Maghreb 346014 225580304 2008-07-14T12:07:29Z Fig wright 817666 /* Maghrebi traders in Jewish history */ {{otheruses4|the region|the Muslim prayer|Maghrib}} [[Image:Maghrib.PNG|right|thumb|289px|The Maghreb]] The '''Maghreb''' (المغرب العربي {{unicode|'''al-Maġrib al-ʿArabī'''}}), also rendered ''[[Maghrib (disambiguation)|Maghrib]]'' (or rarely ''Moghreb''), meaning "place of [[sunset]]" or "[[west]]ern" in [[Arabic]], is a region in [[North Africa]]. The term is generally applied to all of [[Morocco]], [[Algeria]], and [[Tunisia]], but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the [[Atlas Mountains]] and the [[Mediterranean Sea]]. Historically, some writers also included [[Al-Andalus|Spain]], [[Al-Andalus|Portugal]], [[Emirate of Sicily|Sicily]] and [[Malta]] in the definition, especially during the periods of [[Arab]] and [[Muslim]] domination. Malta, in particular, still speaks a language based on its own [[Maghrebi Arabic]] [[varieties of Arabic|variety]]: [[Maltese language|Maltese]]. Partially isolated from the rest of the continent by the Atlas Mountains and the [[Sahara]], the Maghreb has long been closely tied in terms of [[climate]], [[landforms]], [[population]], [[economy]], and [[history]] to the Mediterranean basin. Because sea transportation dominated people's lives for so long, peoples joined by waters shared more than those joined by land. The region was united as a single political entity only during the first years of Arab rule (early 8th century), and again for several decades under the [[Almohads]] (1159–1229). The Arab states of [[North Africa]] established the [[Arab Maghreb Union]] in 1989 to promote cooperation and economic integration. Its members are Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, [[Libya]] and [[Mauritania]]. Envisioned initially by [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]] as an Arab superstate, organization members expect eventually to function as a North African [[Common Market]]. Economic and political unrest, especially in Algeria, have hindered progress on the union’s joint goals.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bartelby.com/65/ma/Maghreb.html |title=Maghreb |accessdate=2007-07-11 |format=html |work=The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05. }}</ref> ==Population== [[Image:Algiers coast.jpg|thumb|right|240px|[[Algiers]]]] [[Image:Tunis.png|thumb|200px|left|Night view from [[Tunis]]]] [[Image:Centre casablanca.jpg|thumb|175px|right|[[Casablanca]], [[Morocco]]]] A majority of the current population in the Maghreb consider themselves generally Arab in identity, regardless of mixed ethnic or linguistic heritage. There are significant non-Arab or non-Arab identifying populations in the region. Most important of the non-Arab populations found throughout the Maghreb, particularly in Morocco and Algeria, are the [[Berber people|Berbers]]. They represented the majority of the pre-Islamic population. After the arrival of Islamic Arabs, Berbers assimilated in large numbers to Arab or mixed Arab-Berber ethnic identities. Various other influences are also prominent throughout the Maghreb. In particular in northern coastal towns, several waves of European immigrants have influenced the population. Most notable were the [[morisco]]s and [[muladi]]es, that is, indigenous [[Spaniards]] who had earlier converted to the Muslim faith and were fleeing, together with ethnic Arab and Berber Muslims, from the [[Reconquista|Catholic Reconquista]]. Other European contributions included French, Italians, and others captured by the [[Privateer|corsairs]]. Historically the Maghreb was home to significant [[Jew]]ish communities, including the [[Berber Jews]], who predated the 7th century introduction and conversion of the majority of Berbers to Islam. Later Spanish [[Sephardic Jews]] fleeing the Spanish Catholic Reconquista, established a presence in North Africa, chiefly in the urban trading centers. They have contributed to the wider population through conversion and assimilation. Many Sephardic Jews emigrated to North America in the early 20th century or to France and Israel later in the 20th century. Among West Asians are Turks who came over with the expansion of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. A large [[Kouloughli|Turkish descended]] population exists, particularly in Tunisia and Algeria. Sub-Saharan Africans joined the population mix during centuries of trans-Saharan trade. Traders and slaves went to the Maghreb from the [[Sahel]] region. On the Saharan southern edge of the Maghreb are small communities of black populations, sometimes called [[Haratine]], who are apparently descended from black populations who inhabited the Sahara during its last wet period and then migrated north. In Algeria especially, a large European minority, the "[[pied noir]]s", immigrated and settled under French colonial rule. The overwhelming majority of these, however, left Algeria during and following the war for independence. France maintains a close relationship with the Maghreb countries.