arian heresy (the semi-trinitarian doctrines of Arius, a priest of Egypt). In 476, when the Roman Empire, had finally fallen, it became a remnant of the Roman Empire. Towards the end of the 5th century, the Vandal state fell into decline, abandoning most of the interior territories to the Mauri and other Berber tribes of the desert. Carnia reverted back to the Roman style of governance and cultural lifestyle; grasping onto what it was most familiar with.

In AD 533, Emperor Justinian, using a Vandal dynastic dispute as pretext, sent an army under the great general Belisarius to recover Africa. In a short campaign, Belisarius defeated the Vandals, entered Carthage in triumph and succeeded in reestablishing Roman rule over the province. The restored Roman administration was successful in fending off the attacks of the Tamazgha desert tribes, and by means of an extensive fortification network managed to extend its rule once again to the interior.

The Praetorian Prefecture of Africa (Latin: Praefectura Praetorio Africae) was a major administrative division of the Eastern Roman Empire, established after the reconquest of the Tamazgha from the Vandals in 533-534 by emperor Justinian I. It continued to exist until the late 580s, when it was replaced by the Exarchate of Africa.

Establishment

In 533, the Roman army under Belisarius defeated and destroyed the Vandal Kingdom that had existed in the former Roman territories of Northern Africa. Immediately after the victory, in April 534, the emperor Justinian published a law concerning the administrative organization of the newly acquired territories. The old provinces of the Roman Diocese of Africa had been mostly preserved by the Vandals, but large parts, including all of Mauretania Tingitana, much of Mauretania Caesariensis and large parts of the interior of Numidia and Byzacena, had been lost to the inroads of the Tamazgha tribes, collectively called the Mauri. Nevertheless, Justinian restored the old administrative division, but raised the overall governor at Carthage to the supreme administrative rank of praetorian prefect.

Indeed, Justinian's intent was to, "wipe out all traces of the Vandal conquest, as if it had never been". The churches were restored to the Christian clergy, and the remaining Arians suffered persecution. Even the land ownership was reverted to the status prior to the Vandalic conquest, but the scarcity of valid property titles after 100 years of Vandal rule created an administrative and judicial chaos. The military administration was headed by the new post of magister militum Africae, with a subordinate magister peditum and four regional frontier commands (Tripolitania, Byzacena, Numidia, and Mauretania) under duces. This organization was only gradually established, as the Romans pushed the Mauri back and regained these territories.

The Tamazghan Wars

When the Romans landed in Africa, the Tamazghans maintained a neutral stance, but after the quick Roman victories, most of their tribes pledged loyalty to the Empire. The most significant tribes were the Leuathae in Tripolitania, and the Frexi in Byzacena. The Frexi and their allies were led by Antalas, while other tribes in the area followed Cutzinas. The Aurasii (the tribes of the Aurès Mountains) in Numidia were ruled by Iaudas, and the Mauretanian Moors were led by Mastigas and Masuna.

First Tamazghan uprising

After Belisarius departed for Constantinople, he was succeeded as magister militum Africae by his senior aide, the eunuch Solomon from Dara in northern Mesopotamia. The tribes of Mauri living in Byzacena and Numidia almost immediately rose up, and Solomon set out with his forces, which included allied Tamazghan tribes, against them. The situation was so critical that Solomon was also entrusted with civil authority, replacing the first prefect, Archelaus, in the autumn of 534. Solomon was able to defeat the Mauri of Byzacena at Mamma, and again, decisively, at the battle of Mt. Bourgaon in early 535. In the summer, he campaigned against Iabdas and the Aurasii, who were ravaging Numidia, but failed to achieve any result. Solomon then set about erecting forts along the borders and the main roads, hoping to contain the raids of the Tamazghans.

