T’heydinn is a poetic epic that includes dozens of poems that sing of the glories and exploits of Maghreb princes and sultans. It presents the ancestral values that underpin the way of life of the Moorish community in Mauritania, and it constitutes a literary and artistic manifestation of the Hassaniya Arabic.
The performers perform the epic with the accompaniment of traditional stringed instruments, such as the lute, harp, and drums, as they preserve the collective memory of the society through poems and transfer knowledge and skills from parents to children who are first trained to master musical instruments and then are initiated into the poetic tradition. T’heydinn represent a close and permanent link between the traditional performers and their tribe, as a family of performers abounds in its unique and distinctive treasury of this epic.
The epic is performed on social occasions, such as weddings, reconciliation ceremonies and invitations, and it represents an appropriate opportunity for regional tribal and family reunions, strengthening social ties, and promoting the culture of social peace and cooperation. Today, the performances are in decline due to the decrease in the number of performers, most of whom are elderly, and young performers tend to perform the epic in a shortened form, which threatens its continuity and survival.

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Moorish Epic T’heydinn was inscribed in 2011 on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in Mauritania.