The Islamic World to 1600

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North Africa was inhabited by several different communities, each known by a different name. When the Romans first conquered the region, they assigned all these groups the Latin name barbari, the equivalent of the English "barbarian." This name denoted the fact that the North Africans spoke neither Latin nor Greek, the only acceptable languages to the Romans. After 700 years of Roman rule, the Byzantine Empire succeeded Rome and continued to refer to the North Africans as one group. After conquering North Africa, the Arabs also kept the Roman name for the local inhabitants, modifying it to barbar, or Berber. As they began converting to Islam in the years following the Arab conquest, the Berbers acquired a distinct identity, with a cohesive existence as part of the Muslim community. Although distinctions remained between different Berber communities, the unity of the Berbers as a North African people increased.

Today, the Berbers are still a diverse population, but the languages they speak are considered dialects of the same language, Berber. Berbers today make up 20 per cent of the population in Algeria, and 40 per cent in Morocco. They also exist in significant numbers throughout the Sahara Desert, and east into southern Tunisia and Libya.

Using one term, Berber, to describe several ethnically diverse groups, compares to using the term "Indian" to describe the indigenous populations of North and South America. Neither term provides an accurate description of the people it represents; the moniker simply reflects the initial reaction of those who assigned the name. Berbers were also often called Moors throughout history, from the Greek Mauros, or "inhabitant of Mauritania," a region of North Africa.

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