General Description
The Ishilhayn are the indigenous fair skinned people of North Africa and are generally described as honest, proud, hardworking, frugal, and devout Muslims. They are known for their good character and tend to trust one another more than outsiders. The Ishilhayn are part of the Masmouda Berber family and were probably among the first of the Berber tribes to arrive in Morocco.

Language/Literacy Information
Adult literacy: 50% urban, rural much lower.
Primary Language: Tashilhaynt (90% speakers)
Second Language: Moroccan colloquial Arabic (50% speakers)
Third Language: French (unknown speakers)

Economics
GNP per capita: Percent of rural population below poverty level: 45%
Occupations: Most rural Ishilhayn are farmers and/or herdsmen, and there is a limited amount of transhumance. Some Ishilhayn, particularly those from the Anti Atlas region, are involved in commerce and have obtained a quasi-monopoly of the grocery trade in towns and cities throughout Morocco. Many Ishilhayn men have left rural areas in hope of finding employment in major cities.
Income sources: Agriculture, arboriculture, pastoralists. Many of the men work in Morocco's larger cities and in Europe where they live frugally and send money home until their families can join them, or until they save enough to start a business and build a home near where they have grown up.
Products: Surplus farming and livestock products, carpets, woven clothing, some pottery, and jewelry.
Trade Partners: France, USA, Germany, Netherlands, India, the former USSR, Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, the UK and Poland. In rural Morocco, the weekly souk or market is the venue for most trade.
Modernisation/Utilities: For most rural Ishilhayn, life goes on much as it has for centuries. Although governmental efforts at modernization are underway, many live without benefit of electricity, running water, or even the most basic of human waste disposal facilities. Survival remains a labor intensive endeavor. The use of concrete in village home construction is replacing traditional packed earth and stone as a preferred material in many areas.
Other: In the cities Ishilhayn work long hours to make and save money. Many are in their shops or other places of work more than fifteen hours per day, seven days per week.

Living Conditions/Community Development Status
Food: The Ishilhayn grow their own livestock (sheep, goats, milk cows, chickens, and rabbits) for personal consumption. They produce their own food (barley, wheat, corn, beans, potatoes), fruit (oranges, olives, figs, apricots, apples), and vegtables. The most common meal is tajine, a thin vegtable stew with a hint of meat which is eaten from a common dish by dipping morsels of bread in it. A sort of steamed semolina called couscous is also common. Bread of various types is the staple of the Ishilhayn diet and is easten at almost every meal.
Shelter: Rural Ishilhayn live in mud-brick, stone, or packed earth houses with flat roofs, normally of two or three stories; the groundfloor being used for the animals, storage, milling, and cooking. The houses are packed wall-to-wall as they cling to the hillsides. Great care is taken to construct them in such a manner that households cannot spy on each other, and above all, that the activities of women cannot be observed by males of other households. In the High Atlas mountains, villages may be located at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres and many be dominated by a communal threshing floor or grouped around the threshing floor-plus-dwelling (tirhamt) of the most powerful family. An estimated one million Ishilhayn live in shanty-towns, houses, or apartments in the major cities of Casablanca and Marrakesh.
Clothing: Urban men and women often wear western clothes, sometimes with a long hooded robe called jellaba, worn over them. Men wear a turban or a scull cap called tagiya, and women may wear a veil and/or head covering. Rural women are often colorfully but always modestly dressed, wearing several layers of clothing including long pantaloons under long skirts. They are rarely veiled, but if married always wear a head scarf. Some have facial tattoos. Traditional women's clothing varies greatly from place to place and is very distinctive in certain regions.
Health care: Poor to fair. In rural areas only about 50% of the population has access to any relatively modern health service, often a distant dispensary with a nurse, but no doctor. Lift expectancy is 61 years (1990).
Water supplies: Depends on where the village is situated. Of the rural population of Morocco, only 25% has access to safe drinking water (i.e. within 15 minutes walking distance). The Ishilhayn have established complex and comprehensive irrigation systems with pre-arranged schedules for usage and maintenance wherever streams, rivers, or other water sources exist.
Energy/Fuel: Wood is most often used for cooking and heating wherever it is available. Bottled butane gas and electicity are increasingly available, though many still do not have ready access to either.
Other: The living conditions in many villages have not changed appreciably in centuries. Most rural Ishilhayn homes have no running water and no facility for sanitary human waste disposal. There is little knowledge or understanding of the need for basic hygiene. As a result, many infants succumb to the effects of diarrhea.

