Puritans of the Dessert

The mysterious Mozabites--a wealthy, inscrutable people who inhabit a group of oases in the middle of the Sahara

Broken cliffs appear amid the desert, forming small gorges and canyons, bathed in unimaginable heat. There is no hint that life forms could survive here for more than a day. Flints and yellow pebbles, sparkling mischievously in the sun, cover the seemingly infinite surface on both sides of the road.

Then comes the surprise, one of the greatest the Sahara has to offer. With no warning, the land drops away. Below, in a valley framed by karstic-caverned cliffs, lie five picturesque towns surrounded by palm forests and flowering gardens: Ghardaia, Melika, Beni Isguene, Bou Nouara, and el-Ateuf.

This is an area known as the M'zab, the land of the Mozabites. These cities are not like other desert cities, and the people who inhabit them cannot be compared with any other people. The white, yellow, brown, and blue cubic houses along the Oued Mzab river spread into pyramidal hills, on the peaks of which the minarets reign like obelisks. The cities of the M'zab attract and repel simultaneously--attract by their delightful symmetry and repel by their fortresslike inapproachability. Outside of the cities are the oases, zones unto themselves, with villas and gardens surrounded by high walls and palm groves.

As exceptional as the land are the people, whose origins are lost in the fog of history. Already ancient by the time they appeared in the Sahara over a thousand years ago and established their desert cities, their customs and clothing styles have changed little in centuries. It is difficult to categorize these light-skinned, mostly short-statured people.

They live on perhaps the most inhospitable land in the world, yet many Mozabites live better than most human beings. Their villas often house immeasurable wealth. Shielded from the outside by high walls, the villas contain everything one needs to fulfill a "Thousand and One Nights" fantasy image: blindingly white dwellings, terraces paved with magnificent ceramic tiles, priceless carpets below Moorish arches, delicate fountains, and the most modern of swimming pools. What extravagance in a region from which each drop of water must be painstakingly extracted! And the aroma of the gardens! The owners do not settle for planting fruit trees. They also coax bewitchingly fragrant herbs and exotic blooms out of the few square meters of usable land.

Puritanism and luxury lie close together in M'zab, and do not conflict. Rather, they belong to the rich scale of vitality that has enabled this secretive people to survive unchanged for a millennium in the middle of the Sahara. Date palm groves of legendary lushness extend five miles upstream along the Oued Mzab, and are watered from six dams built across that river. About four thousand wells draw the water from the earth. Water distribution is effectively and scientifically carried out. The Mozabites are thus able to grow fruits, legumes, and cereals beneath the palms.

The M'zab pentapolis was established in the eleventh century by the Mozabites. El-Ateuf is the oldest settlement. Ghardaia is the main settlement, with about 70,000 inhabitants, including a Jewish quarter. Melika is populated predominantly by descendents of sub-Saharan blacks but has large Mozabite cemeteries. Beni Isguene is considered a sacred town--non-Mozabites are not welcome in certain sections; strangers can never stay overnight. Bou Nouara is the poorest of the five towns. Two other towns, Guerrera and Berriane, were founded in the seventeenth century.

Supermarket of the Sahara

Trade in any form is the Mozabite passion. Their business sense can hardly be exceeded, and they have contacts in all corners of the world. Their shops in the new town of Ghardaia overflow with treasures--everything one searches for (often in vain) in the boutiques and stores of Algiers can be found here. A common quotation in Algeria is: "The greatest treasure of the Sahara is in M'zab." Regardless of where Mozabites roam in the course of their business, their longing is always for M'zab, and their goal is to spend the autumn of their lives in their restful, secluded oases.

On the outskirts of Ghardaia is the foreigners' district, where Arabs, Jews, and blacks live. There one also finds restaurants, shops, and accommodations for foreign visitors. A bus service provides regular connections to Al-Golea, Touggourt, and Algiers. In this free region outside of the city itself, vice has even been able to establish itself: There is a beer garden and a domino casino, where Mozabites are never seen.

In the five Mozabite cities, visitors are tolerated, but not welcomed. An uncomfortable strictness lies over the sundrenched squares and angular streets. Men look unapproachable, children are shy, and one rarely sees a woman.

