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Revision as of 13:03, 21 November 2011
"Armas" redirects here. For other uses, see Armas (disambiguation). Ethnic group| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Middle Niger River Valley of Mali, Niger. | |
| Languages | |
| Songhay languages | |
| Religion | |
| Muslim | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Songhai, Mandé, Spanish, Moroccan, small numbers of Irish and French |
The Arma people are an ethnic group of the middle Niger River valley, descended in part from Moroccan - Spanish invaders of the 16th century. The name, applied by other groups, derives from the Arabic word arrimah, « shooters ».
The Songhai expedition and aftermath
The 1590 expedition sent to conquer the Songhai Empire trade routes by the Moroccan Saadi Dynasty was made up of four thousand Spanish and other European converts. Converted to Islam, they were either hired as mercenaries or captured as slaves by the Moroccans. After the destruction of the Songhai in 1591, the Moroccan forces settled into Djenné, Gao, Timbuktu and the larger towns of the Niger River bend. Never able to exert control outside their large fortifications, within a decade the expedition's leaders were abandoned by Morocco. In cities like Timbuktu, the men of the 1591 expedition intermarried with the Songhai, became small scale independent rulers, and some of their descendants came to be identified as minor dynasties of their own right. By the end of the 17th century, Bambara, Tuareg, Fula, and other forces came to control empires and city-states in the region, leaving the Arma as a mere ethnicity.
Today
As of 1986, there were some 20,000 self-identified Arma in Mali, mostly around Timbuktu, the middle Niger bend, and the Inner Niger Delta.
The Arma ethnicity is distinct from (but sometimes confused with) the 20 million Djerma (or Zarma, Zerma) peoples of Western Niger, who predate the Moroccan invasion, and speak the Zarma language, also a sub category of Songhai.
Famous modern Arma people include the late Malian musician Ali Farka Touré.
See also
- Judar Pasha: Spanish Muslim commander of the Moroccan Expedition of the 1590s.
- Battle of Tondibi: Culmination of the Moroccan Expedition, destroying the Songhai Empire in 1591.
Notes
- Olsen, 1996: "Arma", p.37.
References
- Samuel Decalo. Historical Dictionary of Niger. Scarecrow Press, London and New Jersey (1979). ISBN 0810812290
- James Stuart Olson. The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. "Arma", p.37. Greenwood Press (1996) ISBN 0313279187
- Michel Aitbol. Tombouctou et les Arma de la conquête marocaine du Soudan nigérien en 1591 à l'hégémonie de l'empire peul du Macina en 1833. Paris, (1979).
- Albrecht Hofheinz. Goths in the Lands of the Blacks. New Arabic manuscript finds from Timbuktu and their significance for the historiography of the Niger Bend . (2001)
- Hunwick, John O. (1999), Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 9004112073.
External links
- I Congreso Internacional sobre los Arma. Al-Andalus, Andalucía y España en Tombuctú y la frontera subsahariana (s. XVI-XXI). Universidad de Jaén (Spain), 19-20 February 2004.
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