Igawawen or Gawawa, mostly known as Zwawa (in Kabyle: Igawawen, in Arabic: زواوة, and in Latin: JubaleniRevue archéologique, Société française d'archéologie classique (in French), p. 28) were a group of Kabyle tribes inhabiting the Djurdjura mountains, Greater Kabylia, in Algeria. The Zouaoua are a branch of the Kutama tribe of the Baranis Berbers.Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale (in French), Volume 1, Paris, Imprimerie du gouvernement, 1852, 447 p. (read online), p. 255
In the most restricted sense, the Igawawen were a confederation (kabyle: taqbilt, derived from Arabic "قبيلة" meaning tribe) of 8 tribes split into two groups:
Ait Betrun: Ait Yenni, At Wasif, Ait Budrar, Ait Bu Akkash. Ait Mengellet: Ait Mengellet proper, Ait Aqbil, Ait Attaf, Ait Bu Yusef.
Etymology "Zwawa" was the Arabic name of medieval Muslim historians for the tribes who inhabited the region between Béjaïa and Dellys. Some say that it's a deformation of the word "Igawawen", which was the name of a Kabyle confederation made up of eight tribes organized into two groups: the Ait Betrun (Ait Yenni, At Wasif, Ait Budrar, Ait Bu Akkash), and the Ait Mengellet (Ait Mengellet proper, Ait Aqbil, Ait Attaf, Ait Bu Yusef), and used as pars pro toto by the Kabyles of Lesser Kabylia to refer to Greater Kabylia.Jean-Marie Dallet, Dictionnaire kabyle-français: parler des At Mangellat (in French), Algérie, Volume 2, Peeters Publishers, 1982, 1052 p. (read online), p. 281. They were named after the mountain they occupy, the Agawa mountain, the most densely populated, in the north of Djurdjura.Camille Lacoste-Dujardin, « Grande Kabylie : du danger des traditions montagnardes » (in French), Hérodote, 2002, p. 119 à 146 (read online).
Kabyles do not refer to themselves in their language as Zwawa,Lanfry J., « Les Zwawa (Igawawen) d’Algérie centrale. Essai onomastique et ethnographique » (in French), Revue de l’Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 26, 1978 (read online), p. 76. and it is no longer used in Algerian Arabic either, except in western Algeria, where Kabyles are still called Zwawa.
Zwawa was also a personal name. In the 9th century, one of the chiefs of the Huwwara Berber tribe, who took part in the Muslim conquest of Sicily, was called Zwawa ibn Neam al-Half, who assisted in the triumph of the Muslim armies against the Byzantines.Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique Septentrionale (in French), Volume 1, Paris, Imprimerie du gouvernement, 1852, 447 p. (read online), p. 277.
Ibn Hawqal in the 10th century, was the first Muslim traveler and geographer to mention the name in his book, ZwawaKitab al-Masâlik wa l-Mamâlik,Ibn Hawqal, Kitab al-Masâlik wa l-Mamâlik, Vienne, éd. Krammers, 1939. but without giving substantial information about them.
, a 19th-century French general, thought that the word Zwawa might be an alteration of "Ath Wawa", the regular plural of Agawa (son of Awa), used to designate a man from the Igawawen, by replacing the Kabyle "th" with "z".Hanoteau et Letourneux, La Kabylie et les coutumes kabyles (in French), Volume 1, Paris, Imprimerie impériale, 1872, 512 p. (), p. 7.
During the time of the Regency of Algiers, the Kabyles were considered such excellent infantrymen that the name "Zwawi" became synonymous with "infantryman".Charles Féraud, Revue africaine, journal des travaux de la societé historique algérienne (in French), 1866, 495 p. (), p. 300. The various factions of the Titteri tribes provided a certain number of infantrymen who at times guarded Algiers and especially the surrounding bordjs (plural of fortress). They were only paid during active service. It was also said about them: "The Zwawa are in front for misery, behind for pay."
Origins The earliest source, al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān, the official historian of the Fatimids, explicitly lists the Zwawa among the tribes of the Kutama confederation in his work Iftitāḥ al-daʿwa. This contemporary account integrates them within the Kutama during the Fatimid expansion.
The Andalusian genealogist Ibn Hazm also considers them a branch of the Kutama.
Ibn Khaldun reports that, according to Berber genealogists, the Zwawa and Zwagha descend from the stock of El-Abter and consider themselves linked to the Zenata by blood :
"The Zwawa and the Zwagha, tribes from the Berber stock of al-Abter, are the children of Semgan, son of Yahya (or Yedder), son of Dari, son of Zeddjik (or Zahhik), son of Madghis al-Abter. Of all the Berber tribes, their closest relatives are the Zenata, since Djana, the ancestor of this people, was Semgan's brother and Yahya's (Yedder's) son. It is for this reason that the Zwawa and the Zwagha consider themselves related to the Zenata by blood."
