Barghwata

   One of the strong historic Berber confederations of tribes in Morocco, a member of the Masmuda confederation. They lived in the area of Tamasna on the Atlantic coast between Salé and Safi. In the middle of the eighth century, they built up a theocratic state that lasted for about 400 years. Its origin dates to a revolt (740-742) led by Barghwata, Maknassa, and Mtaghra under the leadership of a Kharejite Berber, Maysara al-Mathaghri, a water carrier in al-Qayrawan. The rebels conquered Tangier and in the Battle of the Nobles inflicted a decisive defeat on the caliph's troops. The revolt was suppressed, but one of Maysara's closest companions, Salih Ibn Tarif (749-795), claimed prophecy for himself. Others hold that it was Yunus Ibn Ilias who made such a claim for himself. Accordingly, claiming that he had hidden knowledge to divulge, Yunus announced that his forefather Salih was the prophet of the Berbers and that his name appeared in the "Qur'an of Muhammad" as "Salih of the true believers" in Surat al-Tahrim. He composed the Qur'an in the Berber language for his people and imposed his religion on them by force. The Qur'an has 80 suras, or chapters. It was announced and believed that the one to whom the Berber Qur'an was revealed was the Mahdi, Salih Ibn Tarif. Historical documentation shows that the Barghwata preserved the Islamic punishment of stoning for adultery but allowed men to marry more than four wives. They changed the Islamic practices in prayer, fasting, and food taboos but enforced their religious principles with strictness. Through their heretical religious system, the Barghwata isolated themselves until they were wiped out by the Almoravids in the middle of the 11th century.