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Arab migrations to the Maghreb

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The Arab migrations to the Maghreb[a] involved successive waves of migration and settlement by Arab people in the Maghreb region of North Africa (excluding Egypt), encompassing modern-day Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. The process took place over several centuries, lasting from the early 7th century to the 17th century. The Arab migrants hailed from the Middle East, particularly the Arabian Peninsula, with later groups arriving from the Levant and Iraq.

Arab migrations to the Maghreb
Map depicting the routes Umayyad armies took during the Arab conquest of the Maghreb in the 7th century
Datec. 7th century — 17th century
LocationMaghreb, North Africa
CauseSee causes
ParticipantsTotal unknown:
OutcomeArab population growth, Arabization, Islamization and displacement

The influx of Arabs to the Maghreb began in the 7th century with the Arab conquest of the Maghreb, when Arab armies conquered the region as part of the early Muslim conquests. This initial wave of Arab migration was followed by subsequent periods of migration and settlement, notably during the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates and later Arab dynasties. However, the most significant wave of Arab migration occurred in the 11th century with the arrival of more Bedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula, such as Banu Hilal, Banu Sulaym, and Maqil.[8] The last significant wave of Arab migration to the Maghreb was from Al-Andalus in the 17th century as a result of the Reconquista. These migrants established numerous Arab empires and dynasties in the Maghreb, such as the Aghlabids, Idrisids, Sulaymanids, Salihids, Fatimids, Saadians and 'Alawites.

The Arab migrations to the Maghreb had a profound impact on the demographics and culture of the Maghreb. It resulted in significant Arab demographic growth, forced displacement and Arabization of the Berber and Punic populations and spread of the Arabic language and Arab culture throughout the region. The descendants of the Arab settlers in the Maghreb are known as Maghrebi Arabs. According to Charles-André Julien, a specialist in North African history, the Hilalian invasion was "the most important event of the entire medieval period in the Maghrib".[9]

History and migrations

Rashidun and Umayyad era (7th–8th century)

Main articles: Muslim conquest of the Maghreb and Umayyad rule in North Africa

Arab migration to the Maghreb first started in the 7th century with the Arab conquest of the Maghreb. This first started in 647 under the Rashidun Caliphate, when Abdallah ibn Sa'd led the invasion with 20,000 soldiers from Medina in the Arabian Peninsula, swiftly taking over Tripolitania and then defeating a much larger Byzantine army at the Battle of Sufetula in the same year, forcing the new Byzantine Exarch of Africa to pay tribute.[10] By the late 7th century, the surge in Arab migration eventually succeeded in overcoming both Berber and Byzantine resistance. This gradual process led to the conversion of the Berbers to Islam and the full integration of the entire Maghreb into the Umayyad Caliphate.[11] Throughout the period of conquest, Arab migrants settled in all parts of the Maghreb, arriving as peaceful newcomers that were welcomed everywhere. Large Arab settlements were established in several areas. A considerable portion of the Arab settlers belonged to the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim.[12] During the earliest Muslim conquests in the 7th to 8th centuries, about 150,000 Arabs settled in the Maghreb.[4][2][1][13]

Arabians arrived in the Maghreb in large numbers after an expedition by the Banu Muzaina tribe to the Maghreb under the leadership of Zayd ibn Haritha al-Kalbi in the 7th or 8th century.[14] The Arab Muslim conquerors left a significantly more lasting influence on the culture of the Maghreb compared to earlier and later conquerors, and by the 11th century, the Berbers had undergone significant Islamization and Arabization.[15]

 
Dirham coin of caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik. He is known for having said "I will not leave a single Berber compound without pitching beside it a tent of a tribesman from Qays or Tamim".[16]

The Umayyad conquest brought in 50,000 Arab troops who had originally served in Egypt. These troops and their descendants became a hereditary ruling class, with very few elites being outsiders. These soldiers were rewarded with land grants, creating an Arab aristocracy with substantial territory, cultivated mostly by slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. An example of these were the Fihrids, descendants of Uqba ibn Nafi, who occupied a privileged position in Ifriqiyan (modern-day Tunisia) and Andalusi society. There were other powerful Arab settlers who briefly appeared in the sources, especially those of Qurayshi ancestry.[17] Arab settlers mostly settled in cities, such as Kairouan, until the migration of the nomadic Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in the 11th century.[18] During this time, the majority of Maghrebi Arabs were Qahtanites from South Arabia.[19]

The Umayyad Caliphate was aware of the importance of the spread and settlement of Arabs in the Maghreb to the Caliph. Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik swore that he would send a large army and added "I will not leave a single Berber compound without pitching beside it a tent of a tribesman from Qays or Tamim".[16]

Abbasid era (8th century)

Main article: Abbasid conquest of Ifriqiya

The Abbasids reconquered Ifriqiya in 761 from the Kharijites that took over the region following the fall of the Muhallabids.[20] During the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, there was a great influx of Khurasani Arabs from Iraq to the Maghreb. These were mostly North Arabian tribes, among them was the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim. This shifted the tribal balance of Ifriqiya in favor of the North Arabian Adnanite tribes who became the majority, to the detriment of the formerly more numerous South Arabian Qahtanite tribes.[19]

Aghlabid and Idrisid era (9th century)

Main articles: Aghlabids and Idrisid dynasty
 
Aghlabid dinar issued during the reign of Emir Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab

In 800, Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab was appointed as governor of Ifriqiya by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. He founded the Aghlabid dynasty, a dynasty of emirs from the tribe of Banu Tamim. During this time, Arab migration increased in numbers due to the anti-Kharijite wars against the Rustamid dynasty.[21] The structure of the Aghlabid army was largely derived from the Arab tribes that settled in Ifriqiya during the late 7th and 8th centuries. The soldiers were likely paid at specific intervals, with cavalry earning twice as much as infantry due to the higher expenses associated with their horses and equipment.[22] These troops were called the jund, descendants of Arab tribesmen who had participated in the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb. They often rebelled against the Aghlabid regime.[23]

In 789, Ali ibn Abi Talib's descendant Idris ibn Abdallah fled from the Hejaz and arrived in Tangier after the failed revolt against the Abbasids in the Battle of Fakhkh. He later moved to Walili and founded the city of Fez in the same year. He founded the Hashemite Idrisid dynasty, which established control over modern-day Morocco and western Algeria. The Idrisid dynasty played an important role in the early Islamization of the area, and contributed to an increase in Arab migration and Arabization in major urban centers of the western Maghreb.[24] Several Shia Arabs rapidly flocked to Fez, Arabizing the region. Fez experienced large waves of Arab migration, including one which involved 800 Arabs from Al-Andalus in 818 and one which involved 2,000 Arab families from Ifriqiya in 824.[25]

These Arab political entities, in addition to the Salihids and Fatimids, were influential in encouraging Arabization by attracting Arab migrants and by promoting Arab culture. In addition, disturbances and political unrest in the Mashriq compelled the Arabs to migrate to the Maghreb in search of security and stability. Arab immigration from the Mashriq to the Maghreb increased during periods of unrest and disorder.[16]

Arab tribes in the Maghreb (9th century)

