Rif

The Rif (Arabic: الريف), also called Rif Mountains, is a geographic region in northern Morocco. It is bordered on the north by the Mediterranean Sea and Spain and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the homeland of the Riffians and the Jebala people. This mountainous and fertile area is bordered by Cape Spartel and Tangier to the west, by Berkane city and the Moulouya River to the east, by the Mediterranean to the north, and by the Ouergha River to the south. The Rif mountains are separated into the eastern Rif mountains (Nador, Driouch, Al Hoceima) and western Rif mountains (Tangier, Tetouan, Chefchaouen, Taounate).[1]

## Contents

* 1 Geography
* 2 History
* 3 Economy
* 4 Environment
* 5 Tribes
* 6 See also
* 7 Footnotes
* 8 References
* 9 External links

## Geography

Geologically, the Rif Mountains belong to the Gibraltar Arc or Alborán Sea geological region. They are an extension of the Baetic System, which includes the mountains of the southern Iberian Peninsula across the strait.[2] Thus, the Rif Mountains are not part of the Atlas Mountain System.

Major cities in the greater Rif region include Nador, Al Hoceima (also called Villa), Imzouren, Driouch, Ben Taieb, Midar and Al Aaroui and a few (small) towns: Segangan, Selwan, Ajdir and Targuist (Targist).

## History

The Rif has been inhabited by Berbers since prehistoric times.[3] As early as the 11th century BC, the Phoenicians began to establish trading posts and then cities such as Tetouan, Rusadir (now Melilla) and (in the 5th century BC) Tingi (now Tangier).

After the Third Punic War, the coast of North Africa came under the control of Rome, and the Rif became part of the Kingdom of Mauretania. When Mauretania was divided during the rule of Emperor Claudius, Tangier became the capital of Mauretania Tingitana.[4] In the 5th century AD, Roman rule came to an end, and the region was later conquered and partly controlled by the Byzantine Empire.[5]

In 710, Salih I ibn Mansur founded the Emirate of Nekor in the Rif, and the Berbers started converting to Islam. By the 15th century, many Muslims who had converted to Christianity were expelled from Spain, and most of them settled in the western Rif and brought their culture with them, such as Andalusian music, and established the city of Chefchaouen. Afterwards the Rif was the site of numerous battles with Spain and Portugal. In 1415, Portugal invaded Ceuta, and in 1490 Spain conquered Melilla.[6][7]

The Hispano-Moroccan War broke out in 1859 in Tetouan, and Morocco was defeated.[8] The Spanish-Moroccan conflicts continued in the 20th century, under the leadership of Abd el-Krim, the Berber guerrilla leader who proclaimed the Republic of the Rif in 1921.[9] The Riffian Berbers won several victories over the Spanish in the Rif War in the 1920s before they were eventually defeated; the war saw extensive use of chemical weapons by Spanish forces.[10] The Spanish region was decolonised and restored to Morocco by Spain in April 1956, a month after the French region gained its independence from France.[11] Shortly afterward, a revolt broke out in the north against the Moroccan king by Riffian insurgents in 1958, but it was easily suppressed.[12]

## Economy

Farmers in the Rif produce most of Morocco's supply of cannabis. The region is economically underdeveloped.[13]

## Environment

Rif mountains in the province of Ashawen Moroccan Mediterranean coast – aerial view west from Bades over El Jebha to Tétouan with Rif mountains, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (2014)

According to C. Michael Hogan, there are between five and eight separate subpopulations of the endangered primate Barbary macaque, Macaca sylvanus.[14] The Rif mountains are also home to the honey bee subspecies Apis mellifera major.

