Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T22:16:51.951Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Yemenis in the Western Sahara

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

H. T. Norris
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When I visited Mauritania in 1960 I expected to find similarities between the culture of the West Saharan societies and that indigenous to Southern Arabia. I was not disappointed. Amidst the distinctive regional culture of the Moors there are certain traits which are difficult to explain solely by an independent evolution in a remote, yet similar, environment. Professor R. B. Serjeant, himself a specialist in Southern Arabia, was also struck by the cultural similarities after he had seen our expedition film of life in the caravan towns of Chinguetti and Wadan. There appears to be a clear case for some cultural contact, but having postulated this it is extremely difficult to tabulate or classify it. This cultural contact does not concern Mauritania alone but includes those vast areas of the Sahara and the Sudan, to east and south, which lie astride the routes leading to the Arabian peninsula.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , July 1962 , pp. 317 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Khaldün, Ibn, Histoire des Berbères (Paris, 1925), vol. 1 translated by Baron, de Slane, 118.Google Scholar

2 Colin, G. S., ‘Le parler arabe de Mauritanie’, Hespéris, 1930, 139.Google Scholar

3 Montagne, R., La civilisation du désert (Paris, 1947), 243.Google Scholar

4 Khaldnn, Ibn, Histoire des Berbèes (Paris, 1925), vol. I translated by Baron, de Slane, 183.Google Scholar

5 Khaldnn, Ibn, Histoire des Berbèes (Paris, 1925), vol. I translated by Baron, de Slane, 185.Google Scholar

6 Ibn, Khaldnn, Histoire des Berbèes (Paris, 1925), vol. I translated by Baron, de Slane, 167–85.Google Scholar

7 Gautier, E. F., Le Passé de l'Afrique du Nord (Paris, 1942), 940–6.Google Scholar

8 Hamet, Ismaël, Chroniques de la Mauritanie Sénégalaise (Paris, 1911), 25–6.Google Scholar

9 Hamet, Ismaël, Chroniques de la Mauritanie Sénégalaise (Paris, 1911), 161–2.Google Scholar

10 Kitāb al-Wasīt (Cairo, 1911), Arabic text, pp. 456–7.Google Scholar

11 René, Basset, Mission au Sénégal (Paris, 1909), 447–8.Google Scholar

12 Tārīkh as-Sūdān (Paris, 1900), Arabic text, p. 25; Houdas's translation, pp. 43–4.Google Scholar

13 Barth, H., Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (London, 1890), 363–4.Google Scholar

14 Rodd, Rennell F., People of the Veil (London, 1926), 342.Google Scholar

15 Ka'b al Ahbār is a new figure in the list of mythical Himyarite ancestors of the Lamtūna. He was a Yemeni Jew who became a convert to Islam in the Caliphate of Abū Bakr 'Umar. The only link between him and other traditions about Himyaritic ancestry is some connexion with the Jewish religion is emphasized.Google Scholar