In Beni Isguene, the isolation is complete. A massive stone wall shields the "holy city" from its surroundings. Signs hanging on the three gates to the city announce in several languages that outsiders are forbidden to enter. For a suitable tip, however, a guide can easily be found who will take upon himself the "rsik" of routing the stranger at a trot through the main streets. The visitor will rarely catch a glimpse of the inhabitants, for they have withdrawn into their houses in a timely manner. But he will see a completely clean city with stylish houses and meticulous facades. He will find not a scrap of garbage nor a single cigarette butt, for smoking is frowned upon. No music will ever reach his ear. Should a male inhabitant happen to pass by with his measured step, one need not worry about the club dangling on the belt of his flowing garment. It serves no violent purpose but rather the secure locking of the house. These unusual keys, made according to an old tradition, have persisted to the present day.

In Beni Isguene, there are no stores and no public eating places. They only public facility is the mosque. Anyone wishing to but something must go to the market square to hours before sunset and acquire the goods in a public auction. A similar custom is still practiced by the Jewish population on the island of Djerba (Tunisia), where freshly caught fish are auctioned off in the market hall.

The great trade center of the M'zab is the famous suq (market) of Ghardaia. It is the market of the nomads. The Mozabites have their own shops, mostly in the central streets, which are so narrow that a donkey can hardly be driven through them. But the avid little men in baggy trousers enjoy dashing through the suq. The round white caps on their heads make their faces appear even paler and intensify the contrast with the bold, bronzed features of the desert inhabitants.

The market of Ghardaia elicits in visitors an irresistible fascination. Clusters of people press toward overflowing mats and booths--in a frenzied demonstration of supply and demand. Many tasty foods and small treasures, in addition to colorful everyday junk, change hands here. Fabrics, blankets, sheep brushes, couscous sieves, teapots, wooden cases, leather cushions, brass trays, oranges, dates, carrots, peppers burning red and burning hot, jasmine blossoms, mint leaves--all that and much more is offered for sale at this colorful marketplace. People come to buy and to sell, or just to look and to talk. Depending on their degree of wealth, the traders transport their goods by automobile, donkey, handcart, or their own shoulders. Many accommodate their treasures in sacks, as does the "music trader," who is part actor. As if he were offering up jewels, he pulls old scratched phonograph records out of his red plastic sack. He has no lack of prospective customers. The black tradesman in the gray burnoose patiently reads the same titles and performers over and over. He entertains his customers. He is not doing big business any more than his neighbor, who is offering a used fan and an old oil oven.

Sheikh Ali, in a white sheep's-wool coat, his face out of a fairy tale, drags in bast fiber sacks and throws them on the rough pavement underneath the arcades. The trader next to him hands him a cup of tea. When a customer comes and wants to buy a sack, the neighbor has to help make change as well.

In the middle of the large square is a fenced-off clay brick podium where devout nomads offer their prayers amid the surge of the noisy crowd. Sitting and strolling typify the rhythm of the suq, a rhythm neither hurried nor hectic; it does not arouse like the raging of the storm but enchants like the play of waves in a lightly moving sea.

There is little variation among the valley's picturesque Cliffside villages. Even the limited hours of convivial haggling are consistent. No shop opens before ten o'clock in the morning. Conduct of business after noon is limited to two or three hours. The evening meal is eaten after sunset and then it is quiet in the streets and on the square.

The rhythm of life for the residents of the M'zab is certainly influenced by the climate. The blazing sun and the hot breath of the Sahara penetrate every pore of a person's skin, sometimes causing the blood in the veins to rebel. The medicine for this, without which life in this region of extremes is inconceivable, is calmness.

A people millennia old

There are various theories about the origins of the Mozabites, the most widely held being that they are descended from a Berber tribe. This view seems improbable to many North Africa scholars, though. Aside from the striking differences in outward appearance, the lifestyles and worldviews of the Berbers and Mozabites differ fundamentally. The Englishman R.V.C. Bodley, a friend of T.E. Lawrence, lived for seven years among Arabic-Berber tribes in the Sahara. He became intimately familiar with the land of the Mozabites as well in his book, Wind in the Sahara, he writes that the Berber is a sedentary farmer, the Mozabite a city dweller. He never move out of the city, unless he is so poor that he cannot afford to hire an Arab or a black to work for him. The Mozabite is usually a wealthy merchant. The Berber, on the other hand, considers himself fortunate if he has enough to eat. During the great famine of 1921, when Berbers and Arabs throughout North Africa were dying of malnutrition and the Jews and French were also not too well off, the Mozabites had all they needed. Paying in gold, they imported grain from the United States.

