The Amazigh goddess of love and beauty in the legend - Hamu-Anamir-
legend of "Hamo-Anamir" (1), a legend rooted in the Amazigh conscience and imagination. Bahsin (2).
The legend talks about a queen from heaven "Tanirt" who fell in love with a very beautiful young man and he fell in love with her and married her, but she will return to heaven because of his mother's mistreatment of her; So the hero of the legend went out searching and lost in the earth, looking for someone to take him to the seventh heaven, where his beloved was palace. And after the trouble of wandering, he is guided to an eagle or a Muammar eagle on the cliff of a high mountain. He arrives at the place of the eagle and takes care of his children in his absence. When the eagle returns, he is happy with the new state in which he found his children, and he pledges to fulfill the request of the perpetrator. He slaughters his horse and allocates for him seven pieces of meat, and seven tubes of his blood, to take every piece of meat and a tube of blood in every heaven he reaches from the seven heavens. So, "Hamo-Anamir"
upon the palace, and lives happily with his beloved there; But with the passage of time he will miss his mother and he will look out of a hole in the palace garden after he removed the rock that covered the hole - and his queen had previously warned him not to approach him and forbade him from him - and he sees from the sky his mother crying and holding her sacrifice calling him, and he answers her call, and he falls from the hole of the sky, perhaps He reaches his mother, but there is no way for him to arrive, as only a drop of his blood reached the ground, which fell on the sheep's neck and slaughtered him.
This Amazigh legend meets the Sumerian legend of "Eta and the eagle" (3) (dating back to 2000 BC) in the matter of ascending to heaven by an eagle. This Sumerian legend tells that King "Etana" afflicted his wife with infertility, so the sages advised him that there was a plant in the sky It is she who will cure his sterility, so he complained to the sun god to help him reach the plant, so the god pointed him to an eagle that had previously condemned him for his betrayal, so he sentenced him to torment and imprisoned him in a valley.. So the king took care of him until he recovered, so the eagle carried him to the sky, and reached the fertile plant, so he returned with it, and through it had a son.
This study of the myth of "Hamo-Anamir" will start from a new idea that stems from the fact that the celestial heroine in the legend, "Tanirt", meaning the queen of heaven in the original, is one of the Amazigh gods, and we will assume that she is the goddess of love and beauty for the Amazighs because the legend depends on the one hand on the relationship of love Between her two heroes (Tanirt and Unamir), and Ali Jamal Al-Fa’iq for her two heroes; Thus, this study will add a new look to this myth, based first on the following premises:
- Legends are often associated with gods, and the legitimacy of their continuation derives from popular belief in them.
- That the Amazigh myths and the practice of old rituals were preserved and preserved by the Amazighs after removing what is contrary to the new religion, i.e. Islam, with the adaptation of these legends and rituals to the new religion. Many Amazigh myths and rituals have been adapted to the new religion of Islam, such as the legend of Hamu-Anamir, the legend of Peschi... Celebrations and rituals of Belmaun, Taganja, and Lala Tagla, the seasons of the saints...
So this study will start (as we said) from the following idea: " Tanert, meaning the heavenly queen who descended from the sky, fell in love with Hamu-Anamir and chose him among humans, and in turn fell in love with her and fell in love with her. She is one of the ancient Amazigh gods, but what is the nature of this goddess? And we will assume, based on what we said earlier, that she is the goddess of love and beauty among the Amazighs.
Studies in this field do not help us, but we can infer the Amazigh and Roman myths to prove what we have gone to, that is, “Tanirt” in the myth of “Hamo-Anamir” is a goddess, but what is the nature of this goddess, here we will leave this research starting from the following hypothesis, which is that this The goddess is the goddess of love and beauty - as we said earlier - for the Berbers; To prove this, we relied on five proofs:
That piece of meat, which is still drawn in the males’ forearms, as for the narrator who narrates the legend, shows the muscle of the forearm of one of the children listening to the legend to clarify this legendary act (as it is believed in the regions of southern Morocco: Emmy Agadir - Foum El-Hosn, Taghjit, Aqa.. .). Therefore, the myth of “Hamu Unami” with this belief and belief in the reality of some of its events (and this is one of the characteristics of legends) will have its origin linked to a certain goddess, and the origin here will be - in our opinion - only the goddess of love and beauty, who was replaced by “Tanirt”, meaning the heavenly queen, to suit the Islamic belief that entered To the Amazigh countries, because love and beauty are often associated with the gods (for example, "Aphrodite", the goddess of beauty for the Greeks, and "Venus" the goddess of beauty for the Romans...). This will lead us to the next proof or proof. Therefore, the myth of “Hamu Unami” with this belief and belief in the reality of some of its events (and this is one of the characteristics of legends) will have its origin linked to a certain goddess, and the origin here will be - in our opinion - only the goddess of love and beauty, who was replaced by “Tanirt”, meaning the heavenly queen, to suit the Islamic belief that entered To the Amazigh countries, because love and beauty are often associated with the gods (for example, "Aphrodite", the goddess of beauty for the Greeks, and "Venus" the goddess of beauty for the Romans...). This will lead us to the next proof or proof. Therefore, the legend of “Hamu Unami” with this belief in the reality of some of its events (and this is one of the characteristics of legends) will have its origin linked to a certain goddess, and the origin here will be - in our opinion - only the goddess of love and beauty, who was replaced by “Tanirt” meaning the heavenly queen to suit the Islamic belief that entered To the Amazigh countries, because love and beauty are often associated with the gods (for example, "Aphrodite", the goddess of beauty for the Greeks, and "Venus" the goddess of beauty for the Romans...). This will lead us to the next proof or proof.