By the 3rd century AH (9th century CE), there were numerous Arab tribes in the Maghreb. According to al-Ya'qubi, in the mountains near Cyrenaica were the Arab tribes of Azd, Lakhm, Judham, al-Sadaf, and other Yemenite tribes on the eastern mountain, and Ghassan, Judham, Azd, Tujayb and others on the western mountain. In Waddan, there was a group that claimed to be Yemenite, and in Zawila, there were Arabs from the region of Khurasan and the cities of Basra and Kufa.[16]

In Kairouan, there were Arabs from Quraysh and other tribes within the groupings of Mudar, Rabi'a and Qahtan. In nearby Al-Jazira, there were Arabs from Banu Adi and other groups. In Satfura, there were people from Quraysh and Quda'a, in Baja there were people from Banu Hashim, and in Majjana there were people from Diyar Rabi'a.[16]

In al-Zab, in its capital Tobna, there was Quraysh, and other Arabs. In Sétif, there were tribesmen from Banu Asad ibn Khuzaymah. In Bilizma, the population consisted of tribesmen from Banu Tamim. Al-Ya'qubi's information does not include the whole Maghreb, such as the western Maghreb where the Idrisids arrived with Arab tribes and encouraged other Arabs to arrive.[16]

Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym (11th–12th century)

Main articles: Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym
 
Migration routes of Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym from the Arabian Peninsula to Egypt

The 11th century witnessed the most significant wave of Arab migration, surpassing all previous movements. This event unfolded when the Zirid dynasty of Ifriqiya proclaimed its independence from the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. In retribution against the Zirids, the Fatimids dispatched large Bedouin Arab tribes, mainly the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym, to defeat the Zirids and settle in the Maghreb. These tribes followed a nomadic lifestyle and were originally from the Hejaz and Najd.[14]

To encourage the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym to migrate to the Maghreb, the Fatimid caliph provided each tribesman with a camel and financial support and assisted them in crossing from the eastern to the westwen bank of the Nile River. The harsh drought and subsequent economic crisis in Egypt at the time further motivated these tribes to relocate to the Maghreb, which had a better economic situation at the time. The Fatimid caliph instructed them to rule the Maghreb instead of the Zirid emir Al-Mu'izz and told them "I have given you the Maghrib and the rule of al-Mu'izz ibn Balkīn as-Sanhājī the runaway slave. You will want for nothing." and told Al-Mu'izz "I have sent you horses and put brave men on them so that God might accomplish a matter already enacted".[3]

 
Rare Arabic manuscript of the orally transmitted epic poem about the Bedouin Banu Hilal, by Hussein Al-Ulaimi, 1849 CE, origin unknown

Upon their arrival in Cyrenaica, the Arab nomads discovered that the region was almost empty of its inhabitants, with only a few Zenata Berbers remaining, most of whom had been largely destroyed by Al-Mu'izz.[3] Estimates suggest that up to 200,000 Hilalian families moved westward out of Egypt.[26] The Banu Sulaym settled in Cyrenaica while the Hilalians continued their advance west. The influx of Arab tribes to Cyrenaica caused the region to became the most Arab place in the Arab world after the interior of Arabia.[26] According to Ibn Khaldun, the Arab tribes were accompanied by their families and stock. They settled in the Maghreb after engaged in numerous battles with the Berbers, such as the Battle of Haydaran.[14] The Zirids abandoned Kairouan to take refuge on the coast where they survived for a century. The Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym spread on the high plains of Constantine where they gradually obstructed the Qal'at Bani Hammad as they had done to Kairouan a few decades ago. From there, they gradually gained control over the high plains of Algiers and Oran. In the second half of the 12th century, they went to the Moulouya valley and the Atlantic coast in the western Maghreb to areas such as Doukkala.[27]

They heavily transformed the culture of the Maghreb into Arab culture, and spread nomadism in areas where agriculture was previously dominant.[14] It played a major role in spreading Bedouin Arabic to rural areas such as the countryside and steppes, and as far as the southern areas near the Sahara.[16] In addition, they destroyed the Berber Zirid state and most of its cities, sparing only the Mediterranean coastal strip at al-Mahdiyya, and deeply weakened the neighboring Hammadid dynasty and the Zenata. Their influx was a major factor in the linguistic, cultural, genetic and ethnic Arabization of the Maghreb.[14] According to Ibn Khaldun, the lands ravaged by Banu Hilal invaders had become desertified and turned into completely arid desert. The journey of Banu Hilal is recounted in the Arabic oral poem of Sirat Bani Hilal.[14]

Sources estimate that approximately 1 million Arab nomads migrated to the Maghreb during the 11th century.[3] Historian Mármol Carvajal estimated that over a million Hilalians migrated to the Maghreb between 1051 and 1110, and estimated that the Hilalian population at his time in 1573 was 4,000,000 individuals, excluding other Arab tribes and other Arabs already present in the region.[28]

Almohad and Marinid era (12th–15th century)

 
Chaamba riding a camel in southern Tunisia, c. 1934.

To weaken resistance by Arab tribes in Ifriqiya, the Almohad ruler Abd al-Mu'min transferred them to Morocco in large numbers and settled them in the Atlantic plains in the 12th century. The region was formerly inhabited by the Barghawata tribal group, however this area was largely destroyed and depopulated by the Almoravids in their war against the heretic Barghawata, and it was depopulated again by an Almohad expedition in 1149–1150 and again in 1197–1198 to suppress revolts against them in the region.[29] The Almohads helped the Arab tribes pass the barriers of the Atlas Mountains, and accelerated their expansion to Morocco to complete the nomadic Bedouin predominance over the lowlands of the Maghreb as far as the Atlantic coastal plains. The Arab tribes increasingly played an important role in the politics of the Almohad Empire.[29]

The Almohad government thus helped the Arabs to overcome the barriers of the Atlas mountains, and accelerated their expansion into Morocco to complete the nomads' predominance over the lowlands of the Maghrib as far as the Atlantic. The appearance of the Arabs added to the complexity of the ethnic composition of Morocco, and introduced a significant non-Berber element to the population. The Arabs also increased pasture lands at the expense of agriculture, which gradually became confined to the mountains.

