The Sanhaja were once one of the largest Berbertribal confederations, along with the Zanata and Masmuda confederations. Many tribes in Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania bore and still carry this ethnonym, especially in its Berber form. Other names for the population include Zenaga, Znaga, Sanhája, Sanhâdja and Senhaja.
History
After the arrival of Islam, the Sanhaja spread out to the borders of the Sudan as far as the Senegal River and the Niger. Sanhaja Berbers were a large part of the Berber population. From the 9th century, Sanhaja tribes were established in the Middle Atlas range, in the Rif Mountains and on the Atlantic coast of Morocco as well as large parts of the Sanhaja, such as the Kutâma, were settled in central and eastern parts Algeria and also in northern Niger. They played an important part in the rise of the Fatimids. The Sanhaja dynasties of the Zirids and Hammâdids controlled Ifriqiya until the 12th century. In the mid-11th century, a group of Sanhaja chieftains returning from the Hajj invited the theologian Ibn Yasin to preach among their tribes. Ibn Yasin united the tribes in the alliance of the Almoravids in the middle of the 11th century. This confederacy subsequently established Morocco, and conquered western Algeria and Al-Andalus. The Zenata or Sanhaja tribes would remain in roles as either exploited semi-sedentary agriculturalists and fishermen, or, higher up on the social ladder, as religious tribes. Though often Arabized in culture and language, they are believed to be descended from the Zenata or Sanhaja Berber population present in the area before the arrival of the Arab Maqil tribes in the 12th century, which was finally subjected to domination by Arab-descended warrior castes in the 17th century Char Bouba war. According to Mercer, the wordsZenaga or Znaga are thought to be a romanized distortion of Zenata and Sanhaja from Arabic.
Present day
The descendants of the Sanhaja and their languages are still found today in the Middle Atlas mountains, eastern Morocco, Northern Morocco, Western Algeria, Kabylia and Kabyle territories. The Zenaga, a group believed to be of Gudala origin, inhabit southwestern Mauritania and parts of northern Senegal. However, they are a small population.
