Draa River

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The Draa (Arabic: درأ) (also spelled Dra or Draâ, in older sources mostly Darha or Dara) is Morocco's longest river (1100 km). It is formed by the confluence of the Dadès River and Imini River. It flows from the High Atlas mountains south-(east)ward to Tagounit and from Tagounit mostly westwards to the Atlantic Ocean somewhat north of Tan-Tan. Most of the year the part of the Draa after Tagounit falls dry. The water from the Draa is used to irrigate Palmeraies and small horticulture along the river. The inhabitants of the Draa are called Draawa (an exonym), the most famous Draawi undoubtedly being mawly Mohammed ash-Sheikh. Outside of the Draa region this name is mostly used to refer to the dark skinned people of Draa which make up the largest portion of its inhabitants.

225,000 people live in the valley of the Draa, which measures 23,000 km². The valley corresponds with the province of Zagora, created in 1997. In the province there are 23 villages and two towns: Zagora and Agdz. The village of Tamegroute, near Zagora, is well known for its Zawiya.

the Draa river.

[edit] Kasbahs

The valley of the Draa is especially famous for its kasbahs. The most famous kasbahs in the region are (north to south):

• The kasbah of Tamnougalt (the kasbah of Caïd Ali) and the kasbah of Aït Hammou Ousaid (of Mouha ou Hammou Zayani) near Agdz.
• The kasbah of El Caïd Ouslim and the kasbah of Oulad Outhmane in Tamezmout.
• The kasbah of Foum Achnna and the kasbah of N'Kob in Tinzouline
• The kasbah of Tat Ifli in Beni Zouli.
• The kasbah of Amezrou, of Aït Ali Tighramt Ouziguen and of Laglaoui in Zagora
• The kasbah of Agouim Nouaadjou and the kasbah of Tagounite in Tagounite.
• The kasbah of Aït Bounou, of LaAllouj, the kashbah of Oulad Driss and the kasbah of the Rgabi in M'hamid El Ghuzlane.

[edit] Agriculture

The Draa valley is famous as the date basket of Morocco. It grows more than 18 varieties. Fruit trees and vetegables are the main crops but henna is also a well known product of the region. The agriculture is very labour intensive because it takes place on terraced fields. Seguias (small canals) transport the water from the river to the fields. Like some other ancient Berber oases in North Africa (Siwa, Kufra, Ouargla) the Draa valley was known for its qatarra, a sophisticated system of underground irrigation canals.

[edit] Prehistory

The pre-history of the valley of the Draa goes back thousands of years, as is evidenced by the many rock art engravings or petroglyphs in its surroundings and most of all by the find of the Venus of Tan-Tan. This statue is the oldest human figurine ever found. It dates back more than hundred thousand years. From all main periods of the prehistory of the Sahara rock-engravings and rock-paintings have been found. Foum Chenna (Tinzouline), Aït Ouaazik ( Asguine Tarna, Tazzarine) Tiouririne e Tisguinine (Zagora) are amongst the best known sites in the Draa region.

See also: Saharan rock art, Rock art of Figuig, Tadrart Acacus, Rock art, Petroglyph, Neolithic

Bibliography:

• Bahn P -G (1998) The Cambridge illustrated history of prehistoric art. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Bruce-Lockhart J and Wright J (2000) Difficult and dangerous roads: Hugh Clapperton's travels in the Sahara and Fezzan 1822-1825.
• Chippendale C and Tacon S -C (eds) (1998) The archaeology of rock art. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Clottes J. (2002): World Rock Art, Los Angeles, The Getty Publications.
• Lhote, H. (1959) The search for the Tassili frescoes: the rock paintings of the Sahara, London.
• Lhote, H. (1970)Les gravures rupestres du Sud-oranais, Arts et Métiers graphiques, Paris.
• Mattingly D (ed) (forthcoming) The archaeology of the Fezzan.
• Muzzolini A (1997) Saharan rock art. In Vogel J O (ed) Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa. Walnut Creek: 347-353.
• Whitley D S (ed) (2001) Handbook of rock art research. New York, Altamira Press

[edit] History

The first reference to the Draa River in historical times comes from Hanno a king of Carthage (living around 550 B.C.) who set out for a mission to establish a colony on the west coast of Africa. The Punic text of the record of this journey (known as the Periplus) was engraved in the Temple of Chronos (Baal Hammon) at Carthage. There is only one Greek version, dating perhaps to the third century B.C.. These are the opening words of the Periplus:

“The Voyage of Hanno, King of the Carthaginians, to the Libyan regions of the earth, beyond the Pillars of Heracles...”