— Roland Oliver, [29]

Abd al-Mu'min expected opposition from the Masmuda to whom he was a stranger, so he gained Arab support to secure the succession of his son. With the decline of the Almohad army, the Arab nomads became the most powerful force in the Moroccan plains, and no ruler could have held authority there without their support.[29] The later 'Alawite dynasty came to power in the 17th century with the help of these Arab tribes, who they mobilized against the powerful Berber principality of Dila'iyyah.[30]

Under the Marinid dynasty (1244–1465), the Arabs grew in importance in Morocco. Due to the lack of Zenata supporters, they welcomed the support of Arab nomads who already began to penetrate into the country under the Almohads. The Zenata were heavily assimilated into Arab culture and the Marinid Makhzan (government) composed of both Arabs and Zenata. This led to the expansion of Arab tribes into Morocco where they settled in the plains, and many Berber groups were Arabized. Under the Marinids, Arabic became both the common and official language.[31] Like the Marinids, the Zayyanid dynasty of the Kingdom of Tlemcen had to rely on Arab nomads for soldiers.[32][33]

Ma'qil, Beni Hassan, and the Char Bouba war (13th–17th century)

Main articles: Maqil, Beni Ḥassān, and Char Bouba war

The Ma'qilis also entered the Maghreb during this wave of Arabian tribal immigration in the 11th century. They later allied with the Banu Hilal and entered under their protection.[34] They adapted to the climatic desert conditions of the Maghreb, discovering the same way of life as in the Arabian Peninsula.[35] In the 13th century, the Ma'qilis occupied southern Algeria, including the oasis towns of Tuat and Gourara. For some authors, at this point, the Ma'qil had already split into many tribes in the Maghreb and had given rise to the Beni Hassan along with other Ma'qili tribes.[36]

 
Saharan family c. 1970 to 1974

The Beni Hassan expanded southwest and occupied Sanhaja lands in the 13th century after invading and defeating the Berber confederation.[36] The Sanhaja has long had to pay tribute to the nomadic Bedouin Hassani invaders.[36] The invasion was quick and effective and happened around the year 1250, by the end of the Almohad Caliphate. Additionally, the Beni Hassan dominated the valleys of the Moulouya, Draa, Sous, as well as the Tafilalt oasis region.[37]

Historical accounts report that these Hassani communities enriched themselves by collecting tolls from trade caravans and extorting farming and herding villages settled in the oases.[38] This took place during the Char Bouba war in modern-day Western Sahara and Mauritania from 1644 to 1674, which after decades of confrontations ended up completely Arabizing the native Berber population, destroying their language and culture and giving rise to the contemporary Sahrawi people. The Arab nomads controlled the entire territory of present-day Mauritania ever since.[38][39][40]

The Moorish Sahara is the western extremity of the Arab World. Western it certainly is, some districts further west than Ireland, yet in its way of life, its culture, its literature and in many of its social customs, it has much in common with the heart lands of the Arab East, in particular with the Hijaz and Najd and parts of the Yemen

— Harry T. Norris, [41]

Andalusi refugees (15th–17th century)

Main article: Expulsion of the Moriscos

Starting from the late 15th century, a new wave of Arabs arrived as refugees from Al-Andalus in response to the persecution they faced under Christian Spanish rule after the fall of Granada in the Reconquista in 1492.[42] In 1609, Spain implemented the Expulsion of the Moriscos, which aimed to forcibly remove all Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula, expelling about 275,000 to 300,000 of them.[43] Accustomed to urban life, they settled in urban cities in the Maghreb, including Fez, Rabat and Tangier in Morocco, Tlemcen and Constantine in Algeria, and Kairouan, Tunis and Bizerte in Tunisia. They brought with them the urban dialects of Andalusi Arabic, which they introduced to the existing Bedouin Arabic dialects of the Maghreb.[44] This event greatly increased the process of Arabization in the Maghreb from the 15th to the 17th century.[45] There were several Arab tribes in Al-Andalus, of which the most prominent were Qays, Kilab, Uqayl, Mudar, Rabi'a, Yaman, Tayy, Lakhm, Judham, Amilah, and Quda'a.[46]

Causes

There were multiple factors that caused Arabs to migrate to the Maghreb. The first Arabs arrived in the 7th century with the goals of conquering Byzantine territories in the Maghreb and spreading Islam to the local populations, as well as protecting Egypt "from flank attack by Byzantine Cyrene" according to historian Will Durant.[47] The later Arabs that arrived in the 11th century were driven by factors such as instability and political unrest in the Mashriq, compelling them to settle in the Maghreb in search of security and stability. Arab immigration from the Mashriq to the Maghreb increased during periods of unrest and disorder.[16] A notable example of this was during the period of severe drought in Egypt due to a fall in the level of the Nile river, as well as plague and economic crisis. This encouraged Arab Bedouin tribes such as Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym to settle in the Maghreb, which enjoyed a better economic situation at the time. The Fatimid caliph further persuaded them to march westwards by giving each tribesman a camel and money and helping them cross from the east to the west bank of the Nile.[3]

Other Arab nomads were encouraged to settle in the Maghreb by local Arab dynasties, such as the Idrisids, Aghlabids, Salihids and Fatimids, to fulfil the Arabization of the non-Arab populations.[16] Commercial activities such as the Trans-Saharan trade boosted the expansion of Islam and spread of Arabic, and trade with the Mashriq brought several Arab groups to the Maghreb.[16] The Arab emigrants to the Maghreb from the 15th to the 17th century were largely refugees from Al-Andalus who left Christian Spanish persecution following the Fall of Granada in 1492.[42]

Impact

Arabization

A major effect of the Arab migrations to the Maghreb was the Arabization of its population. With the large-scale arrival of Arab migrants, the indigenous Berber population underwent a process of Arabization, in which they adopted Arab culture and language. The early wave of migration prior to the 11th century contributed to the Berber adoption of Arab culture. Furthermore, the Arabic language spread during this period and drove Latin into extinction in the cities. The Arabization took place around Arab major towns through the influence of Arabs in the cities and rural areas surrounding them.[16] Additionally, the Punic population of the Maghreb underwent Arabization, facilitated by the linguistic similarities between their Punic language and Arabic, as both belonged to the Semitic language family and were closely related.[48]

The migration of Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in the 11th century had a much greater influence on the process of Arabization than the migrations beforehand. It played a major role in spreading Bedouin Arabic to rural areas such as the countryside and steppes, and as far as the southern areas near the Sahara.[16] It also heavily transformed the culture of the Maghreb into Arab culture, and spread Bedouin nomadism in areas where agriculture was previously dominant.[14] These Bedouin tribes hastened and significantly intensified the Arabization process, as a substantial part of the Berber population was gradually assimilated by the new settlers and had to share with them pasturelands and seasonal migration routes. By the 15th century, the area of modern-day Tunisia had already been almost completely Arabized.[49]

This resulted in the development of Maghrebi Arabic, a variety which traces its origins to the Bedouin Arabic varieties that were introduced to the Maghreb by Hilalian tribes in the 11th century, which eventually became widely spoken by the vast majority of Maghrebis. The diverse linguistic landscape of the Maghreb led to the choice of Banu Hilal's Arabic as the lingua franca of the Maghreb.[50]

Islamization

The Umayyad Caliphate played a significant role in Islamizing the population of the Maghreb. Umayyad campaigns into the Maghreb were highly successful. In 705, Musa ibn Nusayr launched a major campaign into the western Maghreb, capturing most of its cities. This allowed him to impose his authority over the entire Maghreb, where he continued to spread Islam and the Arabic language through missionary activity. He chose seventeen religious scholars to convert the locals. Many people became Muslims at the hands of these scholars and the inhabitants of the Maghreb gradually converted to Islam.[3] Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz sent to the governor of Ifriqiya Ismail ibn Abdallah all scholars and men of culture, who were ordered to teach the religion of Islam.[3] They were distributed around the regions of the Maghreb. In less than one century, the great majority of Christians converted to Islam with "great zeal that they sought martyrdom", and the final conversions took place in the first two centuries after the hijrah.[3] The Berbers were the only people to be incorporated into the Umayyad armies and to have converted to Islam on such a large scale.[19]

