Zenata

The Zenata (Iznaten; زناتة) are a group of Amazigh (Berber) tribes, historically one of the largest Berber confederations along with the Sanhaja and Masmuda. Their lifestyle was either nomadic or semi-nomadic. The 14th-century historiographer Ibn Khaldun reports that the Zenata were divided into three large tribes: Jarawa, Maghrawa, and Banu Ifran. Formerly occupying a large portion of the Maghreb (Tamazgha), they were displaced to the south and west in conflicts with the more powerful Kutama and Houara. The Zenata adopted Islam early, in the 7th century. While other Amazigh tribes continued to resist the Umayyad Caliphate conquest well into the 8th century, they were quickly Islamized. They also formed a substantial contingent in the subsequent Muslim conquest of Iberia. As Berbers, the Zenata spoke one of the Berber (Amazigh) languages. Ibn Khaldun wrote that their dialect was distinct from other Berber dialects. French linguist Edmond Destaing in 1915 proposed "Zenati" as a loose subgrouping within the Northern Berber languages, including Riffian Berber in northeastern Morocco and Shawiya Berber in northeastern Algeria. Before the Arab conquests, the Zenata ranged between present-day Tunisia and Tripolitania in present-day Libya, before moving steadily west where they settled in western Algeria near Tiaret and Tlemcen, while some of them moved still further west to Morocco. They dominated the politics of the western Maghreb (Morocco and western Algeria) in two different periods: in the 10th century, during the decline of the Idrisids, as proxies for either the Fatimid Caliphs or the Umayyad Caliphs of Cordoba, and in the 13th to 16th centuries with the rise of the Zayyanid dynasty in Algeria and the Marinids and Wattasids in Morocco, all from Zenata tribes. Today, most of the Berbers of the Rif region are believed to be of Zenata ancestry. In the early Islamic period of Morocco, Berber groups and tribes dominated the politics of the region well after the Arab conquests. The Zenata confederation did too.