An indication of possible Phoenician descent is the way that the Mozabites leave their land for pursuit of trade. In the major cities of North Africa, one can see the stocky, ivory-colored men selling everything, from wheat to cotton cloth. In matters of business, they run untiringly after the Arabs, and few Jews are their equals behind the shop counter. Their only ambition is to earn money so that they can withdraw and close out their days in the wasteland of the M'zab.

Many ethnologists see connections between Mozabites and Canaanites or Moabites. Names in old archives lead deceptively to this conclusion. It is also conceivable, however, that the inhabitants of the M'zab trace their origins to the Phoenicians through descendants of those Carthagians who escaped the revenge of the Romans when Scipio destroyed Carthage in A.D.146. The triangular door decoration, the signs of the fish (which, admittedly, are found among Arabs and Berbers as well), the signs of the sun and the stars, are indications of Carthaginian influence, as is the custom of laying sacrificial offerings on graves.

The ethnological origins of the Mozabites are thus uncertain. As regards their religious orientation, they belong to the puritanical Islamic Ibadiyah sect. They Ibadi are the North African arm of the Khariji sect, who disassociated themselves from orthodox Islam shortly after the death of the prophet Mohammed, in the seventh century, A.D., for political reasons surrounding the election of the prophet's successor. Followers of the Khariji sect also reached North Africa where the school of Ibn Ibad had a particularly strong influence. Within the Muslim religious community, the Ibadi (named after Ibn Ibad) sect is considered very strict, putting special emphasis on personal effort in moral and religious matter.

The North African ancestors of today's Mozabites, who once lived north of the Sahara, converted to Islam as early as the seventh century. They became--as did Berber tribes--followers of Ibn Ibad and later of Ibn Rostom, the Khariji governor of Kairouan (Tunisia's holy city). In the eight century A.D., a separate Rostomi state was formed in the north of what is now Algeria, with the mountain oasis Tiaret as its center. At that time, the Rostomi ruled over large parts of North Africa. When Tiaret was destroyed in A.D. 909 by the Fatimids, the Rostomi retreated to the south and established the settlement of Sedrata near the present-day oasis city of Wargla.

One century later, for reasons of defense, the Ibadi colony chose to relocate to the rocky, karstic valley of Ouad M'zab, in the middle of the Sahara. Thus the designation Mozabites, or M'zabites, came into use in the eleventh century. Their present-day desert center, decorated with all their achievements was once nothing more than a great refuge. To escape continual persecution by the Sunni nomads, with whom the Ibadi had religious differences, they retreated to a region which was avoided by all others due to its extreme in hospitability. In this desolate, dried-up river bed, hundreds of kilometers removed from the nearest fertile piece of land, they were finally safe. Here, they could proceed unchecked to make the previously impossible possible, for there was no one around whose envy could be aroused.

In the seventeenth century, a part of the population settled outside of Oued M'zab and established the cities of Berrian and Guerrara. These are considered today to be centers of religious rejuvenation.

The design of each of these settlements reflects the religious attitude of its residents. The mosques, with their minarets designed I the Sudanese style, stand at the highest points. A Mozabite mosque is a house of prayer, a storehouse, and a fortress. Non-Ibadi are not permitted to enter or pray in a Mozabite mosque. Around the mosque, the houses are grouped in concentric circles. The towns are surrounded by ringed walls and watchtowers.

Characteristic of the Mozabite mentality is that they avoid military conflict. Whereas the Berber accepts the need to fight, the Mozabites are masterful at staying out of wars. They reached a peace settlement with French in the mid-nineteenth century, long before the colonial troops reached their area. They had a special treaty with the French that exempted them from military service if they paid Arabs of Berbers to serve for them, thus avoiding Mozabite participation in the world war. The story was similar in the Algerian war of independence in the 1960s. While the Berbers of the Kabylia and the Aures regions fought like lions, the Mozabites remained quietly in the background. Even in today's Republic of Algeria, they occupy a special position, although the official national representatives do not admit it. The fact is that hardly anything has changed in their traditional self-government.

Cities of fascinating architecture

The Mozabites have over the centuries created a small paradise from a region of blazing stones. It is, of course, a paradise with flaws, but this makes in to less impressive.