Displacement

 
A group of Bedouins in Libya

The influx of Arab tribes during the 11th century into the Maghreb brought about significant demographic and economic changes. Over a protracted period, Arab nomads gradually displaced Berber farmers, seizing their best lands and subordinating them. Berbers fled to the mountains, while those who remained sought their protection and underwent gradual Arabization.[51][52] As Arab nomads spread, the territories and boundaries of the local Berber tribes were relocated and shrunk. The Zenata were displaced westward, while the Kabyles were forced to the north. The Berbers took refuge in the mountains whereas the plains were settled by Arabs and Arabized.[53] This led to the displacement of Berber languages by Arabic as the lingua franca of the coastal plains of the Maghreb. This linguistic shift occurred as the increasing influx of powerful Arab tribes achieved cultural and linguistic dominance over the coastal plains, effectively transforming the region into a "cultural extension of the Arab East". Meanwhile, Berber languages and culture remained confined to the mountains and desert regions.[54]

Additionally, the Bedouins contributed to the desertification and nomadization of the Maghreb. The Banu Hilal conquered land which they largely devastated, causing a decline in its cultivation. Nomadism increased during this time. According to Ibn Khaldun, the lands "ravaged" by Banu Hilal invaders had become desertified and turned into completely arid desert.[55] The arrival of the Banu Hilal, followed by the Banu Sulaym in the 12th century, broke the balance between nomads and sedentary populations in favor of the nomads. For strategic reasons, the Almohads gave over the Atlantic plains of the western Maghreb to the Arab nomads.[56]

Genetics

 
Distribution of Haplogroup J (Y-DNA)

A study from 2002 revealed that the second most-frequent Haplogroup in the Maghreb was Haplogroup J1-M267 (Eu10), which originated in the Middle East (the highest frequency of 30%–62.5% has been observed in Muslim Arab populations in the Middle East).[57] The study found out that the majority of Eu10 chromosomes in the Maghreb are due to the recent gene flow caused by the Arab migrations to the Maghreb in the first millennium CE.[57] Both southern Qahtanite and northern Adnanite Arabs contributed to the diverse ethnic mix of the Maghreb. Therefore, it has been established that the Eu10 chromosome pool in the Maghreb originates not only from early Neolithic migrations but also from recent expansions of Arab tribes from Arabia.[57] The results of a more recent study from 2017 suggested that the Arab migrations to the Maghreb were mainly a demographic process that heavily implied gene flow and remodeled the genetic structure of the Maghreb, rather than a mere cultural replacement as claimed by older studies.[58] Haplogroup J1-M267 accounts for around 30% of Maghrebis and is assumed to have spread out of the Arabia Peninsula into North Africa, second after E1b1b1b which accounts for 45% of Maghrebis. According to a study from 2021, the highest frequency of the Middle Eastern component ever observed in North Africa so far was observed in the Arabs of Wesletia in Tunisia, who had a Middle Eastern component frequency of 71.8%.[59] According to a study from 2004, Haplogroup J1 had a frequency of 35% in Algerians, 33% in Moroccans and 34.2% in Tunisians.[60] Recent genome-wide analysis of North Africans found substantial shared ancestry with the Middle East, and to a lesser extent sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. This recent gene flow caused by the Arab migrations increased genetic similarities between North Africans and Middle Easterners.[61]

Contemporary demographics

Arab tribes

These Arab tribes settled in the Maghreb and emerged into several contemporary sub-tribes. The most notable Arab tribes of Morocco include Abda, Ahl Rachida, Azwafit, Banu Ma'qil, Banu Tamim, Beni Ahsen, Beni 'Amir, Beni Guil, Beni Ḥassān, Banu Hilal, Beni Khirane, Beni Mathar, Beni Moussa, Banu Sulaym, Beni Zemmour, Chaouia, Doukkala, Hyayna, Khlout, Mzab, Oulad Delim, Oulad Tidrarin, Oulad Zyan, Rahamna, Sless, Zaër, Zyayda. There are several tribes of Bedouin origin throughout Tunisia, such as Banu Hudhayl and Shammar, however they are not very nomadic nowadays and they mostly live in towns. The major Arab tribes in Libya are Qadhadhfa, Magarha, Warfalla, Firjan, Saʿada and Murabtin, Masamir, Zuwayya, Awlad Busayf, Awlad Sulayman and Abaydat. The most well known Arab tribes of Algeria are Chaamba, Dhouaouda, Doui-Menia, Ghenanma, Beni Hassan, Ouled Djerir, Awlad Sidi Shaykh, Banu Tamim, Banu Hilal, Banu Sulaym, Thaaliba, Ouled Nail, Beni Amer, Hamyan and many more. Bedouin tribes in Algeria primarily live in the Algerian Desert.[62]

Arabic dialects

 
Geographical distribution of the varieties of Arabic

Maghrebi Arabic, spoken by the vast majority of Maghrebis, traces its roots back to the Bedouin Arabic varieties that were introduced to the Maghreb in the 11th century by Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym, who effectively Arabized substantial parts of the region.[50]

The Arab migrations led to the emergence of Bedouin dialects in the Maghreb, commonly known as Hilalian dialects. These dialects are spoken in various regions, including the Atlantic plains in Morocco, the High Plains and Sahara regions in Algeria, the Sahel in Tunisia, and the regions of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica in Libya. The Bedouin dialects can be classified into four primary varieties: Sulaymi dialects (Libya and southern Tunisia), Eastern Hilalian dialects (central Tunisia and eastern Algeria), Central Hilalian dialects (south and central Algeria), Ma'qili dialects (western Algeria and Morocco) and Hassaniya dialects (Mauritania, Western Sahara and southern Morocco; also classified as Maqil).[63][64] In Morocco, Bedouin Arabic dialects are spoken in plains and in recently founded cities such as Casablanca. Thus, the city Arabic dialect shares with the Bedouin dialects gal 'to say' (qala); they also represent the bulk of modern urban dialects, such as those of Oran and Algiers.[65]