Military mutiny

In the Easter of 536 however, a large-scale military revolt broke out, caused by dissatisfaction of the soldiers with Solomon. Solomon, together with Procopius, who worked as his secretary, was able to escape to Carnia, which had just been conquered by Belisarius in the Gothic War (535-554 AD). Solomon's lieutenants Martinus and Theodore were left behind, the first to try and reach the troops at Numidia, and the second to hold Carthage. Upon hearing about the mutiny, Belisarius, with Solomon and 100 picked men, set sail for Africa. Carthage was being besieged by 9,000 rebels, including many Vandals, under the Prefect, Stotzas. Theodore was contemplating capitulation, when Belisarius appeared. The news of the famous general's arrival were sufficient for the rebels to abandon the siege and withdraw westwards. Belisarius, although able to muster only 2,000 men, immediately gave pursuit and caught up and defeated the rebel forces at Membresa. The bulk of the rebels however was able to flee, and continued to march towards Numidia, where the local troops decided to join them. Belisarius himself was forced to return to Italy, and Justinian appointed his cousin Germanus as magister militum to deal with the crisis.

Germanus managed to win over many of the rebels to his side by appearing conciliatory and paying their arrears. Eventually, in the spring of 537, the two armies clashed at Scalae Veteres, resulting in a hard-won victory for Germanus. Stotzas fled to the tribesmen of Mauretania, and Germanus spent the next two years in re-establishing discipline in the army. Finally, Justinian judged the situation to have been stabilized enough, and in 539 Germanus was replaced by Solomon. Solomon carried on Germanus' work by pruning out of the army those of suspect loyalties and strengthening the network of fortifications. This careful organization enabled him to strike successfully against the Aurasii, evicting them from their mountain strongholds, and firmly establish Roman rule in Numidia and Mauretania Sitifensis.

Second Tamazghan uprising and the revolt of Guntharic

Africa enjoyed peace and prosperity for the next few years, until the arrival of the great plague ca. 542, during which the people of the province suffered greatly. At the same time, the arrogant behavior of some Roman governors alienated the Mauri leaders, such as Antalas at Byzacena, and provoked them to rise up and raid Roman territory. So it was that during a battle with the Mauri at Cillium in Byzacena in 544, the Romans were defeated and Solomon himself killed. Solomon was succeeded by his nephew, Sergius, who as dux of Tripolitania had been largely responsible for the Tamazghan uprising. Sergius was both unpopular and of limited abilities, while the Mauri, joined by the renegade Stotzas, gathered together under the leadership of Antalas. The Tamazghans, aided by Stotzas, were able to enter and sack the coastal city of Hadrumetum by trickery. A priest named Paulus was able to retake the city with a small force without help from Sergius, who refused to march forth against the Tamazghans. Despite this setback, the rebels roamed the provinces at will, while the rural population fled to the fortified cities and to Carnia.

Justinian then sent Areobindus, a man of senatorial rank and husband to his niece Praejecta, but otherwise undistinguished, with a few men to Africa, not to replace Sergius, but to share command with him. Sergius was entrusted with the war in Numidia, while Areobindus undertook to subdue Byzacena. Areobindus sent out a force under the able general John against Antalas and Stotzas. Because Sergius did not come to their aid as requested, the Romans were routed at Thacia, but not before John mortally wounded Stotzas in single combat. The effects of this disaster at least forced Justinian to recall Sergius and restore unity of command in the hands of Areobindus. Soon after, in March 546, Areobindus was overthrown and murdered by Guntharic, the dux Numidiae, who had come into negotiations with the Moors and intended to set himself up as an independent king. Guntharic himself was overthrown by loyal troops under the Armenian Artabanes in early May. Artabanes was elevated to the office of magister militum Africae, but was soon recalled to Constantinople.

The man Justinian sent to replace him was the talented general John Troglita, who had already served in Africa under Belisarius and Solomon, and had a distinguished career in the East, where he had been appointed dux Mesopotamiae. Despite his numerically weak forces, he managed to win over several Tamazghan tribes, and in early 547 he decisively defeated Antalas and his allies, and drove them from Byzacena.

A few months later, however, the tribe of the Leuathae, in Tripolitania, rose up, and inflicted a severe defeat upon the imperial forces in the plain of Gallica. The Leuathae were joined by Antalas, and the Tamazghans once again raided freely as far as Carthage. Early in the next year John mustered his forces, and together by several allied Moorish tribes, including the former rebel Cutzinas, utterly defeated the Tamazghans at the battle of the Fields of Cato, killing seventeen of their leaders and putting an end to the revolt that had plagued Africa for almost 15 years.

