Daouada of the Fazzan

Daouada peoples of the Fazzan included in J. Despois's Géographie humaine. III in  Mémoires de la Mission scientifique du Fezzân.

One of the intriguing groups of the Fezzan region of Libya, said to be endogamous, are the Daouada. Described briefly in J. Despois's "human geography" of the region for the Mission scientifique du Fezzan project in the 1940s, they were said to live along the small lakes near the sandy dunes north of the Wadi al-Ajal. The group was also said to have worked the natron deposits. One of the specific areas said to have included Daouada residents, Brak ez Zaouiya, is in the Chati section of the Fazzan. Other settlements that included some Daouada were Tmessan, Edris, El Bouanis, Mandara, Gabr Oun,  and Trouna. Despois was careful to distinguish them from the descendants of slaves, suggesting this group was of distinct origin in the Fazzan and probably not of any "recent" slave origin. If so, one cannot help but wonder if they are the descendants of the "town" of Dawud mentioned by al-Idrisi in the 12th century. To al-Idrisi, who mistakenly wrote of Dawud as a "town" or city rather than an ethnic group spread out over a larger region, Dawud was south of Zawila. Clearly, al-Idrisi made some mistakes or misinterpreted his sources when writing about the Fezzan. Nonetheless, he contextualizes the people of Dawud with the pre-Islamic past of the region. According to him, the Dawud were the remnants of the pre-Islamic Fazzan population who did not flee when the Islamic conquests began. Is this possibly the origin of the contempt for the Daouada, their pagan ancestry? 

If the connection between the "Dawud" of al-Idrisi and the Daouada endogamous group of the colonial-era Fazzan is legitimate, then the Daouada may represent the autochthonous peoples who resisted the Islamic invasions and stayed in the land. Perhaps their ancestors were the Qazan, Fazzan, and Qaramatiyyun of early Islamic sources. Indeed, if the Daouada were actively involved in natron production and trade in medieval times, they may be the Qaramatiyyun mentioned by al-Muqaddasi who transacted with salt. Was their specialization in natron production part of the origin for the contempt in which they were held by later groups of the Fazzan? The problem with this narrative, however, is al-Idrisi's summary of the history of the region suggests Waddan was the political center rather than Garama. The earlier, 9th century description of the region by al-Ya'qubi, on the other hand, pointed to conflict between Waddan and the old Garamantian heartland. His sources indicated frequent conflict between the Mazata Berbers in Waddan against the people of the Fazzan, probably referring to the area around the Wadi al-Ajal. Perhaps this was another area in which al-Idrisi erred.