Society
Family structures: Kinship is very important, everything is related to the family which consists of close relatives living under the firm authority of the male head of the family. The family imposes upon its members a discipline that dictates the position and task of each person. Fear of exclusion results in the submission of the individual to the interest of the whole. New brides most often move into their husband's parent's home to take on part of the household chores and to live and raise their children their.
Neighbour relations: The Ishilhayn society seems to be quite closed to outsiders, but the men trade with other peoples.
Rule/Authority/Selection: Morocco is ruled by King Mukammad VI who holds absolute power but allows a certain amount of democratic activity. There is an elected parliament which the king can dissolve at any time. Reflecting attitudes of a not-too-distant feudal past, most local officials and bureaucrats seems only interested in whatever personal benefit they can exact or extort from those under them. Serving the public is a motivation rarely seem. As a result, the Ishilhayn have a strong distrust and dislike for most authorities. On the village level, decisions are made by the consensus of a gathering of the village heads of households (djema'a).
Social habits: Social life is determined by family ties and proximity. Occasional tribal hostilities still exist but an increasing solidarity and group cohesion now extends beyond tribal boundaries to encompass all who speak Tashilhayt. Urban dwellers often maintain close ties with their country cousins, make lengthy visits to them, and may send their children to spend months or years living with them, thereby instilling in a new generation its own strong sense of roots. Whole communities of people (igurramen) who claim descendance from the prophet Muhammad, receive regular gift offerings from surrounding villages and dispense blessing (baraka).
Judicial system/Trial punishment: Village communities still live according to a code of customary law, known as kanun, which deals with all questions of property and persons. In some areas, hereditary holy men (igurramen) play an important role as arbitors and conciliators. The national government provides a system for dealing with civil and criminal matters which cannot be handled locally. Beatings and torture of prisoners by police is not uncommon, and there is much corruption of justice.
Crisis/Conflicts - History/Status: The Ishilhayn region played an important role in Moroccan history. The Almohad religious reform movement was born here in the Middle Ages. The Almohads conquered all of Morocco and went on to unify all the Maghreb and much of Spain under their rule. In the beginning of this century, Ishilhayn 'Lords of the Atlas' were enlisted by France to conquer the southern part of Morocco and govern it under France's authority. The alliance with France came to an end with the independence of Morocco in 1956. Up until the middle of the 20th century, the Ishilhayn were a warlike people and inter-tribal hostilities were common. Berbers in general have an underlying distrust of Arabs, and Arabs have a tendency to look down on Berber.
Celebrations/Recreation: The common Muslim holiday celebrations, Moussems (festivals centered around a pilgrimage to the tomb of an Islamic saint or as a thanksgiving for the harvest, etc.), weddings, and tea drinking. Football (soccer) is the national sport.
Art Forms: Folk song/dance, music, carpets, pottery, jewelry, basketry. Roving minstrels are a common sight.
Media (Radio/TV/Newspapers/Films/Videos/Recordings): In Morocco there are approximately 200 radios and 50 televisions per 1,000 inhabitants (1987). Music cassettes and limited radio broadcasts exist in Tashilhayt. A very few written publications have appeared in recent years.
Transport: Villages are linked by narrow paths where travel is on foot or by mule. Vehicular transport is increasing where there are passable roads. Towns are linked by busses and taxis while major cities have air and rail links.

Children/Youth
Education/Type of Schooling: Since unemployment is a real prospect after graduation, many Ishilhayn do not value education believing instead that hard work yeilds success. Their lack of education has disqualified them from most influential positions in government and industry. In rural areas many boys attend Quranic school in the local mosque for several years to memorize portions of the Quran, but few complete more than a few years of government provided schooling. More young girls are attending school as new schools and classrooms are built.
Labour/Tasks: Young children are required to help, firls take care of younger children, boys help with the business, crops or animals. Girls are married off as young as 14 and take on much of their mother-in-law's workload. Rural women work very hard: drawing and carrying water; chopping, gathering, and carrying firewood; keeping house; preparing five meals per day; taking care of cows, chickens, and children; cleaning and spinning wool and weaving rugs and woven garments. Rural men work hard too, but their times of hard work tend to alternate with extended periods of inactivity. In cities, children as young as seven or eight many be 'apprenticed' to craftsmen for many years with little or no pay. Young girls are sometimes brought from rural areas to live and work as house helpers in the homes of city dwellers who take responsibility for raising the child and pay a small amount monthly or annually to the parents of the child.
Problems (Morality/Family/Insurrections/Etc.): There are two clashing worlds, especially in the cities: the traditional and the modern. Many marriages are still match-made with the groom's parents seeking a suitable bride for their son. There is some drug abuse among younger males and an increasing incidence of alcoholism.
Greatest needs: The younger generation is characterized by an acute sense that something is missing in their lives. They long for something to fill the void which Islam and tradition do not. There is a great temptation to turn to materialism for those with the means. Many Ishilhayn express a need for more opportunities to make money.
Other: Infant mortality is 82 per 1,000 (1990). Higher in rural areas.

Religion
100% Muslim (75% practicing, 10% devout)
Religious practices/Ceremonies: All Islamic. Wearing of amulets, visits to Islamic holy men, pilgrimages to saints' tombs for special blessing, or the enlisting of folk doctors and their 'prescriptions' are typical animistic or Folk Islamic expressions. Their hardworking attitude has meshed well with Islam, a religion of works. Some Berbers will admit that their ancestors adopted Islam because it fits with their Berber character.
Redemptive Analogies/Bridges: Analogies common to Islam.
Spiritual Climate/Openness: The idea of choosing/changing one's religious beliefs falls outside the realm of possibilities as circumscribed by their Islamic world view. Many Ishilhayn have an unhealthy love for money. This powerful desire for worldly riches has prevented many people from pursuing God. It is illegal for a Moroccan to become a Christian or for a Moroccan Christian to evangelise others for Christ. This is a major obstacle to people becoming Christians.

History of Christian Presence Amongst This People Group
Since 1890 mission agencies have focused on the people of Morocco. Only recently have Christian workers targeted the Ishilhayn with a church planting effort. The church existed in northern Morocco during the Roman occupation but was not strong enough to withstand the Arab invasion which brought Islam in the seventh century. There is no conclusive evidence that the Gospel ever reached the Ishilhayn in those early centuries.

Current Needs
The Ishilhayn are showing interest in Christianity and the Bible as never before. With the Jesus video and New Testament now available many more Tashilhayt speaking workers are needed. While Morocco is closed to traditional missionary work, there are creative ways in which to enter the country. Many Ishilhayn Berbers work in Europe, where there is more freedom for open evangelism.

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