inhabitants of oases in the Sahara, especially in southern Morocco and Mauritania, who constitute a socially and ethnically distinct class of workers.
In the 17th century they were forcibly recruited into the ʿAbīd al-Bukhārī, the elite army of the Moroccan Mawlāy Ismāʿīl. In modern times they are, in effect, serfs tied to the land, no longer slaves, as they originally are presumed to have been, but without the privileges of freedmen. Many Ḥarāṭīn work in the palm groves or as herdsmen in the south; those who can migrate north are often employed in menial jobs attached to the soil.
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