Unlike natural oases, nowhere in the M'zab does the water reach the surface without human or mechanical water reach the surface without human or mechanical effort. With primitive tools and unimaginable stamina, wells--some of them nearly 200 meters deep--once had to be dug in the crumbling rock. Today, thousands of wells provide the life-sustaining water for around 100,000 people, herds of goats, and 160,000 date palms. Until just a few years ago, the water, drawn out of the depths of the earth with a camel-drawn bucket winch, was collected in reservoirs; today, this is done by diesel pumps. In the spring, the reservoirs are drained; the artificial flood pours across the valley and spurs nature on to an orgy of fertility. The more elevated cities stay dry. Rain is virtually unknown in the M'zab. It is not uncommon for years to pass with no notable precipitation.

From a distance, the five cities of the M'zab look like large termite hills. Their overall design has elicited admiration from many international architects. Le Corbusier, for example, was inspired by Mozabite architecture. Mozabite mosques exhibit extreme simplicity, in contrast to the prayer houses of the Sunni Arabs. Outside the cities there are cemeteries, with their own small mosques. Women often light oil lamps at the graves and burial niches, a custom frowned upon by religious officials, who regard it as idolatry.

The five daily calls to prayer seem more urgent in the cities of the M'zab, and nowhere else in the Sahara does one sense so little gaiety. The Ibadi religious teachers demand that their faithful observe the prescriptions of the Koran in every details and run their everyday lives completely according to these rules. The Ibadi residents of the M'zab so far appear to have submitted to these strict religious rules.

Centuries-old rivalries are still alive. Members of the Sunni faith, especially the Arabs living in the new town of Ghardaia, scorn the exaggerated religious fervor of the Mozabites. Mohammed Madani, a restaurant owner, recently stated disparagingly, "They are thinking only of getting the better of their customers, and when they succeed, they thank Allah for it." Just two years ago, there was serious unrest in Ghardaia after Mozabites--apparently out of religious fanaticism--devastated a Sunni mosque in the new town. The Sunnis thereupon demolished the Mozabite shops. Only after the arrival of the Algerian army could peace be restored.

Mozabites attempt to shield their lives from the influences of the outside world. They live according to a system that severely restricts the range of individual movement, particularly for women. An outsider feels like an interloper, like an unwelcome entity, when entering their cities. While it is extremely easy to engage Arab and black residents of the new town of Ghardaia in conversation, it is very difficult to establish contact with Mozabites. They exhibit for the most part a pronounced mistrust and reluctance to allow outsiders a look into their society and the intimacy of their houses.

Woman: the guardian of tradition

Despite their progress and cosmopolitan attitudes in business matters, the private lives of the Mozabites follow the narrowly charted paths of a centuries-old tradition. The Ibadi residents of the five small cities of the M'zab and the two settlements that lie above the valley adhere in their daily lives to a strict system of moral imperatives and prohibitions. The women are particularly affected by this, for they are regarded as the guardians of the tradition. Responsibility for the continuance or decline of the Mozabite social order lies with them. Women are therefore under the moral pressure of the religious leaders and their assistants.

Women of course wear veils; many still wear the large veil, which leaves only one eye exposed. The world of women in most traditional Islamic societies--except among nomads--is the house. The Mozabite woman in particular is bound strongly to the domestic realm. It is said that most wives rarely leave the house before the age of forty, and after that they almost never leave their communities. The men do the shopping, as is also common among Arab families. Although there are separate rooms for women in the mosques, the younger women pray at home. Even the more mature women seldom leave their ksar (fortified settlement), not to mention their country. Until just a few years ago, Mozabite religious authorities banned emigration for Mozabite women. Moreover, it is supposedly rare today for a woman to express the desire to leave the protection of the ksar.

As a rule, the Mozabite owns, in addition to his house in the city, a villa with a garden in the palm oasis, where he spends the hot summer months with his family. This traditional summer retreat is called Gaila. Mozabite men who have taken their wives along on trips to Europe or America claim that the women felt repelled by the hectic and disharmonious life in the large cities and were happy to be able to return to their

Saharan homeland. "As long as the women are willing to observe the old customs and traditions, our society remains stable," one hears repeatedly when Mozabite men speak on this subject.

The woman is responsible for maintaining the biological and spiritual-intellectual substance of society, and for passing on the entire intellectual and material tradition. In order to be a positive example, she must be protected like a valuable piece of property. "For us, the woman is an ornament, a decoration of existence. One cares for and nurtures it, but doesn't show it off." This is what the men in the M'zab say, and everything possible is done to shield women from the influences of the outside world. Significantly less value is placed on male purity.

