Diaspora Berbers set up communities In Mauritania[51] near the Malian imperial capital of Timbuktu.[52] There are about 2.2 million Berber immigrants in Europe, especially the Riffians in the Netherlands and France and Algerians of Kabyles and Chaouis heritage in France.[53] The people known as Moors settled in Europe, mostly in Iberia, since the seventh century CE. but also before, when they founded many Carthaginian towns and trading centers. Languages The Berber languages form a branch of Afro-Asiatic, and thus descend from the proto-Afro-Asiatic language. It is still disputed which branches of Afro-Asiatic are most closely related to Berber, but most linguists accept at least either Semitic or Chadic as among its closest relatives within the family (see Afro-Asiatic languages.) There are between thirty and forty million speakers of Berber languages in Africa (see population estimation), principally concentrated in Morocco, Algeria, to a lesser extent in Mali, Niger, and Libya, and with smaller communities as far east as Egypt and as far south as Burkina Faso. Their Berber languages form a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family comprising many closely related varieties, including Riff, Kabyle and Shilha, with a total of roughly thirty million to forty million speakers. A frequently used generic name for all Berber languages is Tamazight, though this may also be used to refer specifically to Central Morocco Tamazight or Riffian dialects. Main Berber groups Although most Maghrebis are of Berber ancestry, only some scattered ethnicities succeeded in conserving the Berber language for centuries. This table resumes those groups. Main Berber groups Group Country Notes Brabers Morocco Atlas mountains of Morocco. Blida Berbers Algeria in Central Algeria. Chlouhs Morocco Southern Morocco. Chaoui people Algeria Mainly located in Eastern Algeria. Chenini & Douiret Berbers Tunisia Chenoui Berbers Algeria Ouarsenis and Mount Chenoua (Western Algeria). Djerba Berbers Tunisia speakers of the Djerbi language. Kabyles Algeria in North Algeria. Matmata Berbers Tunisia in Southern Tunisia. Mozabites Algeria in the Mzab Valley (southern Algeria). Nafusis Libya in Western Libya. Riffians Morocco Mostly in Northern Morocco with a minority in Algeria. Sahrawis Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic In Western Sahara. Disputed between Moroccans and rebels. Siwi people Egypt in the Siwa valley of Egypt. Tlemcen Berbers Algeria Aith Snouss villages of Western Algeria. Tuaregs Algeria Libya Niger Mali Burkina Faso Sahara (Southern Algeria and north of the Sahel). Zenaga people Mauritania in South-Western Mauritania. Zenatas Algeria in Western-Central Algeria. Zuwaras Libya in North-West Libya. Religions and beliefs Main article: Berber beliefs Berbers are mostly Sunni Muslim, while the Mozabites of the Saharan Mozabite Valley are mostly Ibadi. Until the 1960s, there was also an important Jewish Berber community in Morocco,[54] but emigration (mostly to Israel and France) reduced their number to only a few hundred individuals. Historically, the small minority of remaining Christian Berbers assimilated into French culture and moved to France after independence (with some pied-noirs being of Berber or part-Berber blood), leaving no more than minuscule numbers in North Africa[citation needed]. However, the Kabyle community in Algeria has a decent-sized recently constituted Christian minority, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. Important Berbers in Islamic history Tariq ibn Ziyad (died 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 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: 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). Ziri ibn Manad (died 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. Yusuf ibn Tashfin (c. 1061–1106) was the Berber Almoravid ruler in North Africa and Al-Andalus (Moorish 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 Maghreb (c. 1090), after being called to the Al-Andalus by the Emir of Seville. Alfonso VI was defeated on 23 October 1086, at the battle of Sagrajas, at the hands of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, and Abbad III al-Mutamid. Yusuf bin Tashfin is the founder of the famous Moroccan city Marrakech (in Berber 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. 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.[55] Abu Yaqub Yusuf (died on 29 July 1184) was the second Almohad caliph. He reigned from 1163 until 1184. He had the Giralda in Seville built. Abu Yaqub al-Mustansir Yusuf II Caliph of Maghreb from 1213 until his death. Son of the previous caliph, Muhammad an-Nasir, Yusuf assumed the throne following his fathers death, at the age of only 16 years. Ibn Battuta (born February twenty-fourth, 1304; year of death uncertain, possibly 1368 or 1377) was a Berber[56] Sunni Islamic scholar and jurisprudent from the Maliki Madhhab (a school of Fiqh, or 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 realm, extending from modern West Africa to Pakistan, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, South-East Asia and China, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessor, near-contemporary