However, Ibn Khaldun also notes that Ibn Hazm attaches the Zwawa to the tribe of Kutama, and he acknowledges that the proximity of their territory to that of the Ketama, as well as their cooperation in supporting Ubayd Allah (founder of the Fatimid dynasty), is strong evidence in favor of this opinion.
History
High Middle Ages The Kutama, including the Zwawa, like all the other Berber tribes, participated in the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.J. Bosch-Vilà, « Andalus » (in French), Encyclopédie berbère, 5 | 641-647., 1988 (read online) There are also several toponyms in Spain that derive their origins from Berber tribes settled in the region, such as Atzueva (At Zwawa), which can even mean that the Berber language was spoken there, because of the preservation of the Berber prefix for the parentage "Ath" instead of the Arabic "Beni". There are other toponyms too, such as Azuébar (Assuévar in Catalan), which comes from Zwawa. Without forgetting Algatocin (Atouch, confederation of Aït Waguenun) and Benicàssim, which may have been an extinct fraction of the Zwawa. These Beni Qasim even founded a taifa after the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba, the Taifa of Alpuente.
3 of the 47 clan toponyms identified in the Balearic Islands, which were conquered by Muslims in the 10th century, 12th century and 13th centuries, refer to tribes belonging to the Zwawa, these three toponyms are : Beniatron,M. Barceló, « Baléares » (in French), dans Encyclopédie berbère, 9 | 1318-1322, 1991 (read online) which is a variant of the name of the Aït Betrun confederation. Ibn Khaldun had mentioned the Aït Betrun in the same form.Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique Septentrionale (in French), Volume 1, Paris, Imprimerie du gouvernement, 1852, 447 p. (read online), p. 256. The second toponym is Artana, which may refer to the Aït Iraten confederation. The third is Benicassim.
The Zwawa were always traditional allies of the Kutama, perhaps even because they are themselves Kutama as Ibn Hazm and Ibn Khaldun claimed, even though they were mentioned separately in the historical records. In the tenth century, the tribes of the Baranis group of modern central Algeria, such as the Sanhaja, the Kutama, and the Zwawa, played a fundamental role in the creation of the Fatimid Caliphate by constituting the Army of the empire that had conquered most of the Maghreb, Sicily, Egypt, the Levant, and the Hejaz. The Zwawa participated in several battles for the Fatimid Caliphate, alongside their neighbors and blood brothers, notably in the siege of the fortress of Kiana (in the vicinity of the Qalaa of the Beni Hammad) against Abu Yazid, in which the Fatimids succeeded in taking the fortress and defeating the Zenati Kharijites and Nekkarites.Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale (in French), Volume 3, Paris, Imprimerie du gouvernement, 1852, 527 p. (read online), p. 211
In the year 972, the Zwawa came under the control of the Zirids, Sanhaja Berbers whose ancestor was Ziri Ibn Menad al-Sanhaji, who ruled over "Al-Maghrib al-Awsat" (central Maghreb, modern Algeria) and Ifriqya, also called "Al-Maghrib al-Adna" ("he closest Maghreb" to the East, modern day Tunisia), in the name of the Fatimids after their departure for Cairo. After the split of the Zirid dynasty into two branches in the beginning of the 11th century, the Badicids (descendants of Badis, son of al-Mansur, son of Buluggin, son of Ziri) reigned over Ifriqya from Kairouan, and the Hammadites (descendants of Hammad, son of Buluggin) who reigned over the central Maghreb from the Kaala des Beni Hammad, then Bejaia. The Zwawa were forced to make their submission, and the city of Bejaia was built on their territory.Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale (in French), Volume 1, Paris, Imprimerie du gouvernement, 1852, 447 p. (read online), p. 257 The Zwawa often rebelled against the Hammadids, because they were reassured and had nothing to fear in their mountains.
Almohad and Hafsid periods Bejaia was conquered by the Almohad Berbers, who succeeded in unifying the Maghreb under the great Caliph, Abd al-Mumin Ibn Ali, in 1159.Valérian, Bougie, port maghrébin (in French), 1067-1510. Rome : Publications de l’École française de Rome, Dominique, 2006 (read online) During the period of weakness of the Almohad Caliphate in the 13th century, three dynasties took over power: the Hafsids of the Masmuda tribe who controlled Ifriqya, from Tripoli to Bejaia, and their capital was Tunis; the Zayyanids, also called "Abdalwadids" (or "Beni Abdelwad"), Zenata who controlled the central Maghreb and had Tlemcen as their capital; finally, the Marinids, Zenata from the same branch as the Zayyanids (Beni Wasin), and they controlled Al-Maghrib al-Aqsa ("The extreme Maghreb", i.e. Morocco), and had Fez as their capital.