Banu Hilal

The Banū Hilāl (Arabic بنو هلال, DMG Banū Hilāl) were an Arab Bedouin tribe that made history primarily in the Maghreb. Hilāl means "new moon" or "crescent moon", Banu is translated as "sons" or "descendants of...", thus the tribal name means "sons of the crescent moon".

The Islamic Banu Hilal migrated from Arabia to Lower Egypt with the Banu Sulaym as early as the 8th century. Because of constant unrest, they were resettled in Upper Egypt by the Fatimids in the 10th century. After the Fatimid governors in Ifrīqiya (today's Tunisia and western Libya), the Zirids, declared themselves independent of the Fatimids in 1046, the Fatimids seized the opportunity to deport the unruly Bedouins to Ifriqiya.

The Banu Hilal invaded Ifriqiya with 50,000 warriors, causing destruction to agriculture and disrupting caravan trade. The attempt of the Zirid Al-Muizz ibn Ziri to incorporate the Bedouins into the empire as mercenaries failed. After a victory over the Zirids at Gabès (1052) and further unsuccessful negotiations, the Bedouins conquered and plundered Kairuan, among other places, in 1057. The Arab historian Ibn Chaldun (1332-1406) complained that the Banu Hilal invaded Ifriqiya like a swarm of locusts.

Subsequently, several Bedouin sheikhdoms were formed in Ifriqiya. This led to a shift in the economic focus from the inland to the coastal areas, as the seaside towns were easier to defend against the Bedouins. To this day, it is disputed whether the Banu Hilal invasion was the cause of Ifriqiya's economic decline or whether it had already begun before the Bedouin invasion.

From Ifriqiya, the Bedouins also migrated to the Hammadid Empire (Algeria) and were hired as mercenaries. As such, they fought successfully against the Moroccan Almoravids. Nevertheless, even the Hammadids did not succeed in keeping the Bedouins permanently under control. This period also saw the beginning of the increasing Arabization of the sedentary Berber population in the countryside, which continued for the following centuries.

After the united Banu Hilal were defeated by the Almohads at Sétif in 1152, parts of the tribe were resettled in Morocco. In the following centuries, this also led to a thorough Arabization of the population there.

In addition to the Banu Hilal, other Arab tribes moved along the northern edge of the desert into the western Sahara around this time. Presumably from Yemen came the Maʿqil, a subgroup of which were the Dūī Ḥassān. The Arab culture brought by these tribes included the black tent (Ḫaīma) made of long lengths of cloth and the irrigation technique with the scoop wheel (Noria).

These events also form the background of an orally transmitted heroic epic, the Taghribat Bani Hilal, which is very popular in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. In 2003, it was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.