Maghrebis

Maghrebis
المغاربيون Al Māġāribiyyun

Regions with significant populations
Maghreb
Algeria	45,917,000[1]
Morocco	38,670,000[2]
Tunisia	12,135,000[3]
Libya	7,112,000[4][5][6]
France	5,326,000[7]
Mauritania	4,975,000[8]
Israel	750,000[9]-950,000[10]
Canada[c]	141,660[11]
Languages
Maghrebi Arabic Berber languages
Religion
Predominantly: Sunni Islam Minority: Judaism, Ibadi; Christianity[12]
Related ethnic groups
Berbers, Maghrebi Arabs, Maghrebi Jews, Tuareg, other Afroasiatic-speaking peoples
^a Without Ceuta and Melilla. ^b Primarily in France, where nearly half of all Maghrebis in Europe reside. ^c Primarily in Quebec, which has the largest Maghrebi community in North America. Population statistics from the CIA World factbook (July 2011 pop est.)

Maghrebis or Maghrebians (Arabic: المغاربيون) is a modern Arabic term meaning "Westerners", mainly referring to the inhabitants of the Maghreb region of North Africa, the western part of the Arab world.^[13] Maghrebis are predominantly of Arab and Berber or mixed Arab-Berber origins.

Name

Maghrebis were known in ancient and medieval times as the Roman Africans or Moors. The word Moor is of Phoenician origin.^[14] The etymology of the word can be traced back to the Phoenician term Mahurin, meaning "Westerners", from which the ancient Greeks derive Mauro, and from which Latin derives Mauri.^[15]

The Arabic term maghrib (Arabic: مغرب) was given by the first Muslim Arab settlers to the recently conquered region located west of the Umayyad capital of Damascus in the 7th century AD.^[16] It initially referred to the area extending from Alexandria in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west.^[17]

Religion

Historic records of religion in the Maghreb region show its gradual inclusion in the Classical World, with coastal colonies established first by Phoenicians, Greeks, and later extensive conquest and rule by the Romans. By the 2nd century common era, the area had become a centre of Latin-speaking Christianity. Both Roman settlers and Romanized Berbers 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 (c. 210 – 258); Saint Monica; her son the philosopher Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430); and Julia of Corsica (5th century). The region was a birthplace of many Christians movements like Arianism and Donatism, now cast-off.^{[citation needed]}

Tertullian

Saint Augustine and Saint Monica

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 9th 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 10th century.^[18]

During the seventh century, the region's peoples began their nearly total conversion to Islam. There was a small but thriving Local Jewish community, as well as a small Local Christian community. Most Muslims follow the Maliki school of Sunni Islam. Small Ibadi communities remain in some areas. A strong tradition of venerating marabouts 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 20th century. A network of zawiyas traditionally helped proliferate basic literacy and knowledge of Islam in rural regions.

Recently, the Christian community of Berber or Arab descent has experienced significant growth, and conversions to Christianity, especially to Evangelicalism, is common in Algeria,^[19] especially in the Kabylie,^[20] Morocco^[21] and Tunisia.^[22] A 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Algeria.^[12]

Culture

Main articles: Music of the Maghreb, Berber music, Maghreb cuisine, and Berber cuisine

Diaspora

France

Maghrebis have settled mainly in the industrial regions in France, especially in the Île-de-France and Mediterranean regions. Many famous French people like Édith Piaf,^[23] Isabelle Adjani, Arnaud Montebourg, Alain Bashung, Dany Boon, Gérald Darmanin and many others have Maghrebi ancestry.

According to Michel Tribalat, a researcher at INED, there were more than 4.6 million people of Maghrebi origin (with at least one Maghrebi grandparent from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia) living in France in 2011 (3 million in 1999).^[24][25] Below is a table of population of Maghrebi origin in France in 2011, numbers are in thousands:

Country of origin (2011)	Immigrants	1st generation born in France	2nd generation born in France (aged under 60 only)	Total
Algeria	737	1 170	563	2 470
Morocco	679	698	130	1 507
Tunisia	246	280	129	655
Total Maghreb	1 662	2 148	821	4 631

Note: for second generation born in France only individuals under 60 are taken into account.

