Tuaregs

Recently I've read up a few articles about the Tuareg people in Niger, Mali, and Nigeria. They seem like an interesting people.

One thing I find intriguing is whether modern Tuarges respect international frontiers. They live between Algeria, Mali, and Niger. I don't know whether certain tribes are confined withing the frontiers of certain countries, or whether all tribes move across frontiers.

By being nomads, are Tuaregs in fact a closed society who generally do not mix with the neighbouring sedentary populations? I have read that the agricultural and urban populations of Niger and Mali often regard them as a nuisanse for their "savage" habits.

Any connection, culturally or Linquistically between the Tuaregs and the Amazighs?

Tuareg are called Imoshagh, Amazegzel or Tamashek in Africa and in their own dialects.  They descend from the peoples called "Mauri Mazazeces" in ancient Morocco and Algeria an "Ethiopian" people of the "Expositio Totius Mundi" (a Roman document) who harassed the pentapolis in Libya and were settled and living among the Greeks, Romans, Scythians, Armeni, Vandali and Phrygians according to Byzantine documents.  The Mazikes or Mashek were a people of Ethiopic affiliation originally extending falong the Red Sea in Africa and southern Arabia to North Africa.  Tuareg and all early Berbers claimed to have come from Canaan or Pheonicians and Philistines who came in at least two waves dating from the Hyksoso period. (Canaanites in early Arabaian tradition were a people of southern Hejaz in Arabia extending into Yemen who settled in Syria).  Several Muslim writers including Al Madani and Ibn Khaldun claimed the Berbers claimed to be the sons of Berr who were said to descend from Mazigh ibn son of  Canaan Ibn Ham Ibn Nuh (Noah). The tradition found cited in Nafousa: Berber Community in Western Libya, Omar Sahli citing Dabbuz. Retrieved on-line from http://www.tawalt.com/monthly/fessato_1.pdf , July. 12, 2008.  Also mentioned in The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge By Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1835,  p. 263.  Imoshagh or Tuareg still claim descent from the Phoenicians and their script called Ti'finagh is said to mean "belonging to the Phoenicians". The name "Masek" is still found as a tribal name among south Arabian Mahra who resemble the Tuareg.

The Imakitan or Ukatemeni branch of the Tuareg originated in ancient Numidia.  The Lamtuna today called Auelimidden of Niger according to Leo AFricanus also originated in Numidia.  The Imaghiren of modern Burkina Faso come from the Tu-Maghuri or Makhuritae of Libya. The Zenata composed of the Nafusawa of the Draa and Ifuraces or Iforas Tuareg anciently called  Pharusii and Afran by the Romans occupied Tripoli and Tripolitania.  The Amazeg or Mazikes also occupied Algeria, Libya and Tripolitania in Tunis and made up the "Ethiopian" luxury slaves of the Romans.   

Originally posted by calvo If the Tuaregs were matrilineal, does that mean that family surnames are passed through the mother rather than the father? Is it common for women to hold important public positions? What is the role of Islam in Tuareg society? Do they practice the usual Islamic customs such as Ramadan and abstinence from pork and alcohol?

It's crazy how people  think that Tuareg are the only North African nomads,in fact most nomads live in Northern Sahara (pastoral nomads)

Thanks,Cryptic.
Toureg do not live in cote d'Ivoire and Togo they mostly live in northern Mali,southern Algeria(near Mali borders) and southwestern Libya.
People in the photos aren't Touareg,they are indigenous Algerian pastoral nomads(probably descendant from  neolithic Capsians).
Those are Algerian Touareg.