TNT Anthropology Edition: Are the Tauregs of North Africa Turks?(1908)/Part II

//Ed. Note: in Part II Sami Bey explains the lifestyle of the Tauregs.//

Political and Administrative Organization

The Tauregs are administered in the feudal way of olden times, but never in a 

capricious or oppressive manner.  It is sort of democratic.  Each tribe has a chief 

and these chiefs are called “Amgar” for the North Tauregs and “Amarar” for the 

South Tauregs.  The chief does not direct the affairs of tribe members by himself. 

 Rather, the elders of the tribe convene in an assembly called “Mirad”, the head of

 which is the tribe’s chief, of course.  This method is valid for all the free tribes.  

There is an overall chief for matters that affect all the tribes, such as war 

declarations, battle readiness, famines and large-scale calamities.  This chief is 

called “Amenokal”, which means sultan or commander.  The election of the 

“Amenokal” is made with the participation of all the chiefs of the free men and

 commoners.  For many years, according to custom, the chief commander comes 

from the “Eymenen” tribe in the north and the “Kel-Komret” tribe in the south, 

which is a member of the famous Al-at family line.

This chieftanship is not inherited but the main clan is paramount.  The mother of 

the elected chief must be from a noble family and the chief has the right to resign 

but may also be removed by the “collective assembly”. The overall chief’s symbol is

 a drum and the chief may be a woman – there have been some famous overall chiefs

 who have been women.  In the event that a woman is elected, then her regency is 

given to her son or to her brother, but not to her husband.

The overall chief cannot use this title for his or her own affairs.  It is only used for 

letters and contacts with foreigners.  These overall chiefs are like the chiefs of other

 tribes.  In other words, they have no other privleges.  When the Tauregs explain the 

overall chief to foreigners they say that he or she is “the chief of such and such tribe

 and has the drum symbol.”  This means that this chief is the top commander of the 

Tauregs.

                Family Life of the Tauregs

The Tauregs take women and have the right of divorce, but only if the woman has had

relations with another man.  The children, though, belong to the woman.  They say that

“the father may be unknown, but the mother never is!”  A father cannot have any real 

relation to a child, he can only feed, raise and educate the child.  Nor can a father have

 the child’s inheritance.  The closest relative for a child is his or her mother’s sister, 

followed by his or her mother’s brother.  A child whose mother is a royal is a royal, 

even if his or her father was a slave.  A child whose mother was a concubine is a slave,

 even if his or her father was a royal.  

The royals give great importance to girls.  A male who wants a girl applies with a 

letter written to the ‘mubıt’ (ascetic/scribe) of the tribe and the ‘mubıt’ shows the letter

 to the girl before showing it to her mother.  The boy and girl meet each other, chat and

 if they agree the girl writes her acceptance to the ‘mubıt’, who then broaches the 
matter  with the girl’s mother and tries to get the mother’s approval.  In any case, once
 the girl and the ‘mubıt’ approve the matter is settled. There is, though, a ceremony 
regarding asking the mother, in that the boy writes a letter to the girl but the mother
 retains it.  The  other women carry the bride to her husband’s tent or shack, which is
 in the desert and far from the tribe in an out of the way place.    As the bride goes 
the women sing songs,  while the Tauregs ride their camels and fire their guns.  At 
least five camels are given to  girls as their trousseau, but usually the number is 
seven.  The groom sends the bride chests, casks, shirts, cloth material, olive oil,
perfume called ‘zebet’,  aloe tree wood, gum and dirty pink, among other gifts.  
As for the girl, she sends the groom pots, pillows,  rugs, earthenware jugs and a tent
 made of sheep skins.  The following day the bride’s  family arranges a feast 
and invites the groom’s family.  A camel and a sheep are sacrificed, with a thigh
 of the camel and of the sheep cooked separately.  If the girl is a  virgin these thighs
 are not eaten but sent instead to the groom’s home.  İf the girl is not  a virgin all 
of the meat, including the thighs, is eaten and the crushed bones sent to the girl’s 
family.

                Marriage Ways   
The Tauregs make small hills two hundred steps apart and place rocks the 
weight of a sheep next to each small hill.  When a man marries he must 
absolutely pass a t

est, as follows:  a few of the elders of the tribe come together and along with the
 women, girls and men of the tribe, they arrive at the small hills.  The rock, called
 “şibirma”, is lifted by the groom over his head with two hands.  He climbs the
 opposite small hill, then returns to the first hill and drops the rock.  He does this 
three times.  If his hands don’t shake and he is able to carry the rocks at the same 
speed, then the boy has earned the right to marry.  The groom’s mother is 
congratulated but she remains in her tent.  Those who bring her the happy news
 bring a gift, such as an embroidered sheepskin bag.  The right to marry is earned 
by carrying the rock three times and the meaning of this is that the boy can excite 
the girl and tame her.  In this way the Tauregs preserve their clans, strengths and 
race and produce robust children. 