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files_156/north-africa_5493/france-and-maghreb_5495/an-enhanced-partnership-with-the-maghreb-20.03.07_8821.html |title=France and Maghreb - An enhanced partnership with the Maghreb (March 20, 2007) |accessdate=2007-07-11 |format= |work=French ministry of Foreign and European Affairs }}</ref> The Maghreb shares a common culinary tradition. [[Habib Bourguiba]] defined it as the part of the Arab world where [[couscous]] is the staple food, as opposed to Eastern Arab countries where white rice is the staple food. In terms of food, similarities beyond the starches are found throughout the Arab world. ==Religion== Historic records of religion in the Maghreb region show its gradual inclusion in the Classical World, with coastal colonies established first by Phoenicians, some Greeks, and later extensive conquest and colonization by the Romans. By the second century common era, the area had become a center of Latin-speaking Christianity. Both Roman settlers and Romanized populations converted to Christianity. The region produced figures such as Christian Church writer [[Tertullian]] (c. 155 – c. 202); and Christian Church martyrs or leading figures such as [[St Cyprian of Carthage]] (+ 258); [[St. Monica]]; her son the philosopher [[St. Augustine]], Bishop of Hippo I (+ 430) (1); and [[St Julia of Carthage]] (5th century). The domination of Christianity ended when Arab invasions brought Islam in 647. Carthage fell in 698 and the remainder of the region followed in subsequent decades. Gradual Islamization proceeded, although surviving letters showed correspondence from regional Christians to Rome up until the ninth century. Christianity was still a living faith. Christian bishoprics and dioceses continued to be active, with relations continuing with Rome. As late as Pope [[Benedict VII]] (974-983) reign, a new [[Archbishop of Carthage]] was consecrated. Evidence of Christianity in the region then faded through the tenth century.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} ==Islam== During the 7th century, the region's peoples began their nearly total conversion to Islam. There is a small but thriving Jewish community, as well as a small Christian community. Most Muslims follow the [[Sunni]] [[Maliki]] school. Small [[Ibadi]] communities remain in some areas. A strong tradition of venerating [[marabout]]s and saints' tombs is found throughout regions inhabited by Berbers. Any map of the region demonstrates the tradition by the proliferation of "[[Sidi]]"s, showing places named after the marabouts. Like some other religious traditions, this has substantially decreased over the twentieth century. A network of [[zaouia]]s traditionally helped proliferate basic literacy and knowledge of Islam in rural regions. ==History== After the end of the [[Ice Age]] about ten thousand years ago, when the [[Sahara]] dried up, contact between the Maghreb and [[sub-Saharan Africa]] was extremely limited. Arab expansion and the spread of [[Islam]] pushed the development of [[trans-Saharan trade]]. While restricted due to the cost and dangers, the trade was important and highly profitable. Peoples traded in such goods as salt, gold, ivory, and [[Islamic slave trade|slaves]] available from the Sahel regions. Paleo-anthropological evidence suggests that originally most of the Maghreb was inhabited by "[[Caucasoid]]" Cro-Magnoids ([[Iberomaurusian]]s) in the north. Later, about 8000 BC, "Caucasoid" speakers of northern [[Afro-Asiatic languages]], such as Berber, came from the east, at least since the [[Capsian culture]].