Note 20 — GHARDAIA.

There are seven cities of the Beni M’Zab, of which five lie in the M’Zab Valley, close to one another. These are El Ateuf, Ben Noura, Melika, Beni Isguen, and Ghardaia. In the pre-French times these cities were bound together in a confederacy with Ghardaia as the capital. The M’Zabites are at present, and probably always have been, a peaceful trading folk. They are heterodox Moslems. In an early time they aroused the antagonism of their more warlike as well as more orthodox Arab neighbors of the Tell, who drove them away from the coast region, and again from Ouargla and other places settled by them, until safety was at last secured in the eleventh century in the “inhospitable Chebka.” Palm gardens were established which for centuries have been irrigated laboriously by very primitive methods, and the inhabitants have accumulated wealth in flocks and by barter. The relatively large population (there were 92,761 inhabitants in 1908), the really great number of domestic animals, and the great length of time which the region has been occupied, are all factors of importance in bringing about a modification in whatever way of the primitive flora.