Peace restored

For the next decades, the Tamazgha remained tranquil, allowing it to recover. Peace might not have lasted as long, had not Troglita perceived that the complete eviction of the Mauri from the interior of the provinces, and the complete restoration of the province to its ancient bounds was impossible. Instead, he opted to accommodate himself with the Tamazghans, promising them autonomy in exchange for becoming the Empire's foederati, people under treaty expected to provide a contingent of fighting men when trouble arose, thus making them allies. The loyalty of these dependent princes of the various Tamazghan tribes was secured by means of annual pensions and gifts, and the peace was kept by a strong network of fortifications, many of which still survive to the present day.

The only interruption to the province's tranquility was a brief Moorish revolt of 563. It was caused by the unwarranted murder of the aged tribal leader Cutzinas, when he came to Carthage to receive his annual pension, by the magister militum, John Rogathinus. His sons and dependents rose up, until an expeditionary force under the tribune Marcian, nephew of the Emperor, succeeded in restoring the peace.

During the reign of Justin II (565–578), great care was shown to Africa. Under the prefect Thomas, during the period 565–570 the network of fortifications was further strengthened and expanded, the administration reformed and decentralized, and largely successful efforts were made to convert the Garamantes of the Fezzan and the Gaetuli, living to the south of Mauretania Caesariensis. At the same time, the Tamazgha was one of the more tranquil regions of the Roman Empire, which was being assaulted on all sides.

Despite the conflict with the kingdom of Garmules, and the loss of three Roman generals, Gennadius was sent from Rome to the Tamazgha to enact peace once more. Preparations were lengthy and careful, but the campaign itself, launched in 577–78, was brief and effective, with Gennadius utilizing terror tactics against Garmul's subjects. Garmules was defeated and killed, and the coastal corridor between Tingitana and Caesariensis secured.

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Establishment of the Exarchate

Gennadius remained in Africa as magister militum for a long time (until the early 590s), and it was he who became the first exarchus of Africa, when emperor Maurice established the Exarchate in the late 580s, uniting civil and military authority in his hands. The exarchate extended over the Tamazgha in North Africa, the imperial possessions in Spain, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Corsica, and Carnia. It prospered greatly, and under Heraclius, African forces overthrew the tyrant Phocas in 610. The exarchate was a practically autonomous entity from the 640s on, and survived until the fall of Carthage to the Arabs in 698.

The Exarchate of Africa (or Exarchate of the Tamazgha), was the name of an administrative division of the Roman Empire encompassing its possessions Tamazgha of North Africa, ruled by an exarch, or viceroy. It was created by emperor Maurice in the late 580s and survived until its conquest by the Muslims in the late 7th century.

Background

The Late Roman administrative system, as established by Diocletian, provided for a clear distinction between civil and military offices, primarily to lessen the possibility of rebellion by over-powerful provincial governors. Under Justinian I, the process was partially reversed for provinces which were judged to be especially vulnerable or in internal disorder. Capitalizing upon this precedent and taking it one step further, the emperor Maurice sometime between 585 and 590 created the office of exarch, which combined the supreme civil authority of a praetorian prefect and the military authority of a magister militum, and enjoyed considerable autonomy from Constantinople. The first African exarch was the patricius Gennadius.

During the successful revolt of the exarch of Carthage Heraclius in 608, the Tamazgha comprised a large portion of the fleet that transported Heraclius to Constantinople. Due to religious and political ambitions, the Exarch Gregory the Patrician (who was related by blood to the imperial family, through the emperor's cousin Nicetas) declared himself independent of Constantinople in 647. At this time the influence and power of the Exarchate was exemplified in the forces gathered by Gregory in the battle of Sufetula also in that year where more than 100,000 men of Tamazgha origin fought for Gregory.

The Arab Muslim Conquest

The first Islamic expeditions began with an initiative from Egypt under the emir Amr Ibn Al-as and his nephew Uqba Ibn al Nafia al Fihri. Sensing Roman weakness they conquered Barca, in Cyrenaica, then successively on to Tripolitania where they encountered resistance. Due to the unrest caused by theological disputes concerning Monothelitism and Monoenergism the Exarchate under Gregory distanced itself from the empire in open revolt. Carthage being flooded with refugees from Egypt, Palestine and Syria intensified religious tensions and further raised the alarm to Gregory of the approaching Arab threat. Sensing that the more immediate danger came from the Muslim forces Gregory moved the capital of the Exarchate to Carnia, Agora specifically, gathered his allies in the Tamazgha and initiated a confrontation with the Muslims and was defeated at the Battle of Sufetula.

