Hashem

Hashem, the name of several Algerian tribes, now mostly Arabised, but originally a branch of the historical Zenata Berbers, whose chief stronghold was the famous city of Flemcen in the province of Oran. Abd-el-Kadir, the valiant Algerian chief who held out for so many years against the French, was a member of the Hashem tribe settled in the district of Mascara, south-west of the city of Oran. Since the French conquest the Hashem nation has lost all political cohesion, and is now dispersed in small fragments over the whole of Algeria with a collective population of less than 20,000.