Berbers

Total population
c. 36 million
Regions with significant populations
Morocco: 18,980,000  Algeria: 12,800,000  Tunisia: 130,000  Libya: 280,000  Egypt: 10,000  Mauritania: 150,000  Spain: 270,000  France: 100,000  Belgium: 115,000  Netherlands: 120,000  Israel: 100,000
Languages
Berber languages, Arabic
Religion
Islam (overwhelmingly Sunni), Judaism, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Egyptians, Semites, Iberians

The Berbers are an ethnic group indigenous to Northwest Africa west of the Nile Valley. They speak various Berber languages.

Berber is the modern European term for these people, borrowed from Arabic. Historically they have been variously known as Libyans by the ancient Greeks, as Numidians and Mauri by the Romans, and as Moors by medieval Europeans. Some modern Berbers use Imazighen (singular Amazigh), meaning "free men", to identify themselves ethnically in their native tongue. This is common in Morocco, but Berbers elsewhere within their original countries mostly use a local, more particular term for themselves, such as Kabyle or Chaoui.^[1]. (See also: Berber (Etymology)).

History

The Berbers have lived in North Africa between western Egypt and the Atlantic Ocean for as far back as records of the area go. The earliest inhabitants of the region are found on the Saharan rock art. References to them also occur frequently in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sources.^[2] Berber groups are first mentioned in writing by the ancient Egyptians during the Predynastic Period, and during the New Kingdom the Egyptians later fought against the Meshwesh and Libu tribes on their western borders. From about 945 BC the Egyptians were ruled by Meshwesh immigrants who founded the Twenty-second Dynasty under Shoshenq I, beginning a long period of Berber rule in Egypt. They long remained the main population of the Western Desert—the Byzantine chroniclers often complained of the Mazikes (Amazigh) raiding outlying monasteries there.

For many centuries the Berbers inhabited the coast of North Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean. Over time, the coastal regions of North Africa saw a long parade of invaders, settlers,^[3] and colonists including Phoenicians (who founded Carthage), Greeks (mainly in Cyrene, Libya), Romans, Vandals and Alans, Byzantines, Arabs, Ottomans, and the French and Spanish. Most if not all of these invaders have left some imprint upon the modern Berbers as have slaves brought from Southern Europe to the Barbary Coast by Barbary pirates (one estimate places the number of Europeans brought to North Africa during the Ottoman period as high as 1.25 million)[2]. Interactions with neighboring Sudanic empires, sub-Saharan Africans, and nomads from East Africa also left vast impressions upon the Berber peoples.

The areas of North Africa which retained the Berber language and traditions have, in general, been those least exposed to foreign rule—in particular, the highlands of Kabylie in Algeria and the Chleuh and Riffian peoples in Morocco, most of which even in Roman and Ottoman times remained largely separate and independent. The Phoenicians never even penetrated beyond the dock cities along the coast. While many peoples have made contact and exchanged goods and services with native North Africans, full contact had been only with the Romans whereby the Numidian and Mauritanian provinces had been fully integrated as Provinces of the Roman Republic, and their peoples Roman Citizens. Amongst the people who had entered and settled with the autochthonous people of North Africa, are the 80,000 families of Germanic Vandals also referred to as "The Barbarians" by the Romans and the Mediterraneans in general who neither perished nor retuned to Germania, but mixed with the natives and ultimately resulted in the eviction of the Roman forces from North Africa.

The Islamic Invasion

Until the 7th century, the region of North Africa practiced many religions including various forms of indigenous rituals.

The Arabization of the Berbers

Before the ninth century, most of Northwest Africa was a Berber-speaking area, mostly Sufi Muslim, and Jewish in the valleys, and Christian in the highlands, especially in Algerian Aures and Kabyle region, which produced several Berber Roman Emperors, Saint Augustine, and the Roman form of Christianity: Catholicism. Tamazight/Berber was mostly spoken and Greek and Latin were the chief written media. The process of word borrowing started only around the 9th century with the Fatimids of Egypt. The Banu Hilal reduced the Zirids to a few coastal towns, and took over much of the plains. The Arabization of the region after the departure of Arabs from Andalusia and North Africa is a Napoleon project carried on by the post colonial France and pro-baathist regime of Algiers, and Tunis and a French sponsored and propelled Kingdom in Morocco.

