Tin Hinan

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Tin Hinan , also Tine Hinan , is the name of a mythical queen from the 4th century who is considered to be her ancestor by the noble Tuareg ( Kel Ahaggar ) and at the same time an archaeological site in the Ahaggar Mountains in southern Algeria.

According to legend, Tin Hinan was a princess from the Berber tribe in Tafilalet, Morocco . She came from there to the Tuareg, with her servant Takamat (or Takama), who is said to be the ancestor of the non-noble Tuareg (Kel Ulli). The narrative serves to legitimize the class differences.

Model of the tomb of Tin Hinan, Algiers National Museum
Cap stones of the tomb of Tin Hinan, Musée du Bardo, Algiers

In 1925, an expedition led by Byron Khun de Prorok (1896–1954) and supported by the French military discovered the tomb of a woman in Abalessa in Ahaggar, about 80 km west of Tamanrasset . It was located in the area of ​​the Kel Rela tribe, from whose ranks the Amenôkal , the leaders of the Tuareg Confederation, had been elected since the 18th century at the latest . In addition to the well-preserved skeleton, the excavators found coins from the time of Constantine I , gold and silver jewelry as well as a burial chamber and furnishings, which are now in the Bardo Museum in Algiers . The finds were dated to the 4th or 5th century.

At first, the find threatened to be made incredible by the sensational appearance of a participant in the 1925 expedition, which was carried out by the American Logan Museum of Anthropology . Byron Khun de Prorok, a poorly qualified adventurer, may have been the first to circulate the legend of ancestry from the ancestral mother of the noble Tuareg. They protested in vain against the kidnapping of the body to Algiers.

literature

  • Christoph Bernhard: The grave of Tin Hinan near Ablessa / Algeria , in: Heinz Günter Horn, Christoph Bernhard Rüger (Hrsg.): Die Numider. Riders and Kings north of the Sahara , Habich, Cologne 1979, pp. 251–261 (exhibition catalog).
  • Marceau guest: Témoignages nouveaux sur Tine Hinane, ancêtre légendaire des Touareg Ahaggar , in: Revue de l'Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée 13 (1973) 395-400 ( online ).
  • Émile-Félix Gautier : The Monument of Tin Hinan in the Ahaggar. In: Geographical Review, Vol. 24, No. 3. American Geographical Society, July 1934, pp. 439-443.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Gabriel Camps : L'âge du tombeau de Tin Hinan, ancêtre des Touaregs du Hoggar . In: Zephyrus 25 (1974) 497-516 online, PDF, 9.3 MB .
  2. ^ Charles de Foucauld : Dictionnaire touareg-français . 1951-1952, Vol. 2, p. 535.
  3. ↑ Gabriel Camps : L'âge du Tombeau de Tin Hinan, ancêtre des Touareg du Hoggar . In: Zyphyros 25 (1974)