Ait Yafelman
Encyclopedia
The Ait Yafelman are a large Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...

 tribal confederation of the eastern High Atlas
High Atlas
High Atlas, also called the Grand Atlas Mountains is a mountain range in central Morocco in Northern Africa.The High Atlas rises in the west at the Atlantic Ocean and stretches in an eastern direction to the Moroccan-Algerian border. At the Atlantic and to the southwest the range drops abruptly...

 of Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

, with their capital at Imilchil
Imilchil
Imilchil is a small town in central Morocco, in the Atlas Mountains with a population of about 1858. It is located at an elevation of 2119 m in the valley of Assif Melloul . The area of Imilchil is home to the Ait Hdiddou tribe, belonging to the Ait Yafelman confederation, and the inhabitants...

. They consist of four tribes: Ait Morghad, Ait Haddidou, Ait Izdeg and Ait Yahia. These tribes created the alliance in the 17th century to counter the expansion of their Ait Atta
Ait Atta
The Ait Atta are a large Berber tribal confederation of North eastern Morocco, estimated to number about 130,000 as of 1960. They are divided into "five fifths" , all said to descend from the forty sons of their common ancestor Dadda Atta: these "fifths" are the Ait Ouallal, Ait Ouahlim, Ait...

 neighbours. The Ait Yafelman speak Central Atlas Tamazight.

History

The Ait Yafelmans lived before VXI century in the south of the High Atlas Oriental, in the Todra, the Ghriss the Dades, the Imedghass and Upper Ziz.

From the sixteenth century they exceeded the passes of Jbel El Ayachi and Jbel Maaskar to occupy the vast land they live today, and M. Peyron limited as follows: "any Tounfite between the High Atlas, and Midelt Tizi N'Telghoumt the north, and Msemrir, Guelmim, Errachidia and Boudnib, south, and with such line, east of the valley of the Oued Ait Aissa, and west of the upper Oued El Abid, the Assif Melloul and Dades. .

This vast territory is therefore in direct contact with the Ait Atta southwest, Ait Soukhman to the west, north Ait Myeld, Ait Ait El Haj Youssi and the North East and Ait Saghrouchen in the East. The country has Yafelmans is a mountainous area where Jbel El Ayachi rises to 3737 meters.
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