Modern-day Berbers

The Berbers live mainly in Morocco (30% of the population) and in Algeria (about 8%-15% of the population), as well as Libya and Tunisia, though exact statistics are unavailable[3]; see Berber languages. Most North Africans who consider themselves Arab also have mainly Berber ancestry[4]. Prominent Berber groups include the Kabyles of northern Algeria, who number approximately 4 million and have kept, to a large degree, their original language and culture; and the Chleuh (Francophone plural of Arabic "Shalh" and Tashelhiyt "ašəlḥi") of south Morocco, numbering about 8 million. Other groups include the Riffians of north Morocco, the Chaouia of Algeria, and the Tuareg of the Sahara. There are approximately 2.2 million Berber immigrants in Europe, especially the Riffians and the Kabyles in the Netherlands and France. Some proportion of the inhabitants of the Canary Islands are descended from the aboriginal Guanches--usually considered to have common origins with Berbers--among whom a few Canary Islander customs, such as the eating of gofio, originated.

Although stereotyped in the West as nomads, most Berbers were in fact traditionally farmers, living in the mountains relatively close to the Mediterranean coast, or oasis dwellers; the Tuareg and Zenaga of the southern Sahara, however, were nomadic. Some groups, such as the Chaouis, practiced transhumance.

Political tensions have arisen between some Berber groups (especially the Kabyle) and North African governments over the past few decades, partly over linguistic and cultural issues; for instance, in Morocco, giving children Berber names was banned.

Origin

Various disciplines shed light on the origin of the Berbers.

Genetic evidence

Populations ancestral to the Berbers have been in the area since the Upper Paleolithic era. Significant proportions of both the Berber and Arabized Berber gene pools derive from various groups who have left their genetic footprints in the region.

Mozabites

Y chromosomes are passed exclusively through the paternal line. According to University of Chicago's Journals, a study which used 176 donors from the Western Sahara, a sub-saharan country, and Morocco,Bosch et al. 2001, "the historical origins of the NW African Y-chromosome pool may be summarized as follows: 75% NW African Upper Paleolithic (H35, H36, and H38), 13% Neolithic (H58 and H71), 4% historic European gene flow (group IX, H50, H52), and 8% recent sub-Saharan African (H22 and H28)". They identify the "75% NW African Upper Paleolithic" component as "an Upper Paleolithic colonization that probably had its origin in Eastern Africa." The Mauritanian and Southern Moroccan population's 75% Y chromosome genetic contribution from East Africa contrasted with a 78% contribution to the Iberian population from western Asia, suggests that the northern rim of the Mediterranean with the Strait of Gibraltar acted as a strong, albeit incomplete, barrier (Bosch et al, 2001). This study used Saharawi[5] as well as primarily Southern Moroccan donors. Saharawis are not historically considered a North African people.

The interpretation of the second most frequent "Neolithic" haplotype used " 275 men from five populations in Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt":Arredi et al. 2004, like Semino et al. 2000 and Bosch et al. 2001, argue that the H71 haplogroup and North African Y-chromosomal diversity indicate a Neolithic-era "demic diffusion of Afro-Asiatic-speaking pastoralists from the Middle East", while Nebel et al. 2002 argue that H71 rather reflects "recent gene flow caused by the migration of Arabian tribes in the first millennium of the Common Era(700-800 A.D)." Bosch et al. also find little genetic distinction between Arabic-speaking and Berber-speaking populations in the region of the Western Sahara and Morocco, which they take to support the interpretation of the Arabization and Islamization of the Berbers of this region, starting with word-borrowing during the 7th century A.D. and through State Arabic Language Officialisation post independence in 1962, as cultural phenomena without extensive genetic replacement. Cruciani et al. 2004 note that the E-M81 haplogroup on the Y-chromosome correlates closely with Berber populations.