According to Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies), 16% of newborns in France between 2006 and 2008 have at least one Maghrebi grandparent born in the Greater Maghreb.^[26]

In 2005, the percentage of young people under 18 of Maghrebi origin (at least one immigrant parent) were about 7% in Metropolitan France, 12% in Île-de-France, 13% in Lyon, 21% in Perpignan, 22% in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, 37% in 18th arrondissement of Paris and 40% in several arrondissements of Marseille.^[27][28]

2005	Seine-Saint-Denis	Val-de-Marne	Val-d'Oise	Lyon	Paris	France
Total Maghreb	22.0%	13.2%	13.0%	13.0%	12.1%	6.9%

According to other sources between 5 and 8 million people of Maghrebin origin live in France, and between 150,000 and 300,000 people of Maghrebin origin live in Canada.^[29][30]

See also

• Arabs
• Berbers
• Maghrebi Jews
• List of Maghrebis
• Muslim conquest of North Africa
• Moors
• Barbary Coast

References and notes

1. "Algeria Population (LIVE)". 10 October 2021. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
2. "Morocco Population (2021) - Worldometer". Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
3. CIA World Factbook. "Libya". Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
4. "Estimé à six millions d'individus, l'histoire de leur enracinement, processus toujours en devenir, suscite la mise en avant de nombreuses problématiques...", « Être Maghrébins en France » in Les Cahiers de l'Orient, n° 71, troisième trimestre 2003
5. Maghreb people represent 45% of people born in Arab countries who emigrated to Europe and N.America, they are 41% of the all Immigrants in Europe
6. "css.escwa.org" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
7. "Immigrés et descendants d'immigrés". Insee (in French). Archived from the original on 12 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
8. "1: Répartition spatiale de la population" (PDF). Recensement Général de la Population et de l'Habitat (RGPH) 2013 (Report) (in French). National Statistical Office of Mauritania. July 2015. p. v. Retrieved 20 December 2015.^{[permanent dead link]}
9. "Les Maghrebins en Israel" (in French). Archived from the original on 20 September 2021. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
10. Sharaby, Rachel; Wenden, Catherine Wihtol de; Giovanella, Myrna (2008). "Les immigrés juifs maghrébins en Israël". Migrations Société (in French). 120 (6): 131–154. doi:10.3917/migra.120.0131. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
11. Statistics Canada (8 May 2013). "2011 National Household Survey: Data tables". Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
12. Miller, Duane A. "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census". Archived from the original on 31 January 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
13. "The Arab world". AMBergh Education. Archived from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019. The North African part of the Arab World to the west of Egypt and Sudan is known as the Maghreb (gharb meaning west).
14. First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936. BRILL. 1993. p. 560. ISBN 978-90-04-09796-4.
15. Skutsch, Carl (7 November 2013). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. Routledge. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-135-19388-1.
16. Mitchell, Peter; Lane, Paul (4 July 2013). The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology. OUP Oxford. p. 1071. ISBN 978-0-19-162615-9.
17. Idris El Hareir; Ravane Mbaye (2011). The Spread of Islam Throughout the World. UNESCO. pp. 375–376. ISBN 978-92-3-104153-2.
18. Christianity in North Africa and West Asia. Hendrickson Publ. May 2020. ISBN 9781683072874.
19. *(in French) Sadek Lekdja, Christianity in Kabylie, Radio France Internationale, 7 mai 2001 Archived 18 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine
20. Lucien Oulahbib, Le monde arabe existe-t-il ?, page 12, 2005, Editions de Paris, Paris.
21. "Morocco: General situation of Muslims who converted to Christianity, and specifically those who converted to Catholicism; their treatment by Islamists and the authorities, including state protection (2008-2011)". Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
22. International Religious Freedom Report 2007: Tunisia Archived 9 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine. United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (14 September 2007). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
23. Carolyn Burke. No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011, p.5
24. Michèle Tribalat, « Mariages « mixtes » et immigration en France » Archived 14 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Espace populations sociétés [En ligne], 2009/2 | 2009, mis en ligne le 01 avril 2011
25. Michèle Tribalat, « Une estimation des populations d'origine étrangère en France en 2011 », Espace populations sociétés, 2015/1-2, en ligne Archived 12 February 2017 at Wikiwix
26. Les immigrés, les descendants d'immigrés et leurs enfants Archived 8 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Pascale Breuil-Genier, Catherine Borrel, Bertrand Lhommeau, Insee 2011
27. Michèle Tribalat, Revue Commentaire, juin 2009, n°126, p.436
28. Michèle Tribalat, Les yeux grands fermés, Denoël, 2010
29. Robert Castel, La discrimination négative, Paris, La République des idées/Seuil, 2007
30. Drouet, Jean-Baptiste; Alex Masson (December 2008). "Culture Le cinéma français est-il raciste ?". Première (in French): 75–78. Archived from the original on 14 December 2008. Retrieved 14 January 2009.

External links

• The African roots of Latin Christianity by Henri Teissier, Regional Bishop of North Africa