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The Fulani Empire of Sokoto ( Nigeria ) lll
2.
It was not long before new conquerors appeared. In the middle of the seventh century
the Arabs, fired by the new faith of Islam, began their westward march from Egypt and, in the space of a generation, overran the whole of North Africa. The indigenous people were unable to withstand the onslaught and had to submit. But at this period the Arabs were not sufficiently numerous to do more than impose themselves as a ruling aristocracy. They settled in the towns, but made no attempt to colonize the countryside where the Berbers remained preponderant 3.
For the next four centuries the two peoples ran uneasily in this double harness. The Arabs recruited Berbers into their service and with their help conquered Spain and threatened France. They also Put pressure on them to adopt the Moslem religion and the Arabic tongue. By degrees they succeeded in these objectives, but their subjects resented being treated as inferiors and so the process of assimilation was extremely slow. According to Ibn Khaldun, the Berbers fell into apostasy no fewer than twelve times 4 and certainly they were constantly in revolt against Arab domination 5.
Even though the Berbers were not at this stage deprived of their land, it is probable that their inferior status, the penalties suffered by those of them who did not adopt Islam, and the constant turmoil of wars and rebellions induced some of them to emigrate to the south and west. Such a movement was perfectly feasible, for by this time the principal caravan routes of the Sahara had already been established and were largely under the control of the Tuaregs who were themselves a Berber tribe 6.
In the middle of the eleventh century, four centuries after the Arabs had first appeared in North Africa, there came the second Arab invasion. This time it was not just an army but two whole Bedouin tribes that were involved. The impact was therefore completely different because the invaders were in search of land, particularly land for pasture, and not just conquest or domination. The first of the two tribes settled for a time in Libya, but the second, the Beni Hilal, overran what is now Tunisia and thence spread westward until in due course they reached the Atlantic 7.
Published: September 25, 2007
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