LIST OF THE ARAB OR MOORISH TRIBES SCATTERED OVER THE WESTERN PART OF
THE DESERT, ACCORDING TO THE DISTRICTS OR NATURAL DIVISIONS OF THE
DESERT IN WHICH THEY ARE SETTLED.
The original inhabitants of these regions, at least since the middle of
the eighth century of our era, were the Berbers, especially the Zenágha,
or Senhája; but these tribes, since the end of the fifteenth century, it
would seem, have been pushed back, and partly conquered by the Arab
tribes to the south of Morocco and Algeria, who either intermingled with
them or reduced them to a degraded position. Thus there are especially
four classes of tribes,—the free warlike tribes, ʿAráb, or Harár; the
Zuwaye, or peaceable tribes; the Khóddemán, or Lahme, identical in the
south-western quarter with the name Zenágha, the degraded tribes; and
the Hárratín, or the mixed stock. The characteristic feature of these
Moorish tribes is the guffa, or full tuft of hair; that of the Zenágha
the peculiar fashion of wearing the hair called gatáya, as they cut the
hair on both sides of the head, and leave nothing but a crest on the
crown, from whence a single tress hangs down sometimes to their very
feet, or they tie the ends round their waist.
The supposed ancestor of the Moorish tribes is Odé ben Hassan ben Ákil,
of the tribe of the Rátafán, who is supposed to have come from Egypt.