Zughba

This article is about the Arab tribe. For the village in central Syria, see al-Zughbah.

Zughba زغبة
Ethnicity	Arab
Location	Western Algeria and Morocco
Parent tribe	Banu Hilal
Language	Arabic
Religion	Islam

Zughba (Arabic: زغبة) was an Arab tribe and a sub-tribe of Banu Hilal, a confederation of Arabian tribes that migrated to the Maghreb in the 11th century. They primarily live in western Algeria and Morocco. An example of a sub-tribe of this is Beni Amer.

Origin

Zughba are a sub-tribe of the larger Arabian tribal confederation of Banu Hilal. At the time of the migration, Banu Hilal were very numerous, effectively a nation divided into its own sub-tribes, of which the most notable were the Athbaj, Riyah, Jusham, Zughba, Adi, and Qurra.^[1] Sources estimate that the total number of Arab nomads who migrated to the Maghreb in the 11th century was at around 1 million Arabs.^[2]

History

In the 12th century, Zughba were the westernmost Hilali tribe, inhabiting an areas stretching from Tlemcen in the west to Algiers in the east. It lived near the tribe of Athbaj which inhabited areas to the south and the east of Zughba, and the Riyah of eastern Algeria around Constantine and Masila, as well as northern Tunisia.^[3] Over time, Zughba was settled in Morocco along with the tribes of Khult and Riyah, beginning the rural Arabization of the western Maghreb.^[4] Earlier in the 11th century, Zughba used to occupy part of Tripolitania, including the whole region stretching from Tripoli to Gabès, before being replaced there by Banu Sulaym.^[5] Zughba had presence in Tripoli even before the Fatimids sent the parent tribe of Banu Hilal to the Maghreb in 1050. A faction of Zughba settled in Tripoli with Banu Qurra in 1037–1038.^[6]

References

1. Baadj, Amar S. (2015-08-11). Saladin, the Almohads and the Banū Ghāniya: The Contest for North Africa (12th and 13th centuries). BRILL. p. 24. ISBN 978-90-04-29857-6.
2. Hareir, Idris El; Mbaye, Ravane (2011-01-01). The Spread of Islam Throughout the World. UNESCO. p. 409. ISBN 978-92-3-104153-2.
3. Baadj, Amar S. (2015-08-11). Saladin, the Almohads and the Banū Ghāniya: The Contest for North Africa (12th and 13th centuries). BRILL. p. 72. ISBN 978-90-04-29857-6.
4. Bennison, Amira K. (2016-07-05). Almoravid and Almohad Empires. Edinburgh University Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-7486-4682-1.
5. Miller, Catherine; Al-Wer, Enam; Caubet, Dominique; Watson, Janet C. E. (2007-12-14). Arabic in the City: Issues in Dialect Contact and Language Variation. Routledge. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-135-97876-1.
6. Brett, Michael (3 March 2015). "The Zughba at Tripoli, 429H (1037–8 A.D.)". Libyan Studies. 6: 41–47. doi:10.1017/S0263718900000613. ISSN 0302-3168. S2CID 164493438.