With tenuous Byzantine control confined to a few poorly defended coastal strongholds, the Arab horsemen who first crossed into Cyrenaica in 642 encountered little resistance. The peak of resistance reached by the exarchate with assistance from its Tamazghan allies (led by king Kaisula ait Lamazm) was the victory over the forces of Uqba Ibn Nafia at the Battle of Biskra in 682. The victory caused the Muslim forces to retreat to Egypt, giving the Exarchate a decade's respite.

The repeated confrontations took their toll on the dwindling and ever-divided resources of the Exarchate. In 698, the Muslim commander Hasan ibn al-Nu'man and a force of 40,000 men crushed Roman Carthage. Many of its defenders were Visigoths sent to defend the Exarchate by their king, who also feared Muslim expansion. Many Visigoths fought to the death; in the ensuing battle Roman Carthage was again reduced to rubble, as it had been centuries earlier by the Romans.

The loss of the mainland African exarchate was an enormous blow to the Byzantine empire in the Western Mediterranean because both Carthage and Egypt were Constantinople's main sources of manpower and grain. It was also an enormous blow because it permanently ended Roman presence in Africa, ending Roman and Christian rule in the Tamazgha. Thus the last of the western provinces of the Roman Empire had ceased to exist, 222 years after the fall of Rome and the last Western Roman emperor.

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The Tamazgha – A Tribal Legacy

The medieval historian of the Maghrib, Ibn Khaldun, is credited or blamed for theorizing a causative dynamic to the different tribal confederacies over time. Issues concerning tribal social-economies and their influence have generated a large literature, which critics say is overblown. Abdallah Laroui discounts the impact of tribes, declaring the subject a form of confusion which cloaks suspect colonial ideologies. While Berber tribal society has made an impact on culture and government, their continuance was chiefly due to strong foreign interference which usurped the primary domain of the government institutions, and derailed their natural political development. Rather than there being a predisposition for tribal structures, the Berber's survival strategy in the face of foreign occupation was to figuratively retreat into their own way of life through their enduring tribal networks. On the other hand, as it is accepted and understood, tribal societies in the Tamazgha have continued over millennia and from time to time flourish.

Berber tribal identities survived undiminished during the long period of dominance by the city-state of Carthage. Under centuries of Roman rule also tribal ways were maintained. The sustaining social customs would include: communal self-defense and group liability, marriage alliances, collective religious practices, reciprocal gift-giving, family working relationships and wealth. Abdallah Laroui summarizes the abiding results under foreign rule (here, by Carthage and by Rome) as: Social (assimilated, nonassimilated, free); Geographical (city, country, desert); Economic (commerce, agriculture, nomadism); and, Linguistic (e.g., Latin, Punico-Berber, Berber).

Unlike the invasions of previous religions and cultures, the coming of Islam, which was spread by Arabs, was to have pervasive and long-lasting effects on the Lands of the Tamazgha. The new faith, in its various forms, would penetrate nearly all segments of society, bringing with it armies, learned men, and fervent mystics; in large part, it would replace tribal practices and loyalties with new social norms and political idioms.

Roman Africans

People from all over the Empire migrated into the Roman Africa Province, most importantly merchants, traders, and mainly veterans in early retirement who settled in Africa on farming plots promised for their military service. Historians estimated that under Emperor Hadrian nearly 1/3 of the eastern Numidia population (roughly modern Tunisia) was descended from Roman veterans.

A sizable Latin speaking population developed that was multinational in background, sharing the north African region with those speaking Punic and Berber languages. Imperial security forces began to be drawn from the local population, including the Berbers.

What made the Berbers accept the Roman way of life all the more readily was that the Romans, though a colonizing people who captured their lands by the might of their arms, did not display any racial exclusiveness and were remarkably tolerant of Berber religious cults, be they indigenous or borrowed from the Carthaginians. However, the Roman territory in Africa was unevenly penetrated by Roman culture. Pockets of non-Romanized Berbers continued to exist throughout the Roman period, even in such areas as the Tamazgha and Numidia.

