Arabized Berber: Difference between revisions
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According to Berber activists, Algerians and Moroccans are overwhelmingly Berber, whose identity requires a reawakening.<ref name="BengioBengio1999">{{cite book|author1=Senior Research Fellow Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies Ofra Bengio|author2=Ofra Bengio|author3=Gabriel Ben-Dor|title=Minorities and the State in the Arab World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_pAFwXXSZgC&pg=PA33|year=1999|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|isbn=978-1-55587-647-0|page=33}}</ref> |
According to Berber activists, Algerians and Moroccans are overwhelmingly Berber, whose identity requires a reawakening.<ref name="BengioBengio1999">{{cite book|author1=Senior Research Fellow Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies Ofra Bengio|author2=Ofra Bengio|author3=Gabriel Ben-Dor|title=Minorities and the State in the Arab World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_pAFwXXSZgC&pg=PA33|year=1999|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|isbn=978-1-55587-647-0|page=33}}</ref> |
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This gives rise to Berber activists, who demand equality between the Berber languages and the Arab languages in the North-African education system. It also causes much frustration among the North-African population, fueling demonstrations against the corrupt politics in their countries and against Tunisians, Algerians and Moroccans who self-identify as "[[Arab]]" because of their Arabic tongue.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} North Africa was gradually Arabized with the spread of Islam in the 7th century AD, when the liturgical language Arabic was first brought to the Maghreb. However, the identity of northwestern Africa remained Berber for a long time thereafter. Additionally, even though the process of [[Arabization]] began with these early invasions, many large parts of North Africa were only recently Arabized like the [[Aurès Mountains|Aurès (Awras) mountains]] in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although, the fertile plains of North Africa seem to have been (at least partly) Arabized in the 11th century with the emigration of the [[Banu Hilal]] tribes from [[Arabia]]. The mass education and promotion of Arabic language and culture through schools and mass media, during the 20th century, by the Arabist governments of North Africa, is regarded as the strongest Arabization process in North Africa ever. |
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==Population genetics== |
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Various [[population genetics|population genetic]] studies along with historians such as Gabriel Camps and Charles-André Julien lend support to the idea that the bulk of the gene pool of modern [[maghrebis]], irrespective of linguistic group, is derived from the [[Berber people|Berber]] populations of the pre-Islamic period.<ref>Arredi et al. [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1216069 A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for Y-Chromosomal DNA Variation in North Africa]</ref> |
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North Africa was gradually Arabized with the spread of Islam in the 7th century AD, when the liturgical language Arabic was first brought to the Maghreb. However, the identity of northwestern Africa remained Berber for a long time thereafter. Additionally, even though the process of [[Arabization]] began with these early invasions, many large parts of North Africa were only recently Arabized like the [[Aurès Mountains|Aurès (Awras) mountains]] in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although, the fertile plains of North Africa seem to have been (at least partly) Arabized in the 11th century with the emigration of the [[Banu Hilal]] tribes from [[Arabia]]. |
North Africa was gradually Arabized with the spread of Islam in the 7th century AD, when the liturgical language Arabic was first brought to the Maghreb. However, the identity of northwestern Africa remained Berber for a long time thereafter. Additionally, even though the process of [[Arabization]] began with these early invasions, many large parts of North Africa were only recently Arabized like the [[Aurès Mountains|Aurès (Awras) mountains]] in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although, the fertile plains of North Africa seem to have been (at least partly) Arabized in the 11th century with the emigration of the [[Banu Hilal]] tribes from [[Arabia]]. |
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Revision as of 22:43, 13 May 2023
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Arabized Berber denotes an inhabitant of the Maghreb region in western North Africa, whose native language is a local dialect of Arabic, identifies as Arab and whose ethnic origins are Berber.[1]
Most populations in the Maghreb are of Berber heritage, including those inhabiting Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The widespread language shift from Berber to Arabic happened, at least partially, due to the privileged status that the Arabic language has generally been given in the states of North Africa, from the Arab conquest in 652 up until the French colonialism in the twentieth century, as well as the migration of the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym tribes from Arabia to North Africa.
Historical perspective
Medieval Arabic sources frequently refer to North Africa (excluding Egypt) as Bilad Al Barbar or 'Land of the Berbers' [citation needed] prior to the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb. This designation may have given rise to the term Barbary Coast which was used by Europeans until the 19th century to refer to coastal Northwest Africa. But the cultural impact of Islam was big as it was the only boost for the spread of the Arabic language.[citation needed]
Since the populations were partially affiliated with the Arab Muslim culture, North Africa was starting to be referred to by the Arabic speakers as Al-Maġrib (meaning "The West") since it was considered as the western part of the known world. For historical references, medieval Arab and Muslim historians and geographers used to refer to Morocco as Al-Maghrib al Aqşá (Arabic: المغرب الأقصى, lit. 'The Farthest West'), disambiguating it from neighboring historical regions called Al-Maghrib al Awsat (Arabic: المغرب الأوسط, lit. 'The Middle West', Algeria), and Al-Maghrib al Adna (Arabic: المغرب الأدنى, lit. 'The Nearest West', Tunisia and Libya).[2]
Even though many of these cities have often been linguistically Arabized (like Fes or Marrakesh), from a historic point of view it is accepted that the core population of North Africa is Berber.[according to whom?] More than rural areas, the cities were a melting pot of different ethnicities, so the city dwellers are more likely to have non-pure Berber ancestry.[citation needed]
By tracing the history of certain Maghrebian areas, historians are able to make assertions about its inhabitants. For instance, even though Casablanca (Berber name: Anfa) and Rabat were both built and originally settled by Berbers, it is known that the area's original inhabitants were ousted by the Almohads and subsequently resettled with nomadic Banu Hilal Arabs. Other, traditionally Berber, cities like Tangiers, Meknes and Marrakesh have never had such a drastic repopulation, so it could be assumed that its inhabitants today are of Berber stock. Although these cities have for centuries now been linguistically Arabized, their culture and identity often have not been through that process. The cities of Tangiers, Tetouan, Meknes and Marrakesh still have a strong regional Berber aspect to them and their inhabitants do not necessarily consider themselves to be ethnically Arab, even though their language might be today's Moroccan-Arabic.[citation needed]
Berberists and linguistic Arabization
According to Berber activists, Algerians and Moroccans are overwhelmingly Berber, whose identity requires a reawakening.[3]
North Africa was gradually Arabized with the spread of Islam in the 7th century AD, when the liturgical language Arabic was first brought to the Maghreb. However, the identity of northwestern Africa remained Berber for a long time thereafter. Additionally, even though the process of Arabization began with these early invasions, many large parts of North Africa were only recently Arabized like the Aurès (Awras) mountains in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although, the fertile plains of North Africa seem to have been (at least partly) Arabized in the 11th century with the emigration of the Banu Hilal tribes from Arabia.
See also
- Arab-Berber
- Berbers and Islam
- Kabylism
- Berbers
- Algerian nationalism
- Berberism
- Tamazgha
- Maghreb
- Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
Notes
- ^ Cabré, Yolanda Aixelà (July 2018). In the Footsteps of Spanish Colonialism in Morocco and Equatorial Guinea: The Handling of Cultural Diversity and the Socio-Political Influence of Transnational Migration. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 978-3-643-91010-3.
- ^ Yahya, Dahiru (1981). Morocco in the Sixteenth Century. Longman. p. 18.
- ^ Senior Research Fellow Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies Ofra Bengio; Ofra Bengio; Gabriel Ben-Dor (1999). Minorities and the State in the Arab World. Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-55587-647-0.