Second: The legend of "Hamo Unamir", like other Amazigh myths, rituals and celebrations, stripped from it much of what is related and suggestive of the ancient Amazigh religions, and removed its heroes from the gods and quasi-gods and replaced it with heroes and other personalities to suit the new faith, i.e. the Islamic religion coming to the Amazigh culture, so it preserved this The legends and celebrations of its identity ensured its continuity, but Belbos does not conflict with the new religion.
In order for these celebrations to fit the new religion - as we said - they stripped them of their pagan character (from an Islamic perspective) and kept some of their rituals in a way that does not seem to contradict the new religion. This will lead us to the third proof or proof, which is a detail and clarification of this second proof.
Third: Among the Amazigh celebrations that are still practiced by the Amazighs in some areas:
The “Telgenja” celebration, a celebration witnessed by most of the Amazigh regions of North Africa, about which many studies have been written, whether by European aspirants or contemporary researchers, and the celebration in its origin is linked to a religious ritual specific to the rain god; This religious ritual has remained celebrated to this day, but in Islamic clothing, and the origin, i.e., the worship of the rain god “Anzar” (4), was absent. The same applies to the “Lala Tagla” celebration, which was held in the “Imi Agadir” region, meaning the mouth of the fortress in the southeast of Morocco, until the sixties of the last century, and some of its forms related to the rain last year in the region were revived by the women of the region; As well as the "Belmaon" celebration, which has returned with great strength and fame now... and this proof will lead us to the fourth of the proofs.
Fourth: What happened to the legend of "Hamo Unamir" also happened to a famous Amazigh legend, the legend of "Basishi" which was recorded by Apuleius in his novel "The Golden Donkey". This is the myth in which the god "Cupid", the son of the goddess "Venus", the goddess of beauty (in Roman mythology) fell in love with the Amazigh "Basisi". "Fines" with the mother of the ghouls in order to adapt the legend to the Islamic religion (5), which is what the Amazighs do - as we said - with their ancient legends, rituals and ceremonies in order to preserve them.
The same thing happened to the legend of "Hamo-Anamir". The goddess (the goddess of love and beauty) who fell in love with the human being "Hamu-Anamir" was replaced by "Tanirt", meaning queen of the angels of heaven, in order for this legend to be compatible with the new belief, namely Islam, and thus the Amazighs preserved This legend is like this. This proof or the fourth proof will lead us to the fifth proof.
Fifth: In some Amazigh myths or other such as Greek, Roman, and Pharaonic..., some gods fall in love with a beautiful human beauty, and the myth often ends with the marriage of the god with the beauty and raises her to heaven, and the gods often give her the attribute of the goddess or one of her attributes (half divine and half divine). humane) after rejection, repulsion and denial. The Amazigh beauty "Baseishi" in the legend of "Cupid and Psychi", after her marriage to the god "Cupid", the gods finally accepted her as a half-human goddess after suffering and rejection of her.
Also, Hasna, the god of rain, whom the god “Anzar” fell in love with and married, will raise her to heaven and establish her throne of colors. He is called in Tamazight as “Tislet n Anwar” meaning “the bride of rain” and in Arabic “Rainbow”, so the Amazigh language still retains this legend
in its name The rainbow is called "Taslit n Anzar" which means the bride of the rain.
As for the myth of "Hamu-Anamir", the goddess of beauty and love is the one who descends to the earth and falls in love with a very beautiful human being and he, in turn, falls in love with her. The goddess resides...
Is the goddess "Tanirt" in the myth of "Hamu-Anamir" the goddess "Tanit"? Amazigh, whose worship pervaded North Africa? Or is she another goddess when the Berbers symbolize love and beauty?
Here we leave the question to scholars and researchers.
Margins:
1- Emile Laouste wrote it down in his book "Contes berbères du Maroc", as the researcher Abdelaziz Bouras summarized it in a book, "The Legend of Hammou Unamier" from the publications of the Moroccan Association for Research and Cultural Exchange 1992; And Al-Hassan Zohour in his book “Amin Dominin N Ait Nadi”, Tira Publications, the Amazigh Writers Association 2016, as well as the researcher Al-Hussein Ait Bahcine wrote it down and wrote a lot of research and studies
about it
. www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=299406
https://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=380877
https://www.ahewar.org/debat/ show.art.asp?aid=299654
3- Adeed Jawad Al-Khamisi: Al-Hiwar Al-Modden - Issue: 5621 - 2017/8/26 - 01:51
4- Retraction of the legend of the rain god “Anzar” in the book “Studies in the Amazigh Mithian Thought”, Muhammad Osous, Publications of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, New Knowledge Press, Rabat, 2007.
5- Retraction of a study published about this story/legend in Insaniyat magazine, Algerian Journal of Anthropology and Social Sciences, 2006. https://journals.openedition.org/insaniyat/3274
https://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=763869&fbclid=IwAR1xlDAdPIzICCxV0LBlXjg-ajdbsnKI29pkbO4qqnzC_zTXtRX1IxZQhnE
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