Amazigh, Senhaja

The Senhaja de Srair (Sanhaja of the Srair, the high ridges) are a confederation of Berber-speaking tribes in the central Rif, around Ketama, Issaguen and Targuist, named after the great medieval Sanhaja confederation. Their tribes are Ketama, Ait Seddat, Ait Mezduy, Ait Ahmed, Ait Khennus, Ait Bunsar, Zerqet, Ait Bshir and Taghzut, each with its own variety; the Ait Bushibet and some Bni Gmil villages are now mostly Arabic-speaking. Their language, which speakers call Chelha, belongs to the Northern Berber languages but is distinct from Tarifit to the east and Ghomara to the west, and has taken many Arabic words (about 17% of basic vocabulary). Linguists divide it into 'pure' varieties (Ait Mezduy, Ait Bshir, Zerqet) and transitional ones closer to Tarifit. Arabic-speaking Senhaja further west and south (Senhaja Gheddou, Senhaja Mosbah) are part of the Jebala.

Senhaja life is that of the high Rif: villages of stone houses on steep terraces and ridges under cedar and oak forest, patrilineal families organised by tribe and fraction, marriage mostly within the tribe, and weekly souks at Issaguen, Targuist and Ketama that are both market and meeting place. Oral poetry is valued; the only printed work in the language is a poetry collection by Ahmed Al Khudairi. The Association of Amazighs of Senhaja of the Rif (founded 2012 in Targuist) publishes the magazine Tidighin, named after the region's highest peak, and holds the Bashikh festival.

Sunni Islam of the Maliki school, with the village fqih as imam and Quran teacher, saints' shrines, seasonal moussems, amulets and beliefs about jinn and the evil eye. Isolation has kept older folk practices longer than in the towns.

No Scripture exists in Senhaja Berber. Speakers are nearly all bilingual in Moroccan Arabic, which has the complete Bible, an audio Bible and the Jesus Film; Tarifit resources are partly understood in the transitional varieties. GRN lists recordings in several Senhaja varieties. No Christians are known among the Senhaja.