Demographics

Today, the Arabs make up the majority of the population of the countries of the Maghreb, accounting for 70%[66] to 80%[67] of Algeria, 92%[68] to 97%[69] of Libya, 67%[70] to 70%[71] of Morocco and 98% of Tunisia.[72]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ also referred to as the Arab migrations to North Africa, Arab invasions of the Maghreb,[5] Arab settlement of the Maghreb[6] or the Arabization of the Maghreb.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Spickard, Paul R. (2005). Race and Nation: Ethnic Systems in the Modern World. Psychology Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-415-95002-2. It is estimated that Arab invasions brought about 150,000 people to North Africa during the early conquest of the seventh century
  2. ^ a b Bateson, Mary Catherine (1967). Arabic Language Handbook. Georgetown University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-87840-386-8. North Africa was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh and eighth centuries, but only some 150,000 troops settled there, while the greater number pressed on to Spain.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Hareir, Idris El; Mbaye, Ravane (2011-01-01). The Spread of Islam Throughout the World. UNESCO. p. 409. ISBN 978-92-3-104153-2. The caliph hoped to kill two birds with one stone by also ridding himself of the troublesome Banu Salim and Banu Hilal in Upper Egypt. In the eight years from 446/1054 to 454/1062, Egypt suffered from a severe drought due to a fall in the level of the Nile. This was followed by a plague that is the subject of many terrible and horrific stories. The ensuing economic crisis encouraged the Banu Salim and the Banu Hilal to embark on their celebrated westward march to the Maghrib, which at that time enjoyed a better economic situation.
    To persuade the Arabs of the Banu Salim and the Banu Hilal to emigrate to the Maghrib, the Fatimid caliph gave each tribesman a camel and money and helped them cross from the east to the west bank of the Nile. He also instructed them to rule the Maghrib instead of al-Mu'izz. Yazuri told them: 'I have given you the Maghrib and the rule of al-Mu'izz ibn Balkin as-Sanhaji the runaway slave. You will want for nothing. He then wrote to al-Mu'izz saying: 'I have sent you horses and put brave men on them so that God might accomplish a matter already enacted.
    The Banu Salim and the Banu Hilal travelled westwards until they arrived at Barqa, which they found almost empty of its inhabitants who were from the Zanata tribe which al-Mu'izz had mostly destroyed. Up to the present time, many of the springs, valleys and plains still bear the names of the leaders and branches of this tribe. The Banu Salim settled in Barqa while te Banu Hilal continued on to Tarablus and then Ifriqiya. In 443/1051 they clashed with al-Mu'izz's army at the battle of Haydaran near Kairouan and then inflicted a resounding defeat on it. Indeed, the Banu Salim and the Banu Hilal successfully destroyed the Zirid state and most of its cities, sparing only the Atlantic coastal strip at al-Mahdiyya.
    There were a number of consequences of the migration of the Banu Salim and the Banu Hilal. First, it led to a series of protracted wars that resulted in human and economic devastation in the Maghrib and the disruption of peace and stability. Second, it led to the eventual collapse of the Zirid state. Third (a positive consequence) was the Arabization of the Maghrib due to the arrival of what some sources estimate at around 1 million Arabs, who assimilated and intermarried with the indigenous peoples.
  4. ^ a b Kusters, Christiaan Wouter (2003). Linguistic Complexity: The Influence of Social Change on Verbal Inflection. p. 97. ISBN 978-90-76864-41-9. Egypt initially only had 80,000 Arabs in a population of 8 million, and the number of Arabs in the whole Maghreb was probably between 70,000 and 150,000, although later, from the 11th until 14th century, about a million Arabs migrated to the Maghreb which had consisted of five million people until then.
  5. ^ Poulton, Robin; Youssouf, Ibrahim ag; Research, United Nations Institute for Disarmament (1998). A Peace of Timbuktu: Democratic Governance, Development and African Peacemaking. UN. p. 24. ISBN 978-92-9045-125-9.
  6. ^ Fentress, Elizabeth. "Islamization of Berber lifestyles" (PDF). p. 75.
  7. ^ Miller, Catherine; Al-Wer, Enam; Caubet, Dominique; Watson, Janet C. E. (2007-12-14). Arabic in the City: Issues in Dialect Contact and Language Variation. Routledge. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-135-97876-1.
  8. ^ Crawford, Michael H.; Campbell, Benjamin C. (2012-11-08). Causes and Consequences of Human Migration: An Evolutionary Perspective. Cambridge University Press. pp. 176–178. ISBN 978-1-139-85150-3. The latter dynasties are responsible for the capital and one of the most important migrations in the history of North Africa. This migration corresponds to the second Arabic invasion, by the Banu Hilal and Banu Soleim from 1050 onwards.
  9. ^ Joffé, George (2023-11-20). Routledge Handbook on the Modern Maghrib. Taylor & Francis. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-429-99964-2. According to Ch-A. Julien, a specialist in North African history, the Hilalian invasion was "the most important event of the entire medieval period in the Maghrib". It was, he writes, "an invading torrent of nomadic peoples who destroyed the beginnings of Berber organization — which might very well have developed in its own way and put nothing whatever in its place".
  10. ^ Kaegi, Walter E. (2010). Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521196772.
  11. ^ Eur. The Middle East and North Africa 2003. Psychology Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-85743-132-2. Increasing Arab immigration towards the end of the seventh century finally overcame Berber and Byzantine resistance, the Berbers gradually converted to Islam and the whole of the area was incorporated into the Umayyad Empire.
  12. ^ Elfasi, M.; Hrbek, Ivan; Africa, Unesco International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of (1988-01-01). Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century. UNESCO. p. 243. ISBN 978-92-3-101709-4. It is surprising to realize how irresistibly the Berbers were attracted to Islam. In the course of conquest, they adopted the Islamic faith en masse, but at first this acceptance barely constituted more than lip-service. They continued to adhere to Islam because its clear and simple doctrine attracted them. Throughout the period of the conquest, Arab immigrants settled in all parts of North Africa. They came as peaceful newcomers, and were made welcome everywhere. Large Arab settlements were established in many areas in Cyrenaica and the provinces of Ifrikiya.
  13. ^ Mountjoy, Alan B.; Embleton, Clifford (2023-12-01). Africa: A Geographical Study. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-003-83813-5. The two main Arab invasions of the Maghreb brought in about 150,000 men in the seventh century A.D. and...
  14. ^ a b c d e f g el-Hasan, Hasan Afif (2019-05-01). Killing the Arab Spring. Algora Publishing. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-1-62894-349-8. The Arabs started raiding and settling the indigenous Berber (Amazigh) territory after their Muslim armies conquered Egypt in 642. They called the area of North Africa west of Egypt, "Bilad al-Maghrib," which means (Lands of the West). The Arabs arrived from Arabia in big number during the early years of Islam when an expedition of Muslim warriors from the Arab Bani Muzaina tribe under the leadership of the adopted son of the Prophet, Zaid ibn Haritha, invaded North Africa in the 7th century. All North Africa became a province of the Muslim empire in 705 under the Umayyad Caliphs. Arab Muslims had much more impact on the culture of North Africa than did the region's conquerors before and after them.
    The big migration of Arabs was when Libya fell to the Shi'a Fatimids of Egypt in the 10th century and the Berber Zirid tribes broke away from them and refused to accept their rule. The Fatimids brought the Arab tribes of Bani Hilal and Bani Salim to the country to assist in containing the Berber resistance. By the 11th century, most Berbers had become Islamized and many Arabized. They followed a nomadic lifestyle rearing cattle and sheep. Bani Hilal and Bani Salim were unruly Arab Bedouin tribes originally from Hejaz and Najd with the "infamous reputation" of being late in conversion to Islam. At one time they had participated in the pillage of Mecca in 930. The Fatimids had to confine them in South Arabia for years before forcing them to relocate first to south Egypt, then to Libya and the rest of North Africa.