When male children of the free men are 16-17 years old, the oldest slave in the 
family puts the boy on a camel and takes him to a secluded well, known only to 
the slave.  This well may be as far as 20-30 days distant from the village.  The boy
 is left by himself at the well with the following items: a cover, a bag of dates, two
 cartridges and gunpowder, a bow and arrow, some salt, a knife, a flintstone, rope
 and a sheepskin bucket.  The child must reckon with nature by himself for weeks
 on end, hunting wild oxen, deer, rabbits and sheep.  Each animal he kills he skins,
 salts and leaves in the sun, drying the skins, as well.  Once the dates are gone, he
 lives on the hunted meat.  As the old slave leaves he tells the boy “let me see 
whether you can be a man.  Don’t sleep by the well, but nearby.  However many 
animals you hunt, your honor will be proportionately increased.  Let’s see if you 
are worthy of your mother.”  One day the old slave and some members of the tribe
 return, load the skins and meat onto their camels and return to the tribe.  When 
the tribe sees the child return they celebrate his homecoming based on the number
, of animals he has killed.  The ‘murbıt’ write poems and applaud the youth, who
 distributes the meat to family members.  The skins are given to his sisters as 
presents.  If he has no sisters, then the skins are given instead to the daughter of his
 maternal aunt.  The girls soften the skins, tan them, paint them and embroider them
 in order to make a dowry tent. 

After this test, the youth can participate in battles. The first thing the Tauregs teach
 is that “other tribes were created to nourish the Tauregs.”  Consequently, any Taureg
 can without hesitation go to the side of another and eat with them.  The Tauregs 
who are brought up this way see other people as very weak and small. That is why
 they are so brave, because they don’t consider other tribes to be their equals, 
thinking them more as slaves than humans.   

While I was in exile in Fezzan, I had a friend named Tekakam, who was a Tevarik 
chief.   The Gendarmerie commander was a black captain named Reyhan Ağa.  He 
told me not to consort with Tekakam but I told him to tell that to Tekakam, not to
 me.  One day while sitting with Tekakam, a Gendarmerie sergeant came by and 
reminded me of the captain’s warning.  Tekakam responded to this by saying “Get 
out of here and tell that slave I am a Taureg and take orders from no one.  Shall I 
cut off his head here in the city or in the desert?”

    *     *     *

                War    

For the Tauregs war and plundering are great opportunities for both booty and sport.  
All of their songs relate to wars, with love intermixed. The greatest honor for a 
Tevarik is to die in battle.  A Taureg who dies in his bed is almost considered a 
criminal.  Martyrs are not mourned but rather celebrated by their families and poets
 write poems about them. 

Over the course of history, recorded and unrecorded, the Tauregs have crossed the 
Great Sahara Desert to raid the south and brought back slaves and concubines for 
the occupiers of the north – the Cartagenians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Turks.  
The citified Berbers acted as middlemen in these transactions between the Tauregs 
and the occupiers in the north at various times in history.  This is very reminiscent 
,of the Turks of Turkistan who, until half a century ago, would raid Iranian villages
 around Horasan, round up the men and women and have them sold as slaves and 
concubines in the market at Buhara.  The Iranians of Horasan still speak with fear
 about these Turkish raids.  

Theft is shameful for the Tauregs and considered a great crime.  For example, 

when they come upon dead or dying camels in the desert they won’t touch the

 traders’ goods that the camels carried.  On the contrary, they alert each other to

 keep watch on the goods because they fear that the Tibus of Tibesti will come 

and steal the goods.  The Tuareg believe that goods left in their own part of the 

desert are a trust and if someone steals them then the honor of the Tauregs is soiled.

  

The Tuareg have herds of camels that they leave in the valleys and mountains to 

graze on their own.  If the grass is plentiful then the camels are well-nourished and

their humps grow strong.  The Tuaregs  take these fattened camels, cut their humps

 with a sharp knife, drain the internal oil and stitch them up again.  This causes no 

harm to the animal and, if the rains come, the same operation is conducted the 

following year.  So for many years the camels are not sacrificed and the oil in their

 humps removed each year. 

If a Taureg is hungry in the desert he searches for the tracks of ants, finds their nest,

 digs it open and eats the grain the ants have stored.  I have met those who say that 

they have retrieved a bushel of grain from such nests.   In those parts a bushel is 

equal to 8 okka (8 x 2.8 lbs.). 

The most valuable animal for a Taureg is his camel, which is white as milk, 

well-behaved and as sociable as a lamb.  The training of camels and horses is very 

far advanced among the Tauregs.  A camel never screams.  Approaching a city or

 tents it walks so quietly that it is like a slave walking on tiptoes, hoping to avoid 

waking his master.  The reason for this is to ensure that during a raid the enemy is 

not alerted by the sound of the camels’ footsteps.  Whenever the Tauregs are on a

 trip they release their camels where they stop so the animals can graze.  But at 

sunset the camels come running and kneel before the tent of their owners.  If a 

stranger comes near during the night the camels make noise, as if to alert their 

owners, like a watchdog would.  A Taureg riding a camel can never be ambushed 

because the camel, sensing the ambush, kneels to let the owner know of the 

impending danger.