Maghreb

Satellite view of the Magreb.

Maghreb (in Arabic المغرب al-Maġrib;) is the Spanish adaptation of an Arabic word that means "place where the sun sets", the West, the westernmost part of the Arab world.

Also known as northwest Africa, the Arab Maghreb (المغرب العربي al-Maghrib al-'Arabi), it is a subregion of North Africa that is effectively a western part of the Arab world and is predominantly Muslim. The region includes Algeria, Libya, Mauritania (part of West Africa), Morocco and Tunisia, which are all member states of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) except Western Sahara whose territory is illegally occupied by Morocco. As of 2018, the region had a population of over 100 million people.

The Maghreb is generally defined as much of North Africa, including much of Africa's Sahara desert, but excludes Egypt and Sudan, which are considered in the Mashreq, the eastern part of the Arab world. The traditional definition of the Maghreb, which restricted it to the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, was expanded to include Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Prior to the establishment of modern nation states in the region during the 20th century, Maghreb most commonly referred to a smaller area, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains in the south. It also often included the territory of eastern Libya, but not modern Mauritania. As recently as the late 19th century, the term "Maghreb" it was used to refer to the western Mediterranean region of coastal North Africa in general, and to Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia in particular.

During the rule of the Berber kingdom of Numidia, the region was unified as an independent political entity. This period was followed by a first rule or influence of the Roman Empire. Germanic Vandals invaded after that, followed by the equally brief reestablishment of weak Roman rule by the Byzantine Empire. The Islamic Caliphates came to power under the Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate, and the Fatimid Caliphate. The longest-lasting rule was that of the local Arab empires of the Almoravid dynasty, Almohad Caliphate, Hamadites, Zirids, Merinid dynasty, Zayyanid dynasty, and Wattasid sultanate, extending from the viii to xiii. The Ottoman Empire for a period also controlled parts of the region.

Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia established the Arab Maghreb Union in 1989 to promote cooperation and economic integration in a common market. It was initially conceived by Muammar Gaddafi as a superstate.^{[citation needed]} The union implicitly included Western Sahara under the membership of Morocco, and ended the long Cold War of Morocco with Algeria over this territory. However, this progress was short lived and the syndicate is now inactive.

Tensions between Algeria and Morocco over Western Sahara have resurfaced, reinforced by the unresolved border dispute between the two countries. These two main conflicts have hampered progress on the union's joint goals and have virtually rendered it inactive as a whole. Instability in the region and growing cross-border security threats have revived calls for regional cooperation. In May 2015, the Arab Maghreb Union foreign ministers declared the need for a coordinated security policy at the 33rd session of the monitoring committee meeting; This revived hope for some form of cooperation.

Toponymy

In Spanish, the name given to this region is «Maghreb» (in Arabic: المغرب al- Maġrib; Berber: Tamazgha). The spellings Maghrib or Maghreb, used in English and French with the digraph "gh", try to transcribe the phoneme /ɣ/. In the past, the obsolete transcriptions Mogreb and its name Moghreb were also used.

Traditionally the Maghreb has been called the North African region that includes the countries of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, Libya although sometimes Mauritania is also included. The opposite of the Maghreb is called Mashrek or Levante.

Al-Magrib is also the Arabic name for Morocco, a country that in another time was called Al-Magrib al-Aqsà, that is, the Far Maghreb or Far West. For this reason, different expressions are currently used in Arabic to distinguish Morocco from the Maghreb, which have passed into other languages as calques. The most common in Spanish is Gran Magreb, which is also used to distinguish the reduced or historical Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) from what is currently considered the Maghreb. The Arabic expression Maghreb is also used in the same sense, although its meaning is confusing, since it implies that it is opposed to a non-Arab Maghreb: in reality, Maghreb must be understood here not as a proper name, but with its literal meaning in Arab; thus, the exact translation of the expression is Arab West, that is, the westernmost part of the Arab world. As a political entity, there is the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), which brings together all the countries in the area (Western Sahara as part of Morocco).

In contrast to the Maghreb, the Amazig or Berber nationalist movements use the term Tamazgha.