    The unfolding tales of Bani Hilal long journey became part of the Arab epic folk literature that recounts events in Arabia and during the march to North Africa. According to Ibn Khaldun, the Fatimids sent them to settle in the Maghreb accompanied by their wives, children and stock. After repeatedly fighting battles against the Berbers, they eventually coexisted with them. The Arab tribes began the process of transforming North African culture into Arabic including the nomad tribal life in areas where agriculture had previously been dominant.
  15. ^ "North Africa – Arab Muslim Conquest, Islamization, Arabization, and Berber Rebellion | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-05-14. The Arab Muslim conquerors had a much more durable impact on the culture of the Maghrib than did the region's conquerors before and after them. By the 11th century the Berbers had become Islamized and in part also Arabized.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Duri, A. A. (2012). The Historical Formation of the Arab Nation (RLE: the Arab Nation). Routledge. pp. 70–74. ISBN 978-0-415-62286-8.
  17. ^ Fenwick, Corisande (November 2020). "The Umayyads and North Africa". ResearchGate. The Umayyads were only able to control such a vast territory by military force. According to the fourteenth-century historian Ibn 'Idhari - a generally reliable source – the numbers were small in the seventh and early eighth centuries, perhaps 50,000 men from different tribes on the Arabian Peninsula who had first served in Egypt. It is unclear how many of these men settled in Africa, but those that did became a small hereditary ruling class composed primarily of the conquerors and their descendants with very few outsiders. Land grants were given to some of these soldiers creating a landed Arab aristocracy with extensive landholdings, cultivated in many cases by slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. The Fihrids, who were the descendants of 'Uqba b. Nafi', came to occupy a particularly privileged place in Ifriqiyan and Andalusi society, in part due to the huge social capital amassed by 'Uqba and his family during the conquest, but also because of his large client network and the estates that they had acquired. Members of different branches of the Fihrid family played prominent roles in the military and governance of Ifriqiya and al-Andalus. One of them, as we shall see, even sought to found his own dynasty in the troubles of the 740s. There were other powerful Arab settlers who appear briefly in the sources – those of Qurashi ancestry were particularly powerful.
  18. ^ Versteegh, Kees; Versteegh, C. H. M. (1984). Pidginization and Creolization: The Case of Arabic. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 978-90-272-3529-9.
  19. ^ a b c Marsham, Andrew (2020-11-25). The Umayyad World. Routledge. p. 307. ISBN 978-1-317-43005-6. With the great influx of men, primarily Khurasani troops from Iraq, came a shift in the ethnic make-up of the army. The 'northern' tribe of Tamim became the majority which shifted the tribal balance in Ifriqiya to the detriment of the 'southern' tribal groups who had been more numerous in the Umayyad period.
  20. ^ Ramirez-Faria, Carlos (2007). Concise Encyclopeida Of World History. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 364. ISBN 978-81-269-0775-5.
  21. ^ Laroui, Abdallah (2015-03-08). The History of the Maghrib: An Interpretive Essay. Princeton University Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-4008-6998-5. The number of Arab immigrants concentrated in the army and the cities, chiefly Kairouan, has been estimated at one hundred thousand. Most of them had come not from Arabia, but from Syria and Iraq, regions from which from the start had supplied numerous emigrants to the Maghrib.
  22. ^ Theotokis, Georgios (2020). Warfare in the Norman Mediterranean. Boydell & Brewer. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-78327-521-2.
  23. ^ Lev, Yaacov (1991). State and Society in Fatimid Egypt. BRILL. p. 4. ISBN 978-90-04-09344-7.
  24. ^ Abun-Nasr, Jamil (1987). A history of the Maghrib in the Islamic period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 52. ISBN 0521337674.
  25. ^ Morrow, John Andrew (2020-11-26). Shi'ism in the Maghrib and al-Andalus, Volume One: History. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 249. ISBN 978-1-5275-6284-4. The city of Fez was first founded by Moulay Idris I in 789 and was continued by his son, Idris II (791-828), starting in 808. As a result of the establishment of a Shi'ite state in North Africa, Arab Shi'ites or Shi'ite sympathizers flocked to Fez, gradually Arabizing what was initially a predominantly Berber city. Fez experienced large waves of Arab immigration: the first, which included eight hundred Arabs from al-Andalus who were expelled after a rebellion which took place in Cordova in 817-818, and the second, comprised of another two thousand families who were banned from Qayrawan after another rebellion that occurred in 824.
  26. ^ a b Studies, American University (Washington, D. C. ) Foreign Area (1979). Libya, a Country Study. The University. p. 16. The number of Hilalians that moved westward out of Egypt has been estimated as high as 200,000 families. The Beni Salim seem to have stopped in Libya, while the Beni Hilal continued across the Maghrib until they reached the Atlantic coast of Morocco and completed the arabization of the region, imposing their social organization, values and language on it. The process was particularly thorough in Cyrenaica, which is said to be more Arab than any place in the Arab world except for the interior of Arabia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  27. ^ Decret, François (September 2003). "Les invasions hilaliennes en Ifrîqiya". www.clio.fr (in French). Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  28. ^ Revue d'ethnographie (in French). E. Leroux. 1886. p. 330. Marmol évalue à plus d'un million le nombre d'individus que le premier flot versa en Afrique. Vers la fin du xv siècle, le nombre des Arabes répartis sur toute la surface du Maghreb s'élevait à plus de quatre millions, et l'empire du Maroc en contenait à lui seul deux fois autant que les trois autres états (Alger, Tunis et Tripoli). == Marmol estimates the number of individuals that the first flood poured into Africa at more than a million. Towards the end of the 15th century, the number of Arabs spread over the entire surface of the Maghreb amounted to more than four million, and the empire of Morocco alone contained twice as many as the three other states (Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli).
  29. ^ a b c d Fage, J. D.; Oliver, Roland (1975). The Cambridge History of Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 343. ISBN 978-0-521-20981-6. In order to weaken the Arab resistance in the east, 'Abd al-Mu'min transferred the more turbulent elements to Morocco, and settled them in the Atlantic plains. This was the region of Barghawata, an area which had first been destroyed by the Almoravids in their war on those heretics. It was depopulated again in 1197-8, when the Almohads cruelly suppressed the revolts in these regions. The Almohad government thus helped the Arabs to overcome the barriers of the Atlas mountains, and accelerated their expansion into Morocco to complete the nomads' predominance over the lowlands of the Maghrib as far as the Atlantic. The appearance of the Arabs added to the complexity of the ethnic composition of Morocco, and introduced a significant non-Berber element to the population. The Arabs also increased pasture lands at the expense of agriculture, which gradually became confined to the mountains.
