The '''Habt''' ({{langx|ar|بلاد الهبط|Bilād al-Habṭ}}) is a historical and geographical region located in northwest Morocco.
== Toponymy == The place name "Habt" means "descent" and probably dates back to Idrisids.<ref name="Vignet-Zunz-84">{{cite encyclopedia |first=Jacques |last=Vignet-Zunz |title=Djebala |encyclopedia=Encyclopédie berbère |volume=16 |location=Aix-en-Provence |publisher=Édisud |date=1995 |issue=16 |pages=2398–2408 |doi=10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.2176 |url=http://encyclopedieberbere.revues.org/2176 |access-date= 4 October 2015}}, § 8</ref>
== Geography == The Habt is characterized by the presence of plains and mountains. It comprises the plains of Rharb and Khlot and part of the Rif, a mountainous region.{{sfn|Michaux-Bellaire|1911|p=1}}
Leo Africanus, a diplomat and explorer of North Africa in 15th and 16th centuries, wrote:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Africanus |first=Leo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BidhEAAAQBAJ |title=The Cosmography and Geography of Africa |date=2023-03-02 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-14-199882-4 |pages=20–21 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> <!-- {{col-begin}} {{col-break}} --> {{blockquote|text= The region is bounded by the river Ouergha to the south, the ocean to the north, the Azgar marshes to the west and the mountains facing the Pillars of Hercules to the east; it is eighty miles in width and a hundred in length. The region is marvellously fertile, consisting mostly of plains full of rivers. |author=}} <!-- TODO: better translation {{col-break}} {{blockquote|style=padding-left:0;|text= This province begins at the Ouergha River on the Midy side and from the Tramontana side ends at the ocean sea; towards west borders the marshes of Azghar and the part of the east to the mountains, which are on the strait of the Pillars of Hercules, having a length of one hundred miles and a width of eighty. }} {{col-end}} -->
== History == Because of its proximity to the territory of al-Andalus, the Habt was one of the first Arabized areas in Morocco.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |first=Simon |last=Lévy |editor1-first=Jordi |editor1-last=Aguadé |editor2-first=Patrice |editor2-last=Cressier |editor3-first=Ángeles |editor3-last=Vicente |chapter=Problématique historique du processus d'arabisation au Maroc |pages=11–26 |language=fr |title=Peuplement et Arabisation au Maghreb occidental |location=Madrid |publisher=Casa de Velázquez |date=1998 |url={{GBurl|3PXADGB1FOsC|p=12}} }}</ref>
According to Leo Africanus, the province of Habt (''‘amalat al-Habt'') was founded during the Wattassid dynasty.<ref name="Vignet-Zunz-84"/> Two centuries later, under the Alaouites, the region of the Jebala and Faḥṣ (''nāḥiyat Jbāla wa al-Faḥṣ'') has supplanted administratively.<ref name="Vignet-Zunz-84"/>
After the Battle of Sétif in 1153, the victorious Almohads forced some of the defeated Banu Hilal tribes to move to Morocco. During the 17th century, the sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif created a guich army made up of warriors from the Banu Hilal.
Ibn Khaldun, an historian of North Africa, wrote:<ref name="Khaldûn p97">Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale, Ibn Khaldûn, {{p.|97}}</ref> <!-- https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_H3RBAAAAIAAJ/page/49/mode/ --> <!-- {{col-begin}} {{col-break}} --> {{blockquote|text= Les tribus de Djochem et de Rîah s'étant alors empressées de faire leur soumission, il les déporta dans le Maghreb-el-Acsa où il établit la première dans la province de Temsna, et la seconde dans le canton d'El-Hebet et dans les régions maritimes d'Azghar, province située entre Tanger et Salé. }} <!-- TODO: better translation {{col-break}} {{blockquote|text= The tribes of Djochem and Rîah having then hastened to make their submission, he deported them to the Maghreb-el-Acsa where he established the first in the province of Temsna, and the second in the canton of El-Hebet and in the maritime regions of Azghar, a province located between Tangier and Salé. }} {{col-end}} -->
== See also == * Plains of Rharb (one of the plains of Habt). * Spanish protectorate in Morocco (Habt part of the protectorate from 1912 to 1956).
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Sources == * {{cite journal |first=Édouard |last=Michaux-Bellaire |title=Quelques tribus de montagnes de la région du Habt |journal=Archives Marocaines |series=Publications de la Mission scientifique du Maroc |volume=XVII |location=Paris |editor-first=Ernest |editor-last=Leroux |date=1911 |url={{GBurl|gesKAAAAIAAJ}} |pages=1–11}}
== Further reading == * {{cite journal |language=en |first1=Abdelali |last1=Zakir |first2=Ahmed |last2=Chalouan |first3=Hugues |last3=Feinberg |title=Tectono-sedimentary evolution of a fore-chain domain: example of the Habt and Sidi Mrayt basins, northwestern external Moroccan Rif; stratigraphic precisions and tectonic modelling |journal=Bulletin de la Société géologique de France |location=Paris|editor=Société géologique de France |date=July 2004 |volume=175 |issue=4 |pages=383–397 |doi=10.2113/175.4.383 |url=http://bsgf.geoscienceworld.org/content/175/4/383.abstract?sid=8cda0a14-72bc-4806-b6b3-87c3e6356100|url-access=subscription }} * {{cite thesis |first=Albert |last=André |title=Notice de la carte géomorphologique du Tangérois, du Habt et du haut Rharb occidental, Maroc |lang=fr |location=Rabat |publisher=Institut scientifique |date=1968 |oclc=493214541 }} * {{cite journal |first=Robert |last=Ricard |title=Une description du Habt en 1648 |journal=Hespéris: Archives berbères et Bulletin de l'Institut des hautes études marocaines |language=fr |date=May 1937|location=Paris |publisher=Librairie Larose |pages=193–199 |volume=XXIV }}
{{Regions of Morocco}}
Category:Regions of Morocco Category:Geography of Morocco