When a girl approaches puberty at about the age of twelve, she may wear a veil for the first time. The girls reportedly look forward to this day. At 16, a girl is considered marriageable. Young men do not marry before they are 18. The father of the young man still selects the bride for his son, and she usually comes from the same city. A girl never marries a non-Ibadi. One the occasion of the engagement, the father of the groom buys his future daughter-in-law clothing, cosmetics, and delicacies. There is almost no possibility for contact between the bride and groom prior to the wedding.

Before the marriage takes place, a contract is drawn up in which the woman may specify various conditions. She may require, for example, that her future husband have no concubines, not go to prostitutes, not stay away on business trips for longer than two years, and not smoke, drink alcohol, or gamble. In exchange, the woman must promise to respect her husband, his property, and his parents, to be obedient, and not to incur any unreasonable expenses. Eight days before the wedding, the dowry must be presented, not to the bride's father as among some Arabs, but to the bride herself. It currently consists of money and goods with a total value of approximately $4,000 to $5,000. The price drops as the age of the bride increases, as it does in the case of remarriage.

The wedding celebration lasts three days. The bride and groom celebrate separately during the day, spending the nights together. From this time on, the woman wears the large veil: No man other than her father and her husband may see her face. All other male members of the extended family must announce their presence before entering the house, so that all the women present many put on their veils.

For a certain time, the young couple lives in the home of the groom's father, who must later give them the funds necessary to build their own house. The woman has the option of divorce under certain conditions, whereby she must return the dowry. If the husband asks for the divorce, he has no right to a return of the dowry. The ongoing responsibilities for child care, which usually remain with the woman, are also precisely regulated. A divorce, he has no right to a return of the dowry. The ongoing responsibilities for child care, which usually remain with the woman, are also precisely regulated. A divorced woman returns to the home of her parents, and her parents or brothers choose another husband for her.

The halqah--the ultimate authority

The political and religious authority of the M'zab is the halqah, the legislative council. There is a municipal halqah for each ksar and a regional halqah for the entire M'zab region. In addition, the individual extended families each constitute a family council. The halqah makes not only political decisions but also attends to moral-religious matters. Its activity extends into the most intimate spheres of family life and has a particularly extensive effect on the daily life of women.

To enforce laws and rules, the halqah uses the services of an organization made up of twelve prominent older women who make regular house visits, attend to the religious and moral instruction of the young girls, and act as marriage go-betweens. In addition, they must administer the ritual baths to deceased Mozabite women.

Violations of halqah laws are met with various penalties, the most dreaded of which is still tebrija, equivalent to excommunication. Particularly in earlier times, exclusion from the community of the faithful meant social death.

There are certain emancipation efforts today even in the land of the Mozabites, led--interestingly enough--by the young men. They demand better education for the women, a broadening of the curriculum, so to speak, within the framework of the Koran school, which is attended mostly by girls. The young men, most of whom receive a very good education abroad, are of the view that the educational gap between them and their future wives should not be too great. Among their successes are that girls may now learn French in addition to Arabic, and are given instruction in modern household management, child care, and personal hygiene.

Nevertheless, it does not appear that the social system of the Mozabites will change fundamentally in the foreseeable future. The world of Islam is a world of men, and that is true most particularly for the Ibadi sect. One halqah member was of the opinion that the educational gap between men and women was not a problem for marriages. Furthermore, he said, one must distinguish between education and growth. "Schooling is well and good, but one must not forget the growth of the heart. And this can come only from a healthy family."

A rare storm

As a sandstorm rages through the M'zab, the sky is yellow. Dust is racing through the streets. The people are restless; clothing and turban cloth are fluttering. In the streets of the fortress-like cities, one is safe to a certain extent from the raging of the desert.

Toward evening, the storm grows in intensity. The air is heavy and opaque. Doors slam, lanterns rattle. Suddenly, the light goes out. Hardly a resident dares to go out into the street. If someone absolutely has to leave the house, he covers his nose and mouth. Sand drifts form on the rooftops. It becomes noticeably cooler and suddenly begins to rain, softly and quietly.

The next morning, the storm has passed. Not a trace is left behind of the unexpected moisture. The ground is as dry as it was before. The sun is soon beating down again full force on the red sand, on the yellow and black stones, and is playing its fascinating game of light and shadows in the confusion of the cubic houses. The slender pyramidic minarets of the mosques, jutting into an infinite blue, are witnesses to an ancient culture, symbols of a mysterious people.