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Maghreb

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: African Geography;
Geography of the Middle East

   The Algerian bay (view from the west).
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   The Algerian bay (view from the west).
   Night view from Tunis
   Enlarge
   Night view from Tunis
   Marrakech, Atlas view.
   Enlarge
   Marrakech, Atlas view.
   The port of Essaouira in Morocco
   Enlarge
   The port of Essaouira in Morocco

   The Maghreb (المغرب العربي al-Maġrib al-ʿArabī; also rendered Maghrib
   (or rarely Moghreb), meaning "place of set" or " western" in Arabic, is
   the region of Africa north of the Sahara Desert and west of the Nile —
   specifically, coinciding with the Atlas Mountains. Geopolitically, the
   area is reckoned to include Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,
   Libya, and sometimes Mauritania (which is often placed in West Africa
   instead) — put more simply, the member states of the Arab Maghreb Union
   plus the Western Sahara. An inhabitant or thing of the Maghreb is
   called a Maghrebian or Maghrebi.

Etymology

   The word maghreb is an Arabic term literally meaning "place of setting
   (of the sun)", and hence "West." It derives from the root ghuroob,
   meaning "to set" or "to be hidden". It is also used in a manner similar
   to the metaphorical use "to be eclipsed", which is used in English.

   In Arabic but not in English, Al Maghreb commonly refers to Morocco:
   the full Arabic name of Morocco (Al Mamlakah al Maghribīyah) translates
   to "the Western Kingdom". Historically, Morocco was called Al Maghreb
   al Aqşá ("the Far West"). The English name comes from Marruecos, an
   early Spanish pronunciation for Marrakesh.

Culture and roots

   Maghrebis are of mixed origins. They are mainly of Berber and/or Arab
   origins; the resulting mix is sometimes (particularly in Mauritania)
   termed Moorish. The Trans-Saharan trade brought in numerous West
   Africans, whose average contribution to the population increases as one
   goes south. In the northern coastal towns, conversely, several waves of
   European immigrants have influenced the population — notably Moriscos,
   Spanish Muslims who fled the Reconquista, Turks who came over with the
   Ottoman Empire, and French, Italians, Spanish, and others captured by
   the corsairs. Jewish communities have historically been present in the
   older cities, and have contributed to the wider gene pool through
   conversion. In Algeria especially, a large European minority, the "
   pied noirs", immigrated under French colonial rule; the overwhelming
   majority of these, however, left immediately following independence.

   Berber languages are almost exclusively spoken in the Maghreb, and were
   originally spoken throughout it. The Arabic dialects of the Maghreb
   share many common characteristics (like a first person singular present
   with n-) that set them apart from the dialects of the Middle East and
   most of Egypt. The Maghreb traditionally used a specifically western
   variant of the Arabic alphabet, notably distinguished by placing a dot
   underneath fa and a single one above qaf; this has largely gone out of
   use since the late twentieth century.

   The Maghreb largely shares a common culinary tradition; indeed, it was
   jocularly defined by Habib Bourguiba as the part of North Africa where
   couscous is the staple food.

   The region is almost entirely Muslim in religion, following the Sunni
   Maliki school, although small Ibadi communities remain in some areas. A
   strong tradition of venerating marabouts and saint's tombs is found
   throughout the region, still commemmorated by the proliferation of "
   Sidi"'s on any map of the region, though this tradition has
   substantially decreased over the twentieth century. A network of
   zaouias traditionally helped proliferate basic literacy and knowledge
   of Islam in rural regions.

   The traditional city architecture of the region is exemplified by
   numerous casbahs, old towns with whitewashed walls, narrow streets,
   multi-storey apartments built of stone, wood, and mud.

History

   From the end of the Ice Age, when the Sahara Desert dried up, contact
   between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa was extremely limited by the
   difficulty in crossing the desert. This remained the case until after
   the time of the Arab expansion and the spread of Islam; even then,
   trans-Saharan trade was restricted to costly (but often profitable)
   caravan expeditions, trading such goods as salt, gold, ivory, and
   slaves.

   Originally, the Maghreb was inhabited by " Caucasoid" Cro-Magnoids (
   Iberomaurusians) in the north and by " Black" peoples in the Sahara.
   Later, about 8000 BC, there came from the east "Caucasoid" speakers of
   northern Afro-Asiatic languages such as Berber at least since the
   Capsian culture.

   Many ports along the Maghreb coast were occupied by Phoenicians,
   particularly Carthaginians; with the defeat of Carthage, many of these
   ports naturally passed to Rome, and ultimately it took control of the
   entire Maghreb north of the Atlas Mountains, apart from some of the
   most mountainous regions like the Moroccan Rif.

   The Arabs reached the Maghreb in early Umayyad times, but their control
   over it was quite weak, and various Islamic "heresies" such as the
   Ibadis and the Shia, adopted by some Berbers, quickly threw off
   Caliphal control in the name of their interpretations of Islam. The
   Arabic language became widespread only later, as a result of the
   invasion of the Banu Hilal (unleashed, ironically, by the Berber
   Fatimids in punishment for their Zirid clients' defection) in the
   1100s. Throughout this period, the Maghreb fluctuated between
   occasional unity (as under the Almohads, and briefly under the Hafsids)
   and more commonly division into three states roughly corresponding to
   modern Morocco, western Algeria, and eastern Algeria and Tunisia.

   After the Middle Ages, the area east of Morocco was loosely under the
   control of the Ottoman Empire. After the 19th century, it was colonized
   by France, Spain and later Italy.

   Today over two and a half million Maghrebins live in France, especially
   from Algeria, as well as many more French of Maghrebin origin.

Maghribi traders in Jewish history

   In the tenth century, as the social and political environment in
   Baghdad became increasingly hostile to Jews, many Jewish traders there
   left for the Maghrib, Tunisia in particular. Over the following two
   (three?) centuries, a distinctive social group of traders throughout
   the Mediterranean World became known as the Maghribis, passing on this
   identification from father to son.

   Source: Avner Greif, " Contract Enforceability and Economic
   Institutions in Early Trade: The Maghribi Traders' Coalition," American
   Economic Review 82: 128 ( 1994).

Modern territories of the Maghreb

     * Algeria
     * Ceuta (a city in Spain)
     * Libya
     * Mauritania
     * Melilla (a city in Spain)
     * Morocco
     * Tunisia
     * Western Sahara

Medieval regions of the Maghreb

     * Ifriqiya
     * Djerid
     * Sus/ Sousse
     * Zab
     * Hodna
     * Rif
     * Maghreb al-Awsat (Central Maghreb)
     * Morocco (Maghreb al-Aqsa)
     * Tamesna
     * Tripolitania

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