    The Arabs were soon to play an increasing role in the politics of the Almohad empire. In his efforts to establish a hereditary dynasty, 'Abd al-Mu'min expected the opposition of the Masmuda, to whom he was still a stranger. He therefore sought the support of the Arabs in order to secure the succession of his son. Towards the end of the Almohad period, when succession disputes became more frequent, leaders of the Arab tribes supported one candidate against the other. With the decline of the Almohad army, the Arabs became the most powerful force in the Moroccan plains, and no ruler could have held authority without their support. Arab nomads, who were often joined by arabized Zanata, were given lands free of tax in return for military service, and became the tribes of the makhzin.
  30. ^ McKenna, Amy (2011-01-15). The History of Northern Africa. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-61530-318-2. The 'Alawites, who rule Morocco to this day, came to power with the help of Arab tribes that had moved into Morocco in large numbers during the Almohad period. The founder of the dynasty, Mawlāy al-Rashīd, mobilized these tribes against the powerful Berber principality of the Dilā'iyyah that had dominated the Middle Atlas and parts of northern Morocco since the 1640s.
  31. ^ Niane, Djibril Tamsir; Africa, Unesco International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of (1984-01-01). Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. UNESCO. p. 89. ISBN 978-92-3-101710-0. One of the most important developments under the Marinids was the growing importance of the Arabs in Morocco; already, under the Almohads, the Arab nomads had begun to penetrate into the country and to change its hitherto exclusively Berber character. The policy of the Banu Marin towards the Arabs was dictated by the numerical weakness of their Zenata followers, so they welcomed the support of the Arab nomads. The Zenata themselves were to a high degree assimilated to the Arabs and the Marinid makhzan was composed of both groups. All this created the conditions for the expansion of the Arab domain in Morocco, where they settled mostly in the plains, and many Berber groups were Arabized. Contrary to the practice in the armies of the Almoravids and Almohads, where the Berber language was spoken, Arabic became both the common and the official language under the Marinids.
  32. ^ "ʿAbd al-Wādid Dynasty | Algeria, Morocco & Tunisia | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-08-08. It further suffered from a shortage of manpower, having to rely on intractable Arab nomads for soldiers.
  33. ^ Abulafia, David; McKitterick, Rosamond (1995). The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 5, C.1198-c.1300. Cambridge University Press. p. 631. ISBN 978-0-521-36289-4.
  34. ^ Ibn Khaldun, Abderahman (1377). تاريخ ابن خلدون: ديوان المبتدأ و الخبر في تاريخ العرب و البربر و من عاصرهم من ذوي الشأن الأكبر. Vol. 6. دار الفكر. p. 77.
  35. ^ Sabatier, Diane Himpan; Himpan, Brigitte (2019-03-31). Nomads of Mauritania. Vernon Press. pp. 110–111. ISBN 978-1-62273-410-8. Upon their arrival between the end of the 10th century and the beginning of the 11th century in North-West Africa, and particularly in Mauritania, these Arab tribes find already highly arabized and Islamized populations there, contrary to the role that some historians give them. The only remaining populations, who are still non-Islamized, are some ancient inhabitants, wrongly called Bafours, who bring up their trained dogs and live in the city of Azougui. Living in tents, these Arab tribes are nomads, originating from the Arabian Peninsula and they adapt themselves perfectly to the climatic desert conditions of the areas situated in the south of North Africa, like Mauritania, the Western Sahara, the south-west of Algeria and the south of Morocco and Libya. Discovering the same way of life as in the Arabian Peninsula, they integrate easily, without mixing, into the nomadic populations, notably composed of Arabs, who have been present in the area since the Umayyads, and Berbers in Mauritania.
  36. ^ a b c "Diccionario histórico-etnográfico de los pueblos de África | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. pp. 153, 350. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  37. ^ "Historical dictionary of Morocco | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. p. 232. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  38. ^ a b "Encyclopedia of African history and culture | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. p. 237. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  39. ^ "Encyclopedia of the peoples of Africa and the Middle East | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. p. 470. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  40. ^ Velázquez Elizarrarás, Juan Carlos (December 2014). "Orígenes de la identidad del pueblo saharaui".
  41. ^ Ould-Mey, Mohameden (1996). Global Restructuring and Peripheral States: The Carrot and the Stick in Mauritania. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-8226-3051-7. The profound process of Islamization and Arabization constitutes the core of the Moorish culture, which continues to prevail over modernity by its myths, tales, and Arab poetry (Mauritania is known as the land of one million poets). It is this Arab Islamic culture that shaped the precolonial personality of the Moors and continued later to influence the postcolonial identity of the new Mauritanians. Harry Norris noted that "the Moorish Sahara is the western extremity of the Arab World. Western it certainly is, some districts further west than Ireland, yet in its way of life, its culture, its literature and in many of its social customs, it has much in common with the heart lands of the Arab East, in particular with the Hijaz and Najd and parts of the Yemen".
  42. ^ a b Albirini, Abdulkafi (2016-02-08). Modern Arabic Sociolinguistics: Diglossia, variation, codeswitching, attitudes and identity. Routledge. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-317-40706-5.
  43. ^ Jónsson, Már (July 2007). "The expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain in 1609–1614: the destruction of an Islamic periphery". Journal of Global History. 2 (2): 195. doi:10.1017/s1740022807002252. ISSN 1740-0228. S2CID 154793596.
  44. ^ Laughlin, Fiona Mc (2011-10-27). The Languages of Urban Africa. A&C Black. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-4411-5813-0.
  45. ^ Ennaji, Moha (2014-04-16). Multiculturalism and Democracy in North Africa: Aftermath of the Arab Spring. Routledge. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-317-81362-0.
  46. ^ Various (2016-07-01). Routledge Library Editions: Muslim Spain. Taylor & Francis. pp. 143–148. ISBN 978-1-134-98576-0.
  47. ^ Durant, Will (2011-06-07). The Age of Faith: The Story of Civilization, Volume IV. Simon and Schuster. p. 286. ISBN 978-1-4516-4761-7.
  48. ^ Evans, Martin; Phillips, John (2007-01-01). Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed. Yale University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-300-10881-1. The surviving Punic language of the Carthaginians was also closely related to Arabic and its continued usage eased the Arabization process.
  49. ^ Holes, Clive (2018-08-30). Arabic Historical Dialectology: Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Approaches. Oxford University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-19-100506-0. These immigrant Arab tribes accelerated and deepened the Arabization of the Maghreb since a large portion of the Berber population (in particular those living as pastoral nomads) was gradually assimilated by the newcomers who had to share with them pastures, as well as seasonal migration paths. It seems that by around the fifteenth century, the regions occupied by modern Tunisia had already been almost completely Arabized.
  50. ^ a b Ennaji, Moha (2014-04-16). Multiculturalism and Democracy in North Africa: Aftermath of the Arab Spring. Routledge. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-317-81362-0. Camps argues that Maghrebi Arabic derives from the Bedouin language introduced in the eleventh century by the Hilalian tribes who effectively Arabized a great part of the Berbers... Our hypothesis is that, because of the great diversity of the Tamazight linguistic varieties in that period, communication was rendered difficult, and transactions might not have been easy between native speakers. This diverse linguistic situation may have led to the choice of Banu Hilal's Arbaic - as a symbolically neutral lingua france - that offered other advantages among which are the shared linguistic family and typology with Punic and Tamazight. Probably, the common Bedouin way of life that Touaregs continue to practice up to now had influenced the inclination to convergence.
