Arab-Berber

Arab-Berber is a term to denote an inhabitant of the North African Maghreb who is of mixed Arab and Berber origin and whose native language is a dialect of Arabic and who also has an Arab ethnic identity. The Arab-Berber tribe groups came as a result of the Arab conquest of North Africa and the subsequent intermarriage between the Arab soldiers and local mainly Berber women and also the Arab Bedouin tribes, which intermarried with the local mainly Berber populations. Examples of these Arab Bedouin tribes that migrated into North Africa in the 11th century and were a major factor in the linguistic, cultural and ethnic Arabization of the Maghreb are Banu Hilal ^[1] an Arab tribe that had lived in Yemen and migrated via Upper Egypt, ^[2] Banu Sulaym (an Arab tribe that had lived in Hejaz and Nejd) and also Beni Hassan (an Arab tribe that had lived in Yemen). The offsprings of these intermarriages created the Arab-Berber tribal groups who speak Arabic as a first language and have an Arab ethnic identity and moreover are representing nowadays the majority of the population in the countries in North Africa, which include Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The Arab-Berber group has to be distinguished from the Arabized Berber groups, who have very little Arab ethnic background, or from the pure Arab Bedouin tribes in the Maghreb region.

See also

• Arabs
• Banu Hilal
• Banu Sulaym
• Beni Hassan
• North Africa
• Maghreb

References