page_title: Tuareg people
section_title: Traditional weapons
hierarchical_section_title: Tuareg people / Culture / Traditional weapons
caption_attribution_description: English: "Tuarick in a Shirt of Leather / Tuarick of Aghades" by Lyon
context_page_description: The Tuareg people are a large Berber ethnic confederation. They principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Traditionally nomadic pastoralists, small groups of Tuareg are also found in northern Nigeria.
  The Tuareg speak languages of the same name, which belong to the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family.
  The Tuaregs have been called the "blue people" for the indigo dye coloured clothes they traditionally wear and which stains their skin. A semi-nomadic Muslim people, they are believed to be descendants of the Berber natives of North Africa. The Tuareg have been one of the ethnic groups that have been historically influential in the spread of Islam and its legacy in North Africa and the adjacent Sahel region.
  Tuareg society has traditionally featured clan membership, social status and caste hierarchies within each political confederation. The Tuareg have controlled several trans-Saharan trade routes and have been an important party to the conflicts in the Saharan region during the colonial and post-colonial era.
context_section_description: takoba: 1 meter long straight sword
  sheru: long dagger
  tellak: short dagger kept in a sheath attached to the left forearm.
  allagh: 2 meter long lance
  tagheda: small and sharp assegai
  taganze: leather covered-wooden bow
  amur: wooden arrow
  taburek: wooden stick
  alakkud or abartak: riding crop
  agher: 1.50 meter high shield
  In 2007, Stanford's Cantor Arts Center opened an exhibition, "Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World", the first such exhibit in the United States. It was curated by Tom Seligman, director of the center. He had first spent time with the Tuareg in 1971 when he traveled through the Sahara after serving in the Peace Corps. The exhibition included crafted and adorned functional objects such as camel saddles, tents, bags, swords, amulets, cushions, dresses, earrings, spoons and drums. The exhibition also was shown at the University of California, Los Angeles Fowler Museum in Los Angeles and the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.
  Throughout history, the Tuareg were renowned and respected warriors. Their decline as a military might came with the introduction of firearms, weapons which the Tuareg did not possess. The Tuareg warrior equipment consisted of a takoba (sword), allagh (lance) and aghar (shield) made of antelope hide.
caption: Armed Tuareg men depicted in a French book of 1821. Both men carry spears and the tellak dagger attached to the left forearm, the man on the right (a noble) is also armed with the takouba sword.
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