  51. ^ Studies, American University (Washington, D. C.) Foreign Area (1979). Algeria, a Country Study. Department of Defense, Department of the Army. p. 17. The Arab impact on the central Maghreb was devastating in both demographic and economic terms. Over a long period of time Arabs displaced Berber farmers from their land and converted it to pasturage. For the first time the extensive use of Arabic spread to the countryside. Sedentary Berbers who sought their protection were gradually Arabized. Others, driven from their traditional lands, joined the Hilalians as nomads or fled to the mountains.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  52. ^ Nyrop, Richard F. (1972). Area Handbook for Morocco. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 36. Even more important to the future of Morocco was the large-scale Arab immigration that began in the eleventh century. Before that time the Arabs in Morocco consisted mainly of the descendants of the relatively small numbers of initial invaders and of the Idrisids, who had married Berber women. Many of these early arrivals had been aristocrats from Arabia who settled in the cities. The character of the Arab migrations of the eleventh century was distinctly different. The Fatimids, at this time ruling from their capital in Cairo and infuriated by Berber refusal to acknowledge to acknowledge their hegemony, encourages masses of beduin Arabs of the Beni Hilal and Beni Salim tribes to migrate into North Africa. Over a long period, they displaced the Berbers from some of the best lands or settled among them. This immigration introduced for the first time comparatively large numbers of Arabs into the Moroccan population and quickly spread the use of the Arabic language.
  53. ^ Farida, Benouis; Houria, Chérid; Lakhdar, Drias; Amine, Semar. An Architecture of Light. Islamic Art in Algeria. Museum With No Frontiers, MWNF (Museum Ohne Grenzen). p. 9. ISBN 978-3-902966-14-8. The Banu Hilal took land which they had largely destroyed, and whose cultivation then began to decline. As nomadism spread, territories of the local tribes changed and shrank; the Zenata were pushed west, the Kabyles north. Populations mixed, leading to gradual Arabisation of the plains inhabitants. The Berber language persisted in less accessible mountain ranges.
  54. ^ Egger, Vernon O. (2016-06-23). A History of the Muslim World to 1405: The Making of a Civilization. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-50767-5. On the other hand, regardless of the precise economic role of this second Arab invasion, it did have a significant cultural legacy. It accomplished what the Umayyad conquest of North Africa had not: the gradual displacement of Berber by Arabic as the lingua franca of the North African coastal plain. The growing number of powerful Arab tribes caused their language and customs slowly to become dominant on the coastal plain, so that the region became in many ways a cultural extension of the Arab East. The majority use of Berber became confined to the mountains and the desert regions.
  55. ^ "Populations Crises and Population Cycles". 2013-05-27. Archived from the original on 2013-05-27. Retrieved 2024-08-25. Ibn Khaldun used archeological evidence (the ruins that covered the region) to show that the Maghrib had had a populous and flourishing civilization before the Banu Hilal raid, and he also noted that the lands ravaged by these invaders had become completely arid desert.
  56. ^ Africa, Unesco International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of (1998-05-10). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. University of California Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-520-06699-1. After the eleventh century, the balance between nomads and sedentary populations was upset in favour of the former with the arrival of the Banu Hilal, followed in the twelfth century by the Banu Sulaym. For strategic reasons, the Almohads gave over the Atlantic plains to them, while the Banu Ma'kil settled in the south and east of the Moroccan Atlas range.
  57. ^ a b c Genet, Am J Hum (June 2002). "Genetic Evidence for the Expansion of Arabian Tribes into the Southern Levant and North Africa". American Journal of Human Genetics. 70 (6): 1594–1596. doi:10.1086/340669. PMC 379148. PMID 11992266.
  58. ^ Evol, Mol Biol (February 2017). "Recent Historical Migrations Have Shaped the Gene Pool of Arabs and Berbers in North Africa". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 34 (2): 318–329. doi:10.1093/molbev/msw218. PMC 5644363. PMID 27744413.
  59. ^ Rep, Sci (August 2021). "Insights into the Middle Eastern paternal genetic pool in Tunisia: high prevalence of T-M70 haplogroup in an Arab population". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 15728. Bibcode:2021NatSR..1115728E. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-95144-x. PMC 8333252. PMID 34344940.
  60. ^ Genet, Am J Hum (May 2004). "Origin, Diffusion, and Differentiation of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups E and J: Inferences on the Neolithization of Europe and Later Migratory Events in the Mediterranean Area". American Journal of Human Genetics. 74 (5): 1023–1034. doi:10.1086/386295. PMC 1181965. PMID 15069642.
  61. ^ Fadhlaoui-Zid, K.; Haber, M.; Martínez-Cruz, B.; Zalloua, P.; Benammar Elgaaied, A.; Comas, D. (November 2013). "Genome-Wide and Paternal Diversity Reveal a Recent Origin of Human Populations in North Africa". PLOS ONE. 8 (11): e80293. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...880293F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080293. PMC 3842387. PMID 24312208.
  62. ^ Weissleder, Wolfgang (2011-06-15). The Nomadic Alternative: Modes and Models of Interaction in the African-Asian Deserts and Steppes. Walter de Gruyter. p. 13. ISBN 978-3-11-081023-3.
  63. ^ Versteegh, Kees. "Dialects of Arabic: Maghreb Dialects". TeachMideast.org. Archived from the original on 15 July 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  64. ^ Barkat, Mélissa (2000). "Les dialectes Maghrébins". Détermination d'indices acoustiques robustes pour l'identification automatique des parlers arabes. Université Lumière Lyon 2.
  65. ^ Versteegh, Kees (31 May 2014). The Arabic Language. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748694600. Retrieved 20 July 2017 – via Google Books.
  66. ^ The Report: Algeria 2007. Oxford Business Group. 2007. ISBN 978-1-902339-70-2. About 70% of Algerians are Arab and 30% Berber. The former tend to perceive themselves as heirs to the first Arabs who invaded the country during the seventh century, while the latter pride themselves on being the original Algerians, since their origins can be traced back to the nomadic people who initially populated the region.
  67. ^ Laaredj-Campbell, Anne (2015-12-10). Changing Female Literacy Practices in Algeria: Empirical Study on Cultural Construction of Gender and Empowerment. Springer. ISBN 978-3-658-11633-0. Ethnically the population is made up of about 80% Arabic and 20% Berber.
  68. ^ Yakan, Mohamad (2017-11-30). Almanac of African Peoples and Nations. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-28930-6. Libya's population of over 5,700,000 is 92% Arab, 5% Berber and Teda Toubou, and 3% peoples from different countries...
  69. ^ Malcolm, Peter; Losleben, Elizabeth (2004). Libya. Marshall Cavendish. ISBN 978-0-7614-1702-6. Some say that Arabs form as much as 97 percent of Libya's population, or over 5.3 million people, and that two-thirds of all Arabs in the world live in Africa.
  70. ^ The Report: Morocco 2012. Oxford Business Group. 2012. ISBN 978-1-907065-54-5. Morocco's population is approximately 67% Arab, 31% indigenous Berber and 2% Sahrawi.
  71. ^ Son, George Philip &; Press, Oxford University (2002-12-26). Encyclopedic World Atlas. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-19-521920-3. Arab 70%, Berber 30%
  72. ^ "Tunisia", The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 2022-12-02, retrieved 2022-12-12, Arab 98%, European 1%, Jewish and other 1%
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