Mzab

The Mzab was a northern Saharan valley inhabited by Ibadi Berbers known as Mozabites. Refugees from the fallen Rustamid state settled there from 1012, and Ghardaïa became the chief town.

Between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries the Mozabites built five fortified towns. A council of religious scholars, the Majlis Ammi Said, governed their loose confederation and represented Ouargla; caravan trade enriched the towns. In the sixteenth century they recognized the nominal authority of the Ottoman rulers of Algiers and paid tribute while retaining their Ibadi institutions. El Guerrara and Berriane joined the Mzab in the seventeenth century.