mtDNA, by contrast, is inherited only from the mother. According to Macaulay et al. 1999, "one-third of Mozabite Berber mtDNAs have a Near Eastern ancestry, probably having arrived in North Africa ∼50,000 years ago, and one-eighth have an origin in sub-Saharan Africa. Europe appears to be the source of many of the remaining sequences, with the rest having arisen either in Europe or in the Near East." [Maca-Meyer et al. 2003] analyze the "autochthonous North African lineage U6" in mtDNA, concluding that:

The most probable origin of the proto-U6 lineage was the Near East. Around 30,000 years ago it spread to North Africa where it represents a signature of regional continuity. Subgroup U6a reflects the first African expansion from the Maghrib returning to the east in Paleolithic times. Derivative clade U6a1 signals a posterior movement from East Africa back to the Maghrib and the Near East. This migration coincides with the probable Afroasiatic linguistic expansion.

Touareg

A genetic study by Fadhlaoui-Zid et al. 2004 argues concerning certain exclusively North African haplotypes that "expansion of this group of lineages took place around 10,500 years ago in North Africa, and spread to neighbouring population", and apparently that a specific Northwestern African haplotype, U6, probably originated in the Near East 30,000 years ago but has not been highly preserved and accounts for 6-8% in southern Moroccan Berbers, 18% in Kabyles and 28% in Mozabites. Rando et al. 1998 (as cited by [6]) "detected female-mediated gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa to NW Africa" amounting to as much as 21.5% of the mtDNA sequences in a sample of NW African populations; the amount varied from 82% (Touaregs) to 4% (Rifains). This north-south gradient in the sub-Saharan contribution to the gene pool is supported by Esteban et al. Nevertheless, individual Berber communities display a considerably high mtDNA heterogeneity among them. The Kesra of Tunisia, for example, display a much higher proportion of typical sub-Saharan mtDNA haplotypes (49%, including 4.2% of M1 haplogroup) Cherni L, et al.The North African patchy mtDNA landscape has no parallel in other regions of the world.

Archaeological

The Neolithic Capsian culture appeared in North Africa around 9,500 BCE and lasted until possibly 2700 BCE. Linguists and population geneticists alike have identified this culture as a probable period for the spread of an Afro-Asiatic language (ancestral to the modern Berber languages) to the area. The origins of the Capsian culture, however, are archeologically unclear. Some have regarded this culture's population as simply a continuation of the earlier Mesolithic Ibero-Maurusian culture, which appeared around ~22,000 BC, while others argue for a population change; the former view seems to be supported by dental evidence. [7]

Linguistic

The Berber languages form a branch of Afro-Asiatic, and thus descended from the proto-Afro-Asiatic language; on the basis of linguistic migration theory, this is most commonly believed by historical linguists (notably Igor Diakonoff and Christopher Ehret) to have originated in east Africa no earlier than 12,000 years ago, although Alexander Militarev argues instead for an origin in the Middle East. Ehret specifically suggests identifying the Capsian culture with speakers of languages ancestral to Berber and/or Chadic, and sees the Capsian culture as having been brought there from the African coast of the Red Sea. It is still disputed which branches of Afro-Asiatic are most closely related to Berber, but most linguists accept at least one of Semitic and Chadic as among its closest relatives within the family (see Afro-Asiatic languages.)

The Nobiin variety of Nubian contains several Berber loanwords, according to Bechhaus-Gerst, suggesting a former geographical distribution extending further southeast than the present.

There are between 14 and 25 million speakers of Berber languages in North Africa (see population estimation), principally concentrated in Morocco and Algeria but with smaller communities as far east as Egypt and as far south as Burkina Faso.

Their languages, the Amazigh languages / Berber languages, form a branch of the Afroasiatic linguistic family comprising many closely related varieties, including Tarifit, Taqbaylit and Tashelhiyt, with a total of roughly 14-25 million speakers. A frequently used generic name for all Berber languages is Tamazight, not to be confused with the language found in the High and Middle Atlas or Rif.

Religions and beliefs

Berbers are mostly Sunni Muslim belonging to the Maliki sect, while the Mozabites of the northern Sahara are mostly Djerbans, Nafusis, or Sufi.

Important Berbers in Islamic history

Yusuf ibn Tashfin

(c. 1061 - 1106) was the Berber Almoravid ruler in North Africa and Al-Andalus (Morrish Iberia).