The Rif region receives more rainfall than any other region in Morocco, with some portions receiving upwards of 2,000 millimetres (80 inches) of precipitation a year. The western and central portions are more rainy and are covered in forests of Atlas cedar, cork oak and holm oak, as well as the only remaining forests of Moroccan fir, a subspecies of the Spanish fir.{{Citation needed|date=February 2009} fall, and there forests consist mainly of pines, particularly the Aleppo pine and the maritime pine, as well as tetraclinis.[citation needed] Massive deforestation due to overgrazing, forest fires, and forest clearing for agriculture, particularly for the creation of cannabis plantations, has taken place since the 1950s. This deforestation has led to soil degradation due to the washing away of topsoil, which has aggravated the process.[15]

## Tribes

The Rif is home to tribal people belonging to different tribes which are usually subdivided in even smaller groups. Following is a list of tribes:[16]

* Gzenaya
* Ait Waryaghar
* Ait Amart
* Ait Touzine
* Ait Temsaman
* Ait Ulishk
* Ait Tafersit
* Ait Said
* Kebdana
* Targuist
* Bokoya
* Ait Itteft
* Ait Boufrah
* Ait Hadifa

## See also

* Ghomaras
* Hirak Rif
* Iznasen
* Nekor
* Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima
* Oriental (Morocco)

## Footnotes

1. ↑ "Rif | mountains, Morocco | Britannica" (in en). https://www.britannica.com/place/Rif-mountains-Morocco.
2. ↑ Davis, Dan. Dissertation (Univ. of Texas at Austin): Commercial Navigation in the Greek and Roman World (Thesis).
3. ↑ Mário Curtis Giordani, História da África. Anterior aos descobrimentos. Editora Vozes, Petrópolis (Brasil) 1985, pp. 42f., 77f. Giordani references Bousquet, Les Berbères (Paris 1961).
4. ↑ Le Bohec 2015, p. 443.
5. ↑ Evans 2005, p. xxv.
6. ↑ López de Coca Castañer 1998, p. 351.
7. ↑ Bravo Nieto 1990, pp. 15, 24.
8. ↑ Fernández-Rivero 2011, pp. 470–471.
9. ↑ David S. Woolman, Rebels in the Rif: Abd El Krim and the Rif Rebellion (Stanford University Press, 1968), p. 96
10. ↑ Entelis, John P. (9 March 2017). "La Guerre du Rif: Maroc (1925–1926)". The Journal of North African Studies 22 (3): 500–503. doi:10.1080/13629387.2017.1300383.
11. ↑ Burns, Jennifer. "Revolution of the King and the People in Morocco, 1950–1959: Records of the U.S. State Department Classified Files". http://gdc.gale.com/archivesunbound/archives-unbound-the-king-and-the-people-in-morocco-1950-1959-u.s.-state-department-records-on-the-internal-affairs-of-morocco/.
12. ↑ Leveau, Rémy (1985) (in fr). Le fellah marocain, défenseur du trône. Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques. pp. 111. ISBN 978-2-7246-0509-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=UW9yAAAAMAAJ.
13. ↑ "Morocco moves to legalise some cannabis cultivation". The Economist. 2021-07-10. ISSN 0013-0613. https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2021/07/10/morocco-moves-to-legalise-some-cannabis-cultivation.
14. ↑ C. Michael Hogan, 2008
15. ↑ Boubekraoui, Hamid; Maouni, Yazid; Ghallab, Abdelilah; Draoui, Mohamed; Maouni, Abdelfettah (2023). "Spatio-temporal analysis and identification of deforestation hotspots in the Moroccan western Rif". Trees, Forests and People 12. doi:10.1016/j.tfp.2023.100388.
16. ↑ Coon, Charleton S. (1931) (in en). Tribes of the Rif. Harvard African studies.v. 9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: University of Harvard. pp. 4. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015020847656&view=1up&seq=38&q1=eighteen.