Having visited the Carthaginian colonies of the Atlas in Morocco, Hanno proceeded southward:

"Leaving this place we arrived at the great river Lixos which comes from Libya. On the banks nomads, the Lixites, were feeding their flocks. We stayed for some time with these people and made friends with them. Upstream from them lived the unfriendly Ethiopians whose land is full of wild beasts and broken up by high mountains where they say the Lixos flows from. They also say that about these mountains dwell the strange-looking Troglodytes. The Lixites claim that they can run faster than horses. Taking Lixite interpreters with us we sailed alongside the desert in a southerly direction for two days, then towards the rising sun for one more day. We then found at the far end of an inlet a little island five stades in circumference. We named it Cerne (Most scholars identify Kerne with the Island of Herne (23°50’N) on the coast of the Sahara) and left settlers there. judging by our journey we reckoned that it must be opposite Carthage, since we had to sail the same distance from Carthage to the Pillars of Hercules as from the Pillars of Hercules to Cerne."

It is generally agreed, the Lixos can be identified as the Draa (28°45’N). The Draa is the largest river in the area, and marks the southernmost limit of cultivable land. This well corresponds to Hanno’s account. Certainly the area of Herne was known to the Carthaginians because they would hardly have sent a colony to an unknown place.^[1]

The Draa River was also well known to the ancient Romans. It figures on the first world map in history made by Ptolemy (90-168 AD).

Ptolemy's map of Africa. The River Draa, Dara fl. is in the center of the map, just south of the mountain range, above the word Garamantes. fl. is an abbreviation for fluvius, Latin river.

When in 680 Uqba ibn Nafi the governor of Ifriqiya came to Morocco with his Arab army, and fought the Masmuda a tribe of the Atlas mountains, they consequently fled to the Draa river valley; Ukba pursued them and and inflicted a crushing defeat on them there. Ukba continued his conquest to the Atantic ocean, but on his return march to Kayrawan he was defeated and killed. Thereafter part of the Draa river valley was inhabited by the (Sanhadja) tribe of the Masufa. Their city in this region was called Tiyumetin (modern day Tagounit). From this time until today also the presence of Jewish groups in the Draa valley is attested. Beni Sbih and Beni Hayoune are the villages that remain of that past.^[2]

Four centuries later in 1053/54 the Almoravids began their advance on central Morocco. Their very first campaign was on the valley of the Draa river. The power in the valley had been, like in the city of Sijilmasa, for some 50 years in the hands of the Marghwata (a branch of the Zenata). Here and elsewhere in Morocco this domination was resented. After the Almoravids had conquered the Draa and Sijilmasa they went on to conquer Adaghwast at the southern end of the trans-Sahara route. Yusuf ibn Tashfin took command of North Morocco, while Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar was leader in the Sahara, Tafilalt and the Draa. Today the remains of an Almoravid fortress can still be seen on the top of the Zagora hill.^[3] There are still groups in the Draa valley that claim descendancy from the Almoravids: the groups of Mrabtine linked to the Arib and the Msouffa, part of the conferderation of the Ait Atta. This integration in the empire of the Almoravids was also was the first integration of the Draa valley into the whole of Morocco.

Many times, however, the Draa valley was the cradle of revolution and dissent. In 1255 the Bani Hassan (the Maqil Arabs) invaded the valley. The Maqil were quickly used by the ruling Berber dynasties. In the country-side however they were deeply disruptive, bringing ruin to many sedentary farmers. The domination of the Maqil in the south lasted to the middle of the 14th century, when a large part of them moved further north and many berber inhabitants came back. Others like the Roha, Oulad Yahia and Ouled Malek (still a part of the population), which arrived later in the Draa valley, stayed there and continued the fight for the rule of the region. In the 15th century some strugle between Arabs and berber continued.

At this time the region was the home of many important religious figures and zaouias. The Draa became part of the marabout mouvement against the Portuguese who had captured many towns at the Atlantic coast. The Draa made an important come back in the history of Morocco with the rise of the dynasty of the Saadi. Its cradle was in the Draa valley in Tagmadert, the current district of Fezouata between Zagora and Tamegroute ^[4]. Although there is still a village called Timidert today, some historians think Tagmadert was situated at today's Amezrou, a village next to Zagora. Thanks to the Saadi Dynasty the Draa played an important role in the history of Morocco and the Sahara during the 16th century. In the middle of that century the Saadi Dynasty was at the height of its power. In that time the need for gold was increasing and the sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur decided to undertake the conquest of the Soudan in 1590. According to some sources this conquest had its cause in the events of 1545 when under the reign of Mohammed Echeikh the palm orchards of the Ktawa in the Draa were captured by the Tuareg Oulmiden who were sent by Ishaq I, king of the Sudan. The campaign for the conquest of the Sudan started in the Ktawa, in the Draa valley. Its was in 1591 that the troups gathered and took in food for the passage across the dessert. After the military operations the trans-Sahara trade with the Sudan seems to have intensified. In the palm gardens of M'hamid between ksar Bounou and ksar Talha the ruins of qsar El Alouj are still to be found. This was the old "customs office" where the gold pouder arrived from the Sudan. Here the gold coins were struck to be send to Marrakesh.^[5] With the decline of the Saadi Dynasty, especially after the death of Al Mansour in 1603 the Draa falls back into anarchy.

