- Amzru and the Zagora Djebel
- The Almoravids in Zagora
Tagmadert, cradle of Saadiyîn
The Dra and Timbuktu
Anarchy and chronic warfare
- Contemporary time

Tagmadert, cradle of the Saadiyîn

Historical evidence tells us that at the very place of Amzruu and surroundings there was, in the 15th and 16th centuries, a city called Tagmadert, which was the cradle of the Saadiyîn dynasty (1511-1659).

In 1573, Marmol Carvajal, soldier of Spanish origin and prisoner of the Sultan Mohammed ech-Cheikh, travelled through the valley. Here his description of « Tagumadert » : « It is a town of one thousand five hundred inhabitants, on the border of Lybie, at twenty leagues from Quiteoa. It only has miserable walls ; but there is a castle on the top of a mountain. Those are Darui, proud people, that pride themselves because they have some knowledge of letters.” And he confirms: “It is the place where the Sherifs come from, whose descendents are today ruling in Fez and Morocco.” He goes on saying : « It is a fertile country of wheat, barley and dates, and of big and small cattle. The Sherif is garrisoned at the castle, because of the Arabs of the desert, and there are a few pieces of artillery. This place and Tanugumest depend on the Governor of Timesquit, who is the principal of these quarters. »

It is likely that the kasbah (or the qsar) of Amzru is, if not the vestige, in any case, the heir to the kasbah that the Sultans built at that time (in particular in the 1550-1570 decades) among all the fortresses and qsour that they edified through the valley, from Tamnougalt (Agdz) to M’hameed. The difficulty comes from historical changes in the toponymy, whereby “Amzru” appeared in the 18th century, under the Alawids (who came from the oued Ziz valley, on the east of the Dra) and at the time of the arrival of the Ait Atta, a powerful Berber confederation organised to resist the Maâqil. Since that time, « Tagmadert » has designated the district of the western-northern edge of the Fezwata, that includes ten qsour and other dwellings around Amzru.

Mausoleum of Sidi Abdullah Ben Amar

Under the Saadiyîn and under the first Alawids as well, the Dra valley was unified and closely kept under military control. It is there that the glorious Sultan, Ahmed El-Mansour (1578-1603), gathered 6000 men, 1000 horses, 8000 to 10000 camels, with all needed armament and supplies, to launch them to the conquest of Gao and Timbuktu in 1591.

The Dra and Timbuktu

For a long time, the Dra and the “Soudan” had been in contact beyond the Saharan immensity. Under the Merinid (13th- 15th), monarchs from both edges maintained good relations and developed substantial economic and cultural exchanges. Moroccan tradesmen used to frequent the caravans’ destinations of Gao and Timbuktu, where some of them were residing, while doctors were coming to teach from Cairo, Mecca, Fez... Reciprocally, it is at the Qarawiyîn of Fez (eminent Islamic university founded in the 9th century) that well-read Sudanese had been studying. It is there that the most famous of them, Ahmed Baba Sudani, when deported after the conquest, gave public lessons that fascinated the Moroccan elite. He also stayed for two years in Tamgrut, after the death of El-Mansour.

Following the conquest, ties between the two countries developed and strengthened. The Dra provided scores of Timbuktu administrators. Nevertheless, as involved and prosperous as it was, the valley was never to be among the main beneficiaries of the trade that was crossing its full length. Let’s note for the anecdote that one unexpected legacy of the conquest was the use of tobacco, which entered Morocco by co-opting first the South and the Dra!

The Alawid took the Dra in 1642. Like their predecessors, they also built many qsour and maintained peace through military terror. It was no longer from Tagmadert but from Aghlan,
20 km north of Zagora, that they administrated the valley. Amzru was the headquarters of a governor.

Dar Sultan

Anarchy and chronic warfare

Afterwards, the valley went through very troubled times, and has been so up to the 20th century. Anarchy resulted from a highly divided society where each and every qsar administrated itself, while Arab-Berber armed nomads were fighting over their control at local people’s expenses. The Drawa who made (and still make) by far the bulk of the population were sedentary peasants and artisans who have been through the ages relentlessly confronted to the necessity to make allegiance to one group in order to be protected against the others. That was the price to pay in order to save their lives and possessions and that explains the co-existence in a douar like Amzru of a Drawa majority with a numerous Berber minority and, depending on places, an Arab minority.

Indeed, the people of Amzru explain that, at the beginning of the last century, they have been confronted to some Berber groups threatening to take over the qsar and that they went to the Saghro to look for help. Berber warriors’ families came to camp by the gardens and the locks that commanded water distribution in the seguias. The next to come built a few houses at some distance from the Eastern-Southern angle of the qsar. The alliance was legally sealed in Tamgrut and ritually performed by the exchange of 24 Berber infants against 24 Drawa infants who became foster brothers. Each of the three main Drawa families symbolically merged with one of the three main Berber families.

The Berber kept this armed protection function up to the French Protectorate, when it felt into abeyance. Some Berber families bought gardens, other became traders.

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