Shilha people


The Shilha people, or Chleuh or Ichelhiyen, are a Berber ethnic group that inhabit and are indigenous to the Anti-Atlas, High Atlas and the Sous valley. The Shilha people are a part of Morocco's Berber-speaking community, and the southernmost residing Berber population.

Name and etymology

The Shilha people traditionally call themselves ishelhien or Shlḥi. This endonym is rendered as Chleuh in French. The Ishelhien are also known as Shluh and Schlöh. Among Arabic speakers, Chleuh serves as an appellation for Berbers generally, although Imazighen is the proper Berber self-name for Berbers as a whole.
The origin of the names Aclḥiy and Taclḥiyt is still debated. The first appearance of this name in a western printed source is found in Mármol's Descripcion general de Affrica :
...y entre los Numidas, y Getulos dela parte occidental de Affrica se habla Berberisco cerrado, y alli llaman esta lengua, Xilha, y Tamazegt, q̃ son nõbres muy antiguos.

"...and among the Numidians and Getulians of the western part of Afri-ca, they speak Berber with marked local features, and there they call this language Xilha and Tamazegt, which are very old names."

Some sources attribute it an exonymic origin. According to James Alexander MacLellan, Josiah Clark Nott and George Robins Gliddon the shilha people, adopted a mythical lineage that linked them with the biblical character Casluhim, the shilha people pronounced his name as "Kah-shlouh-im". The word "shleuh" is the extract of the middle syllable.
The moroccan Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) states that it is of arabic origin, as the nominal stem šlḥ goes back to the Arabic noun "bandit". But this meaning is only present in the eastern dialects of Arabic; it does not exist in Maghreb dialects, and this is the weakness of this thesis. Also, the majority of those who tried to search for the etymology of the word used foreign-language dictionaries, rather it was supposed to search for the relevant language first. This is mainly due to the fact that the proponents of this hypothesis were not Shilha speakers.
There are a lot of attempts to explain this name based on the language of Tachelhit. The most logical one of them is by the writer Mohammed Akdim, who emphasized in one of his contributions, that the name Shluh, in fact, is the original name given by the Masmuda in the High Atlas and the possessions of Marrakesh, Souss and the Anti-Atlas On themselves. In Shilha, the verb means "to settle down, reside and live", which indicates that the name means "settled and settled residents or settled residents". He also added that there is no meaning and no use in resorting to searching for the significance of the word and in other languages, which is not crippling. As for going to its interpretation and explanation in the Arabic language, this is the height of linguistic prejudice in the right of the Amazigh.

History

In antiquity, Berbers traded with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians in commercial entrepots and colonies along the northwestern littoral. They established the ancient kingdom of Mauretania, which fell under Roman rule in 33 CE, before eventually being reunited under Berber sovereignty. During the 7th century, the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate invaded the Berber and Byzantine strongholds in the Northwest Africa, seizing Carthage in 698 AD. Although the Umayyads nominally controlled Morocco over the following years, their rule was tenuous due to Berber resistance. Shortly in 739 AD, Umayyad Arabs were defeated by the Berbers at the battle of Nobles and Bagdoura. Morocco remained under the rule of Berber kingdoms such as Barghawata and Midrar... etc. In 789 AD, with the approval of the locals, a former Umayyad courtier established the Idrisid dynasty that ruled in Fez. It lasted until 970 AD, as various petty states vied for control over the ensuing centuries.
After 1053, Morocco was ruled by a succession of Muslim dynasties founded by Berber tribes. Among these were the Almoravid dynasty who spread Islam in Morocco, the Almohad dynasty, and the Marinid dynasty. In 1668, a sharifan family from the east assumed control and established the incumbent Alawite dynasty.
The French and Spanish colonial empires partitioned Morocco in 1904, and the southern part of the territory was declared a French protectorate in 1912. Arabization remained an official state policy under both the colonial and succeeding post-independence governments. With the spread of the Berber Spring in Algeria to Berber territory during the 1980s, the Berbers sought to reaffirm their Berber roots.

Culture

Society

The Ishelhien mainly live in Morocco's Atlas Mountains and Sous Valley. Traditionally, they are farmers who also keep herds. Some are semi-nomadic, growing crops during the season when water is available, and moving with their herds during the dry season.
The Ishelhien communities in the southwestern mountains of Morocco cooperated with each other in terms of providing reciprocal grazing rights as seasons changed, as well as during periods of war. These alliances were re-affirmed by annual festive gatherings, where one Shilha community would invite nearby and distant Shilha communities.

Traditional clothing

Shilha tribes in Morocco, especially in the Souss region, are distinguished by their women and girls wearing a specific dress for each tribe and village, in a way that makes people in the region recognize the woman's tribe by her dress, whether it is everyday wear or occasional wear.
Shilha women wear an Asmal or Achayt Caftan, a long red shirt embroidered with unique patterns based on wool threads colored in red, yellow and green, they then places the ssayah, a long skirt in white or black, embroidered with patterns. It is worn over the Asmal caftan, paired with colorful shoes known as Iddukan.
On their head, women wear the Qatib, a popular red silk scarf with which the woman covers her hair, its also worn with or in different colors. It is also sometimes replaced by the Addal, a long white robe that reaches to the feet, similar to the Haik, with which the Shilha woman covers her body and head.
The most important feature of the traditional costume of the women is their silver adornment, called, which differs from one tribe to another. In every traditional outfit, you can expect a Tawnza, a crown made of silver and coral, this often distinguishes between tribes. Women also wear Taẓeṛẓit, they're silver Amazigh fibula adorning the chest and abdomen, along with Tanbalt, which are a pair of silver hinged bracelets.

Language

The Ishelhien speak Tashelhit, a Berber language. It belongs to the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Their language is sometimes referred to as Sous-Berber. Tashelhit differs considerably from some other Berber languages, such as those spoken by the Tuareg. The name,, is morphologically a feminine noun, derived from masculine "male speaker of Shilha".
Shilha is spoken in an area covering around 100,000 square kilometres. The area comprises the western part of the High Atlas mountains and the regions to the south up to the Draa River, including the Anti-Atlas and the alluvial basin of the Sous River.
As of 2014, there were around 4.7 million Shilha speakers, constituting 14.1% of the Moroccan population.

People of Shilha descent