During the 17th century the Alaouite Dynasty succeeds in establishing its authority in the valley. Mawlay Ismail Ibn Sharif sends his son to stay in Beni Zoli (20 kilometers north of Zagora)and also in the zaouia Naciria of Tamgroute in 1675/76. ^[6]

Map of Southern Morocco, 1705, by Nicolaas Sanson (Province of Darha/Draa with pink borders in the middle of the map)

In the two next centuries the Draa remains the object of fights between warring (nomadic) tribes. Unfortunately sources have paid too little attention to the sedentary population to give a coplete picture of its history and evolution. The officers of the colonising French were almost exclusively interested in the neighbouring resisting warrior tribe ot the Ait Atta and neglected the Ktawa of the Draa. It is probable, however, that during these last centuries the nomad tribes in the Draa valley have integrated with the sedentary. Blood ties (real or imaginary) in which the determing factor whether one belonged to this or that tribe or sub-tribe make place for the determining factor of the qsour where one lives. Alliances are made between particular qsour and nomad groups which offer protection. At the end of the 18th century the power in the Ktawa is divided between tree chiefs of three groups: the caid Mohamed in the qsour Beni Hayoun, cheik El Maati in the Beni Sbih and cheik Aamaou in the upper part of the valley. Around 1800 the security of these qsour was threatened by Arab nomads like the Ghenama and the Beni Mohammed and the protection of the Ait Atta was invoked. The price the sedentary groups paid for the protection was a part of their land. This method was custom at many places throughout the valley. Certain qsour however remained independent under the protection of their local chiefs or zawiyas (e.g. qsour Mezguita). Much of the history of the Draa valley is characterised by the rivalry between the different 'protecting' tribes.

With the coming of the Glaoua at the beginning of the 20th century (1918-19) the domination of many of the ksour by the nomads (like Ait Atta) was brought to an end. Later in the 1930-s the French colonisation begins slowly and completely ends the nomad influence and social structures are radically changed. The jemaa is moved to Tagounit, the new administrative centre, and after a few years the region enjoys a new kind of autonomy.

[edit] Language

Draa river in Agdz

The people of the Draa speak, besides Arabic, their own variant of the Berber dialect Tashelhiyt. Tashelhiyt is sub-divided into Tachelhiyt of the Draa valley, Tasusit (the language of the Souss) and several other (mountain)-dialects. Tashelhiyt of the Draa is also spoken in Tabelbela (Algeria). In the Imini region Judeo-Berber was spoken in the first half of the 20th century.

[edit] Oases

The Upper Draa River valley (ca 200 km long) consists of six stretches of oases/palm groves from north to south:

• The Mezguita oasis, with the Agdz and Auriz and south of it the Tamsikht dam
• The oasis of Tinzouline, with Ouled Lagraier, Tinzouline, Ouled Yaoub and a dam south of it
• The Ternata oasis with Zagora
• The Fezouata oasis with Tamegroute and south of it the Azagha dam
• The Ktaoua oasis (English Ktawa) with Tagounite, Blida, Tiraf and the Bounou dam south of it
• The oasis of Mhamid el Ghuzlan with Mhamid el Ghuzlan

The width of the 'green zone' is on average three kilometers (varying from 100m to 10 kilometers). Because of the terrain the agriculture is very labour intensive. Dates are the main product, but also cereals, vegetables and henna are cultivated.

In the Ktaoua there are 55 villages, mostly consisting of ksour (plural of ksar). These villages are:

Source : Recensement général du Maroc, 1994

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

• Bahani, A., La nouba d'eau et son évolution dans les palmeraies du Draa Moyen du Maroc: CERES. Les oasis du Maghreb, Tunis: pp. 107-126, 1994
• Philip Curtin (ed.), African History, London: Longman, 1988
• M. Elfasi (ed.), General History of Africa III, Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, UNESCO, 1988
• Hammoudi, A., Substance and Relation: Water Rights and Water Distribution in the Dra Valley. In: Mayer, A.E. (Ed.), Property, Social Structure, and law in the Modern Middle East. New York: pp. 27-57, 1985
• W.D. Seiwert (ed.), Maurische Chronik, München: Trickster Verlag, 1988
• Jacques-Meunié, D., Le Maroc Saharien, des origines à 1670. Thèse d'État. 2 tomes, Librairie Klinsieck, Paris, 1982
• Ahmed Zainabi, La Vallée du Dra: Developement Alternatif et Action Communautaire, 2001 (Background paper WDR 2003)

[edit] External links

• The Invasion of Morocco in 1591 and the Saadian Dynasty, An Examination of The Role of Europe in the Morocco Invasion of 1591 and the Rise to Power of the Saadian Dynasty, by Jonathan Michel, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER, 1995 [4]

• A truly remarkable inventary of ksars of the Draa (northern districts) with a wealth of information is to be found on this site (in French):

Inventaire Systématique par Photos Aériennes du Pâtrimoine Architectural de la Vallée du Draa au Maroc, projet commun entre: CERKAS, Ministère de la Culture, Maroc. Bureau d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme H. Hostettler, Berne. Institut de Photogrammétrie de l’EPF-Lausanne[5]