He took the title of amir al-muslimin (commander of the Muslims) after visiting the Caliph of Baghdad 'amir al-moumineen" ("commander of the faithful")and officially receiving his support. He was either a cousin or nephew of Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar, the founder of the Almoravid dynasty. He united all of the Muslim dominions in the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain) to the Kingdom of Morocco (circa 1090), after being called to the Al-Andalus by the Emir of Seville.

Yusuf bin Tashfin is the founder of the famous Moroccan city Marrakech (in Arabic Murakush, corrupted to Morocco in English). He himself chose the place where it was built in 1070 and later made it the capital of his Empire. Until then the Almoravids had been desert nomads, but the new capital marked their settling into a more urban way of life.

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Tumart

(c. 1080 - c. 1130), was a Berber religious teacher and leader from the Masmuda tribe who spiritually founded the Almohad dynasty. He is also known as El-Mahdi (المهدي) in reference to his prophesied redeeming. In 1125 he began open revolt against Almoravid rule.

The name "Ibn Tumart" comes from the Berber language and means "son of the earth." ^[4]

Tariq ibn Ziyad

d. 720), known in Spanish history and legend as Taric el Tuerto (Taric the one-eyed), was a Berber Muslim and Umayyad general who led the conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711. He is considered to be one of the most important military commanders in Spanish history. He was initially the deputy of Musa ibn Nusair in North Africa, and was sent by his superior to launch the first thrust of an invasion of the Iberian peninsula. Some claim that he was invited to intervene by the heirs of the Visigothic King, Wittiza, in the Visigothic civil war.

On April 29, 711, the armies of Tariq landed at Gibraltar (the name Gibraltar is derived from the Arabic name Jabal al-Tariq, which means mountain of Tariq, or the more obvious Gibr Al-Tariq, meaning rock of Tariq). Upon landing, Tariq is said to have burned his ships then made the following speech, well-known in the Muslim world, to his soldiers:

أيّها الناس، أين المفر؟ البحر من ورائكم، والعدوّ أمامكم، وليس لكم والله إلا الصدق والصبر...

O People ! There is nowhere to run away! The sea is behind you, and the enemy in front of you: There is nothing for you, by God, except only sincerity and patience. (as recounted by al-Maqqari).

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta

(born February 24, 1304; year of death uncertain, possibly 1368 or 1377) was a Berber^[5] Sunni Islamic scholar and jurisprudent from the Maliki Madhhab (a school of Fiqh, or Sunni Islamic law), and at times a Qadi or judge. However, he is best known as a traveler and explorer, whose account documents his travels and excursions over a period of almost thirty years, covering some 73,000 miles (117,000 km). These journeys covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world, extending from present-day West Africa to Pakistan, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and China, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessor, near-contemporary Marco Polo.

Abu Ya'qub Yusuf

(died on July 29, 1184) was the second Almohad caliph. He reigned from 1163 until 1184. He had the Giralda in Seville built.

Abu Yaqub al-Mustansir Yusuf

Caliph of Morocco from 1213 until his death. Son of the previous caliph, Muhammad an-Nasir, Yusuf assumed the throne following his father's death, at the age of only 16 years.

Ziri ibn Manad

(d. 971), founder of the Zirid dynasty in the Maghreb.

Ziri ibn Manad was a clan leader of the Berber Sanhaja tribe who, as an ally of the Fatimids, defeated the rebellion of Abu Yazid (943-947). His reward was the governorship of the western provinces, an area that roughly corresponds with modern Algeria north of the Sahara.

Muḥammad Awzal

Muhammad ibn Ali Awzal or al-Awzali was a religious Berber poet. He is considered the most important author of the Tashelhiyt (southern Morocco Berber language) literary tradition. He was born around 1670 in the village of al-Qasaba in the region of Sous, Morocco and died in 1748/9 (1162 of the Egira).

Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli al-Simlali

From the tribe of Jazulah which was settled in the Sus area of Morocco between the Atlantic Ocean and the Atlas Mountains. He is most famous for compiling the Dala'il al-Khayrat, an extremely popular Muslim prayer book.