Marco Polo. Muhammad al-Jazuli From the tribe of Jazulah which was settled in the Sous area of Maghreb between the Atlantic Ocean and the Atlas Mountains. He is most famous for compiling the Dalail al-Khayrat, an extremely popular Muslim prayer book. Muhammad Awzal was a religious Berber poet. He is considered the most important author of the Shilha literary tradition. He was born around 1670 in the village of al-Qasaba in the region of Sous, Maghreb and died in 1748/9 (1162 of the Egira). Important Berbers in Christian history Before the arrival of Islam into the region, most Berber groups were either Christians, Jewish or Animists, 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 Church viewed the donatists as heretics and the dispute led to a schism in the Church dividing North African Christians.[57] They are directly related to Circumcellions, a sect that worked on disseminating the doctrine in North Africa by the force of the sword. The Romano-Berber theologian known as Augustine of Hippo (Hippo being the modern Algerian city of Annaba), who is recognized as a saint and a Doctor of the Church by Roman Catholicism and the Anglican Communion and revered by the Reformed, was an outspoken opponent of Donatism.[58] “ Of all the fathers of the church, St. Augustine was the most admired and the most influential during the Middle Ages ... Augustine was an outsider - a native North African whose family was not Roman but Berber ... He was a genius - an intellectual giant.[59] ” Many believe that Arius, another early Christian theologian who was deemed a heretic by the Catholic Church, was of Libyan Berber descent. Another Berber cleric, Saint Adrian of Canterbury, traveled to England and played a significant role in its early medieval religious history. Lusius Quietus, was the son of a Christian tribal lord from unconquered Mauretania (modern Morocco). Lusius father and his warriors had supported the Roman legions in their attempt to subdue Mauretania Tingitana (northern modern Morocco) during Aedemons revolt in 40. Masuna (fl. 508) was a Romano-Moorish Christian king in Mauretania Caesariensis (western Algeria) who is said to have encouraged the Byzantine general Solomon, the Prefect of Africa, to launch an invasion of the Moorish kingdom of Numidia.[60] Kahina (Berber: Daya Ult Yenfaq Tajrawt) was Berber Byzantine Christian religious and military leader who led indigenous resistance to Arabian expansion in North-West Africa, the region then known as Numidia, known as the Algeria today. She was born in the early seventh century and died around the end of the seventh century in modern Algeria. According to al-Mālikī she was said to have been accompanied in her travels by what the Arabs called an idol, possibly an icon of the Virgin or one of the Christian saints[61] Sabellius who was a third-century priest and theologian who most likely taught in Rome, of African berber descent. Basil and others call him a Libyan from Pentapolis, but this seems to rest on the fact that Pentapolis was a place where the teachings of Sabellius thrived, according to Dionysius of Alexandria, c. 260. What is known of Sabellius is drawn mostly from the polemical writings of his opponents. Fadhma Aït Mansour born in Tizi Hibel, Algeria, is the mother of writers Jean Amrouche and Taos Amrouche. Fadhma was born in a Kabylie village, the illegitimate daughter of a widow. Later, when she was with the Sisters at Aït Manguellet hospital, she converted to Roman Catholicism. She met another Kabyle Catholic convert, Antoine-Belkacem Amrouche, whom she married in 1898. Ahmed es-Sikeli (Arabic: احمد السقيلي), born in Djerba to a Berber family of the Sadwikish tribe was baptized a Christian under the name Peter, was a eunuch and kaid of the Diwan of the Kingdom of Sicily during the reign of William I. His story was recorded by his Christian contemporaries Romuald Guarna and Hugo Falcandus from Sicily and the Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun.[62] Brother Rachid – a Moroccan Christian convert from Islam whose father is a well-known respected Imam. He is one the most outspoken converts in the world, he hosts a weekly live call-in show on AL-Hayat channel where he compares Islam and Christianity as well as debating with Islamic scholars. Muley Xeque (Arabic: مولاي الشيخ Mawlay al-Shaykh) was a Moroccan prince, born in Marrakech in 1566 and died in Vigevano (Lombardy, Italy) in 1621. Exiled in Spain, he was converted to Catholicism in Madrid and was known as Philip of Africa or Philip of Austria. On November 3, 1593 he was baptized in the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, sponsored by Philip II, after whom he was named. He was made a grandee of Spain and Commander of the Order of Santiago. Malika Oufkir is a Moroccan writer and former disappeared person. She is the daughter of General Mohamed Oufkir and a cousin of fellow Moroccan writer and actress Leila Shenna. She and her siblings are converts from Islam to Catholicism, and she writes in her book, Stolen Lives: we had rejected Islam, which had brought us nothing good, and opted for Catholicism instead.[63] Pre-Christian era
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