{{Fact|date=October 2007}} Many ports along the Maghreb coast were occupied by [[Phoenicia]]ns, particularly Carthaginians. With the defeat of [[Carthage]], Rome took over many of these ports, and ultimately it took control of the entire Maghreb north of the Atlas Mountains. Remaining outside its control were only some of the most mountainous regions like the Moroccan [[Rif]]. The Arabs reached the Maghreb in early [[Umayyad]] times. Their control over it was quite weak. Various Islamic "heresies", such as the Ibadis and the [[Shia]], adopted by some Berbers, quickly threw off [[Caliph]]al 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 [[Fatimid]]s in punishment for their [[Zirid]] clients' defection) in the 1100s. Throughout this period, the Maghreb most often was divided into three states roughly corresponding to modern Morocco, western Algeria, and eastern Algeria and [[Tunisia]]. The region was occasionally briefly unified, as under the [[Almohad]]s, and briefly under the [[Hafsid]]s). After the Middle Ages, the [[Ottoman Empire]] loosely controlled the area east of Morocco. After the 19th century, areas of the Maghreb were colonized by [[France]], [[Spain]] and later [[Italy]]. Today more than two and a half million Maghrebin immigrants live in France, especially from Algeria. In addition, there are many more French of Maghrebin origin. {{Fact|date=June 2007}} ==Maghrebi traders in Jewish history== In the tenth century, as the social and political environment in [[Baghdad]] became increasingly hostile to Jews, many Jewish traders emigrated to the Maghreb, especially [[Tunisia]]. Over the following two or three centuries, such Jewish traders became known as the Maghribis, a distinctive social group who traveled throughout the Mediterranean World. They passed this identification on from father to son.<ref>{{cite paper | author = [[Avner Greif]] | title = Contract Enforceability and Economic Institutions in Early Trade: The Maghribi Traders' Coalition | version = | publisher = [[American Economic Association]] in its journal [[American Economic Review]] | date= June 1993 | url = http://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v83y1993i3p525-48.html | format = | accessdate = 2007-07-11 }}. See also Greif's "Reputation and Coalitions in Medieval Trade: Evidence on the Maghribi Traders" in the Journal of Economic History Vol. XLIX, No. 4 (Dec. 1989) pp.857-882</ref> ==Ecoregions of the Maghreb== The Maghreb is divided into a [[Mediterranean climate]] region in the north, and the [[arid]] [[Sahara]] to the south. The Magreb's variations in elevation, rainfall, temperature, and soils give rise to distinct communities of plants and animals. The [[World Wide Fund for Nature]] (WWF) identifies several distinct [[ecoregion]]s in the Maghreb. ===Mediterranean Maghreb=== The portions of the Maghreb between the [[Atlas Mountains]] and the [[Mediterranean Sea]], along with coastal [[Tripolitania]] and [[Cyrenaica]] in Libya, are home to [[Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub]]. These ecoregions share many species of plants and animals with other portions of [[Mediterranean Basin]]. The southern extent of the Mediterranean Maghreb corresponds with the 100 mm isohyet, or the southern range of the [[Olive|European Olive]] ''(Olea europea)''<ref>Dallman, Peter R. (1998) ''Plant Life in the World's Mediterranean Climates''. California Native Plant Society/University of California Press, Berkeley. ISBN 0-520-20809-9</ref> and [[Esparto|Esparto Grass]] ''(Stipa tenacissima)''.<ref name="Wickens">Wickens, Gerald E. (1998) ''Ecophysiology of Economic Plants in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands''. Springer, Berlin. ISBN 978-3-540-52171-6</ref> * [[Mediterranean acacia-argania dry woodlands and succulent thickets]] (Morocco, Canary Islands (Spain), Western Sahara) * [[Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe]] (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia) * [[Mediterranean woodlands and forests]] (Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia) * [[Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests]] (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Spain) * [[Mediterranean High Atlas juniper steppe]] (Morocco) ===Saharan Maghreb=== The Sahara extends across northern Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. Its center is hyper-arid and supports little plant or animal life, but the northern portion of the desert receives occasional winter rains, while the strip along the Atlantic coast receives moisture from marine fog, which nourish a greater variety of plants and animals. The northern edge of the Sahara corresponds to the 100 mm isohyet, which is also the northern range of the [[Date Palm]] ''(Phoenix dactylifera)''.