## References

* Bravo Nieto, Antonio (1990). "La ocupación de Melilla en 1497 y las relaciones entre los Reyes Católicos y el duque de Medina Sidonia". Aldaba (Melilla: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia) (15): 15–38. doi:10.5944/aldaba.15.1990.20168. ISSN 0213-7925.
* Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy (2005). "Morocco said to produce nearly half of the world's hashish supply", Jane's Intelligence Review
* Evans, James Allan Stewart (2005). The Emperor Justinian and the Byzantine Empire. Westport: Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-32582-3.
* Fernández-Rivero, Juan-Antonio (2011). "La fotografía militar en la guerra de África: Enrique Facio". Ceuta y la Guerra de África de 1859–1860. Ceuta: Instituto de Estudios Ceutíes. pp. 459–492. ISBN 978-84-92627-30-1. http://eprints.rclis.org/16861/1/Enrique Fazio en la Guerra Africa.pdf.
* C. Michael Hogan (2008). "Barbary Macaque: Macaca sylvanus", Globaltwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg
* Le Bohec, Yann (2015). "The "Third Punic War": The Siege of Carthage (148–146 BC)". in Hoyos, Dexter. A Companion to the Punic Wars. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley. pp. 430–446. ISBN 978-1-1190-2550-4.
* López de Coca Castañer, José Enrique (1998). "Granada y la expansión portuguesa en el Magreb extremo". Historia. Instituciones. Documentos (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla) (25): 351–368. doi:10.12795/hid.1998.i25.018. ISSN 0210-7716.

## External links

* Galerie Rif (Arrif) Script error: The function "in_lang" does not exist.
* Rif Map

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Major African geological formations

Plates|

* African Plate
* Somali Plate
* Madagascar Plate
* Seychelles Plate

Cratons and shields|

* Arabian-Nubian Shield
* Congo Craton
* Kaapvaal Craton
* Kalahari Craton
* Saharan Metacraton
* Tanzania Craton
* Tuareg Shield
* West African Craton
* Zimbabwe Craton

Shear zones|

* Aswa Dislocation
* Broodkop Shear Zone
* Central African Shear Zone
* Chuan Shear Zones
* Foumban Shear Zone
* Kandi Fault Zone
* Mwembeshi Shear Zone
* Todi Shear Zone
* Western Meseta Shear Zone

Orogens|

* Alpine Orogen
* Cape Fold Belt
* Damara Orogen
* East African Orogen
* Eburnean Orogen
* Gondwanide Orogen
* Kibaran Orogen
* Kuunga Orogen
* Mauritanide Belt
* Pan-African orogens
* Terra Australis Orogen

Rifts|

* Afar Triangle
* Anza trough
* Bahr el Arab rift
* Benue Trough
* Blue Nile rift
* East African Rift
* Gulf of Suez Rift
* Lamu Embayment
* Melut Basin
* Muglad Basin
* Red Sea Rift
* Sangha Aulacogen
* Atbara rift
* White Nile rift

Sedimentary basins|

* Angola Basin
* Aoukar
* Blue Nile Basin
* Chad Basin
* Congo Basin
* Douala Basin
* El Djouf
* Karoo Basin
* Gabon Basin
* Iullemmeden Basin
* Kufra Basin
* Murzuq Basin
* Niger Delta Basin
* Ogaden Basin
* Orange River Basin
* Ouled Abdoun Basin
* Owambo Basin
* Reggane Basin
* Rio del Rey Basin
* Sirte Basin
* Somali Coastal Basin
* Taoudeni Basin
* Tanzania Coastal Basin
* Tindouf Basin
* Turkana Basin

Mountain ranges|

* Aïr Mountains
* Atlas Mountains
* Aurès Mountains
* Bambouk Mountains
* Blue Mountains
* Cameroon line
* Central Pangean Mountains
* Chaillu Mountains
* Drakensberg
* Ethiopian Highlands
* East African mountains
* Great Escarpment
* Great Karas Mountains
* Guinée forestière
* Hoggar Mountains
* Imatong Mountains
* Jebel Uweinat
* Loma Mountains
* Mandara Mountains
* Marrah Mountains
* Mitumba Mountains
* Nuba Mountains
* Rif Mountains
* Rwenzori Mountains
* Sankwala Mountains
* Serra da Leba
* Serra da Chela
* Teffedest Mountains
* Tibesti Mountains

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