Barbarian

The name Berbers refers to the descendants of the pre-Arab populations of north Africa from the Egyptian frontier to the atlantic and from the Mediterranian coast of Niger. The term comes from the derogatory Greek word for non-Greek and was taken into both latin and Arabic , yielding the English term barbarian.

Berbers speaks variations of a single language, berber, which belong to the Hamito-Semitic language family. They call themselves by some variant of the word amazigh, whish means ‘free man’, and have no sense of community or ethnic unity beyond their tribal affiliations, which notably include the Kabyle of Algeria, the Riffians and Shluh of Morocco, and the Tuareg of the Sahara.

Although their origin unknown, Berber-speaking peoples are thought to have moved into North Africa, probably from the near east, before 200 BC. From c. 600BC, Berber land was invanded by various group, including Carthaginians , Romans, Vandals, and Turks. With he Arab conquest of North Africa in the second half of the 7th century, the Berbers converted to Islam. For a while they fought alongside the Arabs and extended the frontiers of Islam into Spain, but later began to break away from orthodox Islam and Arab Hegemony. They chose a heresy known as Kharijsm, which is still practiced in part of Tunisia and Algeria.

Many feature of early pagan religion have also survived under the guise of orthodox Islam. Christianity disappeared among them in the 12th century, but Judaism, which made proselytes before Christianity, has survived to the present day.

Berbers speakers , who today number over 5 milion, are distributed through Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and the western Sahara.