<ref name="Wickens"/> * [[North Saharan steppe and woodlands]]: This ecoregion lies along the northern edge of the Sahara, next to the [[Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub]] ecoregions of the Mediterranean Maghreb and Cyrenaica. Winter rains sustain shrublands and dry woodlands that form a transition between the [[Mediterranean climate]] regions to the north and the hyper-arid Sahara proper to the south. It covers 1,675,300 square kilometers (646,800 square miles) in [[Algeria]], [[Egypt]], [[Libya]], Mauritania, [[Morocco]], [[Tunisia]], and Western Sahara. <ref>"North Saharan steppe and woodlands" WWF Scientific Report [http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa1321_full.html]. Accessed December 31, 2007.</ref> * [[Atlantic coastal desert]]: The Atlantic coastal desert occupies a narrow strip along the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] coast, where fog generated offshore by the cool [[Canary Current]] provides sufficient moisture to sustain a variety of [[lichen]]s, [[succulent plant|succulents]], and shrubs. It covers 39,900 square kilometers (15,400 square miles) in [[Western Sahara]] and [[Mauritania]].<ref>"Atlantic coastal desert" WWF Scientific Report [http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa1304_full.html]. Accessed December 31, 2007.</ref> * [[Sahara Desert (ecoregion)|Sahara desert]]: This ecoregion covers the hyper-arid central portion of the Sahara where rainfall is minimal and sporadic. Vegetation is rare, and this ecoregion consists mostly of sand dunes ''([[erg (landform)|erg]])'', stone plateaus ''([[hamada]])'', gravel plains ''(reg)'', dry valleys ''([[wadi]])'', and salt flats. It covers 4,639,900 square kilometers (1,791,500 square miles) of Algeria, [[Chad]], Egypt, Libya, [[Mali]], Mauritania, [[Niger]], and [[Sudan]].<ref>"Sahara desert" WWF Scientific Report [http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa1327_full.html]. Accessed December 31, 2007.</ref> * [[Saharan halopytics]]: Seasonally-flooded saline depressions in the Maghreb are home to [[halophytic]], or salt-adapted, plant communities. The Saharan halophytics cover 54,000 square kilometers (20,800 square miles), including [[Tunisian salt lakes]] of central Tunisia, [[Chott Melghir]] in Algeria, and other areas of Egypt, Algeria, Mauritania, and Western Sahara.<ref>"Saharan halophytics" WWF Scientific Report [http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/pa/pa0905_full.html]. Accessed December 31, 2007.</ref> ==Modern territories of the Maghreb== * [[Algeria]] * ''[[Ceuta]]'' (a Spanish exclave) * [[Libya]] * [[Mauritania]] * ''[[Melilla]]'' (a Spanish exclave) * [[Morocco]] * [[Tunisia]] * [[Western Sahara]] (claimed by Morocco) ==Medieval regions of the Maghreb== * [[Ifriqiya]] * [[Djerid]] * [[Sous]] * [[Zab]] * [[Hodna]] * [[Rif]] * [[Maghreb al-Awsat]] (Central Maghreb) * [[Morocco]] (Maghreb al-Aqsa) * [[Tamesna]] * [[Tripolitania]] ==See also== * [[Arab Maghreb Union]] * [[Barbary Coast]] * [[Berber people|Berber]] * [[Moors]] * [[History of Algeria]] * [[History of Tunisia]] * [[Maghreb toponymy]] * [[North Africa]] * [[Middle East]] * [[Tamazgha]] * [[Mashriq]] * [[Northwest Africa]] * [[Maghrebi script]] * [[Jews_and_Judaism_in_Africa#North_Africa|Jews and Judaism in North Africa]] ==References and notes== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * [http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm Politics, economics, and human affairs analysis in the Maghhreb] * [http://maghrebi-studies.nitle.org/ Literature, cinema and music of the Maghreb] * [http://www.magharebia.com News and Views of the Maghreb] * [http://www.maghrebins.org Maghreb Online Community] * [http://www.maghrebarab.com Maghreb Economics] {{Regions of the world}} {{Former French colonies}} [[Category:Maghreb| ]] [[Category:North Africa]] [[Category:Regions of Africa]] [[af:Magreb]] [[ar:المغرب العربي]] [[frp:Magreb]] [[bg:Магреб]] [[ca:Magrib]] [[cs:Maghreb]] [[cy:Maghreb]] [[da:Maghreb]] [[de:Maghreb]] [[es:Magreb]] [[eo:Magrebo]] [[eu:Magreb]] [[fr:Maghreb]] [[fy:Magrib]] [[gl:Maghreb]] [[hi:मग़रेब]] [[hr:Magreb]] [[is:Magreb]] [[it:Maghreb]] [[he:מגרב]] [[jv:Maghribi]] [[ko:마그레브]] [[ku:Maxrêb]] [[lv:Magriba]] [[lt:Magribas]] [[hu:Magreb]] [[nl:Maghreb]] [[ja:マグリブ]] [[no:Maghreb]] [[nn:Magreb]] [[oc:Magrèb]] [[pl:Maghreb]] [[pt:Magrebe]] [[ro:Maghreb]] [[ru:Магриб]] [[scn:Maghreb]] [[sl:Magreb]] [[sr:Магреб]] [[fi:Maghreb]] [[sv:Maghreb]] [[vi:Maghreb]] [[tr:Magrip]] [[vec:Maghreb]] [[wo:Maghreb]] [[zh:馬格里布]]