Physical geography

The Maghreb is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Sahara desert to the south. The great Atlas mountain range extends through its western zone. It is a region with a Mediterranean climate, with a low rainfall rate, except in mountainous areas. In ancient times it was divided into three parts from east to west: Al-Magrib al-Adnâ, which stretched from Tripoli to Bejaia, al-Magrib al-Awsat, which stretched from Bejaia to the Taza Mountains of the Middle Atlas, and the far Maghrib, which ran from the Taza Mountains to the Atlantic.

Human Geography

Adorno magrebí del siglo XIX para la cabeza (Morocco).

The total population of the five countries currently considered part of the Maghreb, including the territories of Western Sahara, was in 2007, according to CIA estimates, around 87 056 145 inhabitants.

The original inhabitants of the Maghreb were the Amazig, generally called Berbers in Spanish. Their language is called generically tamazight, although there is disagreement about whether its different variants should be considered dialects or languages. With the arrival of the Arabs in the VII century, the population of the Maghreb converted to Islam and began a process of linguistic Arabization and culture. Throughout its history, the Maghreb has received several waves of migration that have left their mark on its different cultures. Apart from the influx of Arab peoples from the East (such as the famous Banu Hilal tribe), the Andalusians and Moors are notable, mainly settled in Tunisia and in specific areas of Morocco such as Fez, Tetouan, Chefchaouen or Rabat. The belonging of a large part of the Maghreb to the Ottoman Empire, as well as the French colonization (mainly), Italian in Libya and Spanish in the north of Morocco and Western Sahara, have also left their mark.

Languages of the Maghreb

Major varieties of the Arabic Maghreb.

Berber languages.

Currently, most Maghrebis speak Maghrebi Arabic, although there is also a percentage of speakers of the Berber language (some 30 million speakers). The Arabic spoken in the Maghreb has notable differences with the eastern Arabic dialects, and in turn is made up of very diverse languages. Standard or literary Arabic is the official language in all Maghrebi states. The second language is French in all countries except Libya and Western Sahara; the latter has Spanish as its second language.

Estimates for speakers of the Berber languages vary between 45 and 55 million speakers of some variant as their mother tongue. Not counting the estimated Tuareg population in Mali and Niger, speakers of Berber languages in the five Maghreb countries make up between 55% and 65% of the population. However, it should be mentioned that the vast majority of these speakers live in Algeria or Morocco, their presence being more limited in Libya and Tunisia, and almost non-existent in the case of Mauritania.

Religion

Kutubia Mosque in Marrakech

The Maghrebis belong to the Sunni branch of Islam, and usually practice the Maliki rite. Religious minorities are very small: in the Algerian desert there are small Kharijite Muslim communities (a branch of Islam that was once very present in the area and today almost extinct). Small Jewish communities also survive, once numerous, especially in Morocco, but greatly reduced after the emigration of most of their members to Israel, France or other countries in the middle of the century XX. The few Christian communities are made up of Europeans: in Algeria there are still small French religious congregations, products of the colonial era.

History

Arab Maghreb Union shield.

The history of the Maghreb is linked to the history of the Mediterranean peoples: Phoenicians (Carthage), the Roman conquest, the Vandals, the Byzantine Empire, the expansion of Islam, the Spanish Christian recovery and reconquest and the subsequent expulsion of Muslims, European colonization, decolonization and territorial conflicts in the Sahara. The Islamized and Arabized Maghreb saw the departure of the Almohads and Almoravids and received the Andalusians and Sephardic Jews expelled from the totally Catholic Crowns of Castile and Aragon. In 1989 the countries of the Greater Maghreb established a trade integration agreement, constituting the so-called Union of the Arab Maghreb.

Demographics

The evolution of the Maghreb population throughout history has been as follows:

• 250 a.C. = 3 to 5 million.
• Year 1 = 4.2 million.
• Year 1000 d.C. = 5.5 million.
• Year 1500 = 4.3 million.
• Year 1600 = 6 million.
• Year 1700 = 4.8 million.
• Year 1820 = 6.8 million.