Important Berbers in Christian history

Before adhering to Islam, most Berber groups were Christians, and a number of Berber theologians were important figures in the development of Western Christianity. In particular, the Berber Donatus Magnus was the founder of a Christian group known as the Donatists. The 4th century Catholic (i.e. common or universal) Church viewed the Donatists as heretics and the dispute lead to a schism in the church dividing North African Christians.^[6] The Romano-Berber theologian known as Augustine of Hippo (modern Chaoui city of Annaba, Algeria), who is recognized as a saint and a Doctor of the Church by Roman Catholicism and the Anglican Communion, was an outspoken opponent of Donatism.^[7] Many believe that Arius, another early Christian theologian who was deemed a heretic by the catholic Church, was of Libyan and Berber descent.

Berber Jews

Berber culture

Famous Berbers

See also

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• Kabylie, a coastal Berber area, inhabited by Kabyles.
• Rif, a coastal Berber area, inhabited by Riffis.
• Zenata, ancestors of Riffis.
• Senhaja, ancestors of Souss Chleuhs.
• Masmouda, ancestors of Atlas Chleuhs
• Tuareg, a Saharan Berber group.
• Guanches, an indigenous people in the Canary Islands.
• Berber languages
• Barbary Coast
• Tamazgha, Berber name for North Africa.
• Berber pantheon
• Berber mythology
• Berberism
• Arabized Berber
• Moors
• Berber Jews

References

• Brett, Michael; & Fentress, Elizabeth (1997). The Berbers (The Peoples of Africa). ISBN 0-631-16852-4. ISBN 0-631-20767-8 (Pbk).
• The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800 by Christopher Ehret
• Egypt In Africa by Celenko
• Stone Age Races of Northwest Africa by L. Cabot-Briggs
• The people of Africa (People of the world series) by Jean Hiernaux
• Britannica 2004
• Encarta 2005
• Blanc, S. H., Grammaire de la Langue Basque (d'apres celle de Larramendi), Lyons & Paris, 1854.
• Entwhistle, W. J. The Spanish Language, (as cited in Michael Harrison's work, 1974.) London, 1936
• Gans Eric Lawrence, The Origin of Language, Univ. of California Press, Berkeley, 1981.
• Geze, L., Elements de Grammaire Basque, Beyonne, 1873.
• Hachid, Malika, Les Premiers Berberes EdiSud, 2001
• Hagan, Helene E., The Shining Ones: an Etymological Essay on the Amazigh Roots of Ancient Egyptian Civilisation. (XLibris, 2001)
• Hagan, Helene E. Tuareg Jewelry: Traditional Patterns and Symbols, (XLibris, 2006)
• Harrison, Michael, The Roots of Witchcraft, Citadel Press, Secaucus, N.J., 1974.
• Hualde, J. I., Basque Phonology, Routledge, London & New York, 1991.
• Martins, J. P. de Oliveira, A History of Iberian Civilization, Oxford University Press, 1930.
• Osborn, Henry Fairfield, Men of the Old Stone Age, New York, 1915-1923.
• Renan, Ernest, De l'Origine du Langage, Paris, 1858; La Societe' Berbere, Paris, 1873.
• Ripley, W. Z., The Races of Europe, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1899.
• Ryan, William & Pitman, Walter, Noah's Flood: The new scientific discoveries about the event that changed history, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1998.
• Saltarelli, M., Basque, Croom Helm, New York, 1988.
• Silverstein, Paul A. Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2004.

Notes

External links

• Richard L. Smith, Ferrum College, What Happened to the Ancient Libyans? Chasing Sources across the Sahara from Herodotus to Ibn Khaldun, Journal of World History, vol. 14, no. 4, 2003 Online article
• Amazigh Startkabel.
• Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe.
• The New Mass Media and the Shaping of Amazigh Identity.
• Number Systems and Calendars of the Berber Populations of Grand Canary and Tenerife.
• Encyclopedia of the Orient -- Berbers .
• Flags of the World -- Berbers/Imazighen.
• Imedyazen cultural association (in Berber).
• Photo Gallery of Berbers and Touregs from Erg Chebbi area of Moroccan Sahara

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