Dr. Tayeb Boutbagalt writes: The alliance of the Amazigh tribes with the Vandals to confront the arrogance of the Romans
In this series of 30 articles, Dr. Tayeb Boutbagalt addresses the most important historical stations that characterized Moroccan-Christian relations from the Roman era to the end of the twentieth century, and the goal remains only a modest contribution to enriching Moroccan historical research in order to strengthen the elements of our national identity...
In the year 395 AD, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts, the first western and the second eastern, and this was due to a combination of several factors, including social imbalances, administrative corruption, and religious differences, which strengthened the enemies of the empire both at home and abroad. Indeed, the Germanic peoples called Pallondal attacked its western part, and they were less civil than the Romanians and more coarse than them, and that is why they called them barbarian peoples. The Romans resisted as much as they could the Vandal attacks on them, but rather tried to win them over politically and did not succeed in their endeavor, and the successive failures recorded by the empire in various fields were prominent signs indicating the collapse of the entire imperial entity. Even the ruling family itself has lost its prestige and aura. The Vandals were able to easily seize the Betis region in southern Spain, which was a Roman colony since 197 BC. And here it is, after the Vandals entered it in the year 409 AD, it became bearing the name of Vandalusia (Andalusia). Since these people were close to Tangier Mauritania and other Romanian African provinces famous for the prosperity of their farming and livestock, their thinking was focused on preparing a sweeping attack for these rich regions and seizing them. After several attempts that lasted more than ten years, they were finally able, in the year 429 AD, to reach Tangier on board a huge naval fleet numbering about eighty thousand people, including fifteen thousand experienced warriors. Contrary to what was stated in some sources, they did not stay long in Mauritania of Tangiers, as they headed east towards Carthage and left behind ruin and destruction, and among the results of their siege of Annaba was the death of St. Augustine in the year 430 AD. They continued their march until they reached Carthage and seized it in the year 439 AD. So their king, Genserik (389 AD - 477 AD), took it as the capital of his kingdom.
The Vandals were Christians, but they belonged to the Aryosian sect that denies the divinity of Christ, peace be upon him, a sect whose explanations are inspired by the neo-Platonic philosophical current. That is why the Catholic Church considered them to be outside the religion, and they considered it to have lost the right path, while the Romanian political authority saw them as its fiercest enemies and a source of all its troubles. Thus, the Church came to play the role of the objective ally of the Roman political power. Since the Amazighs hated the Romans for their arrogance and tyranny, they automatically sympathized with the Vandals, heart and soul.
Also, the Vandals themselves did not target their subversive forces only fortifications and Roman symbols, including churches. Accordingly, the Amazigh tribes, in turn, became objective allies of the Vandals and their Aryosian doctrine. This situation dictated by the conditions of strategic realism on the Amazighs has been interpreted by most Christian historians on the grounds that it is merely the Amazighs’ embracing of the Arian doctrine, which is in line with their rebellious behavior towards power, whatever its nature. Defending the freedom and dignity of the Amazigh person. It is worth noting in this historical period that Tangier Mauritania became, during the era of the Vandals, enjoying almost complete independence.
The Vandals continued victories over the Romans to the point that they occupied Rome in the year 455 AD and returned from it carrying many spoils and with them prisoners from the Roman attic, and their rule lasted more than a century. They waged a fierce war against the followers of the Catholic doctrine in North Africa, so they abused the Catholic clergy, exiled and killed large numbers of them. In the year 484 AD, they issued a decree calling on all Christians to adopt the Arian doctrine, for fear of harsh penalties that could lead to execution. Immediately after this decree, 46 Catholic priests were exiled to the island of Corsica, and 302 priests were sentenced to hard labor while preventing them from performing prayers and reading religious books. Some of them managed to escape to Europe, while others died of hunger and thirst. There were many means of torture of the Vandals, including cutting off the tongues of all the Catholic population of the city of Tipasa.
Despite all this, the objective Vandal Amazigh alliance did not know any vibration on the religious issue, which indicates that the punished Christian elements may not be of Amazigh origin? Thus, this raises the question about the extent of the truth about the spread of Christianity in Amazigh circles in particular, and the relative extent of this religion's penetration among Moroccans. Yes, there were hot Amazigh revolutions against the Vandals, but their nature was economic and political, as if the religious issue did not concern them. Otherwise, why did the Amazighs overthrow King Hildric (523 AD-530 AD) after their victory in the battle of 530 AD, to announce directly their allegiance to another Vandal king, Gilmar (530 AD-534 AD)?
In any case, the Catholic doctrine did not completely disappear from North Africa, but rather witnessed a relative recovery at the end of the Vandal rule, and soon it regained its full vitality under the shadow of the Byzantines.
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