By the end of the Western Roman Empire nearly all of the Maghreb was fully Romanized, and the Roman Africans enjoyed a high level of prosperity. This prosperity (and Romanization) touched partially even the populations living outside the Roman limes or boundaries (mainly the interior desert regions of the Tamazgha).

Economics

The Tamazghan economic mind was related to the basic concepts of state and society in which the ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power, and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous. The ultimate aim was to increase the state revenues without damaging the prosperity of subjects to prevent the emergence of social disorder and to keep the traditional organization of the society intact.

The organization of the treasury and chancery were developed under the Tamazghan Empire and they are the leading organization among all their contemporaries. This organization developed a scribal bureaucracy (known as "men of the pen") as a distinct group, partly highly trained ulema, which developed into a professional body. The effectiveness of this professional financial body stands behind the success of many great Tamazghan statesmen.

By developing commercial centers and routes, encouraging people to extend the area of cultivated land in the country and international trade through its dominions, the state performed basic economic functions in the Empire. But in all this the financial and political interests of the state were dominant. Within the social and political system they were living in Tamazghan administrators could not have comprehended or seen the desirability of the dynamics and principles of the capitalist and mercantile economies developing in Western Europe.

The prosperity of most towns depended on agriculture. Called the "granary of the empire", North Africa, better known as the Tamazgha, according to one estimate, produced one million tons of cereals each year, one-quarter of which was exported. Additional crops included beans, figs, grapes, and other fruits. By the second century, olive oil rivaled cereals as an export item. In addition to the cultivation of slaves, and the capture and transporting of exotic wild animals, the principal production and exports included the textiles, marble, wine, timber, livestock, pottery such as African Red Slip, and wool.

The incorporation of colonial cities into the Roman Empire brought an unparalleled degree of urbanization to vast areas of territory, particularly in the Tamazgha. One such colonization was on the Isles of Carnia, just off the coast of the Tamazgha.

This level of rapid urbanization had a structural impact on the town economy, and artisan production in Roman cities became closely tied to the agrarian spheres of production. As Rome's population grew, so did her demand for Tamazghan produce. This flourishing trade allowed the North African provinces to increase artisan production in rapidly developing cities, making them highly organized urban centers. Many Roman cities shared both consumer and producer model city aspects, as artisanal activity was directly related to the economic role cities played in long-distance trade networks.

The urban population became increasingly engaged in the craft and service sectors and less in agrarian employment, until a significant portion of the town’s vitality came from the sale or trade of products through middlemen to markets in areas both rural and abroad. The changes that occurred in the infrastructure for agricultural processing, like olive oil and wine production, as trade continued to develop both cities and commerce directly influenced the volume of artisan production. The scale, quality, and demand for these products reached its acme in Roman Tamazgha.

In order to stem such urbanizations, the people of the Tamazgha began to centralize focal cities, such as Carthage and Utica (Tunisia), Bougie (Algeria), Fez, Dakhla, and El Jadida (Morocco), and the three chief cities of Tripolis, the others being Leptis Magna and Oea (Libya). To stabilize and counter this movement, the Romans concentrated on the Isle of Carnia, its urbanization focused on Smyrna and Agora.

The North African provinces spanned across regions rich with olive plantations and potters' clay sources, which led to the early development of fine Ancient Roman pottery, especially African Red Slip terra sigillata tableware and clay oil lamp manufacture, as a crucial industry. Lamps provided the most common form of illumination in Rome. They were used for public and private lighting, as votive offerings in temples, lighting at festivals, and as grave goods. As the craft developed and increased in quality and craftsmanship, the Tamazghan creations began to rival their Italian and Grecian models and eventually surpassed them in merit and in demand. The innovative use of molds around the 1st c. BC allowed for a much greater variety of shapes and decorative style, and the skill of the lamp maker was demonstrated by the quality of the decoration found typically on the flat top of the lamp, or discus, and the outer rim, or shoulder. Decorative motifs ranged according to the lamp's function and to popular taste. Ornate patterning of squares and circles were later added to the shoulder with a stylus, as well as palm trees, small fish, animals, and flower patterns. The discus was reserved for conventional scenes of gods, goddesses, mythological subjects, scenes from daily life, erotic scenes, and natural images.