The Lost Berber Villages of Eastern Morocco and Western Algeria

Abstract

Much has been written about the deserted medieval villages of the northern Mediterranean region. It is impossible not to be impressed by the range and depth of research into this essentially socio-economic problem and by the contribution made by scholars from many different disciplines. This is well-illustrated in a collection of essays entitled Villages desertes et histoire economique published recently (I965) under the auspices of the Centre de Recherches Historiques, VIe SectionEcole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. In the preface Fernand Braudel points to the fundamental importance of these studies. He writes 'Les desertions rurales, en effet, ont ete un grand evenement, obstinement repete et comme un test des activites agricoles de l'Europe entiere. Elles marquent un tournant de sa vie, au meme titre que les revolutions industrielles qui ont totalement modifie son destin recent'. The progress made in the northern Mediterranean region, however, only serves to emphasise the fact that deserted medieval villages in the southern Mediterraneanand in particular the Maghreb-have so far been virtually ignored. Yet in the interior of the Maghreb, important peasant communities, established in the preclassical period, disappeared from large parts of this region after the second Arab invasion in the eleventh century and the upsurge of nomadism which followed. Numerous villages were abandoned and the desertions resulted in a profound change in the centre of gravity of the Berber population and of Berber civilisation. This marks a watershed in the history of the region. The aim of this article is to present a preliminary study of this lost peasant society in one part of the Maghrebeastern Morocco and western Algeria; to look at the distribution and pattern of the deserted settlements, the way of life of their inhabitants, their origins and evolution; and to suggest a programme for future research. The numerous deserted settlements in the interior of eastern Morocco and western Algeria (figs. i and 2) were described briefly in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century (Gsell I9II; Blanch I9I3; I920; de la Blanchere I883 ; Joly I909; Voinot I9I3; I9I6), but received little attention until the last two decades. The settlements had been occupied by Berber communities, the earliest inhabitants identified in the Maghreb, but though there was general agreement that some were pre-Islamic in date, many archaeologists and historians were convinced that there was no way of dating them more accurately. The extreme individualism of the Berbers and their relative isolation from outside influences explain, to a certain extent, the difficult chronological problem which the settlements present. The social organisation, customs and building techniques of these people remained relatively unchanged for many centuries and in some present-day Berber areas it would be difficult to determine, from the visible remains, whether a