Editing North Africa (section)

==Demographics==
{{Main|North African Arabs|Arabs|Egyptians|Nubians|Maghrebis|Berbers|Haratins}}
{{Further|Demographics of Africa|Demographics of the Middle East and North Africa|List of ethnic groups of Africa#North Africa|List of African countries by population|Writing systems of Africa#Ancient orthographies}}
[[File:Beduin women.jpg|thumb|[[Bedouin]] women in [[Tunisia]] in 1922]]

=== Ethnic groups ===
{{See also|Ethnic groups in Algeria}}
The inhabitants of North Africa are roughly divided in a manner corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa: the [[Maghreb]], the [[Nile]] valley, and the [[Sahel]]. The countries making up North Africa all have [[Modern Standard Arabic]] as their official language. Additionally, Algeria and Morocco recognize [[Berber languages|Berber]] as a second official language after Arabic. French also serves as an administrative language in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The most spoken dialects are [[Maghrebi Arabic]], a form of ancient Arabic dating back from the 8th century AD, and [[Egyptian Arabic]]. The largest and most numerous ethnic group in North Africa are the [[Arabs]].<ref>{{Cite book |editor=The Diagram Group |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJQuAgAAQBAJ&q=Numbering+over+100+million%2C+Arabs+are+the+most+numerous+ethnic+group+in+North+Africa. |title=Encyclopedia of African Peoples |date=26 November 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-96341-5 |language=en}}</ref> In Algeria and Morocco, [[Berbers]] are the second largest ethnic group after the Arab majority. Arabs constitute 70%<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3qBm4-HivM0C&pg=PA8 |title=The Report: Algeria 2007 |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford Business Group |isbn=978-1-902339-70-2 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410070904/https://books.google.com/books?id=3qBm4-HivM0C&pg=PA8 |archive-date=10 April 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> to 80%<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Laaredj-Campbell |first=Anne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7UvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |title=Changing Female Literacy Practices in Algeria: Empirical Study on Cultural Construction of Gender and Empowerment |date=10 December 2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-658-11633-0 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164800/https://books.google.com/books?id=C7UvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> of the population of Algeria, 92%<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yakan |first=Mohamad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_hADwAAQBAJ&pg=PT62 |title=Almanac of African Peoples and Nations |date=30 November 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-28930-6 |language=en}}</ref> to 97%<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Malcolm |first1=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_l87ixBRpKIC&pg=PA62 |title=Libya |last2=Losleben |first2=Elizabeth |date=2004 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn=978-0-7614-1702-6 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410070902/https://books.google.com/books?id=_l87ixBRpKIC&pg=PA62 |archive-date=10 April 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> of Libya, 67%<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fs0Fog7XneUC&pg=PA11 |title=The Report: Morocco 2012 |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford Business Group |isbn=978-1-907065-54-5 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307021801/https://books.google.com/books?id=fs0Fog7XneUC&pg=PA11 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> to 70%<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Son |first1=George Philip & |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8UD0kOEb1XIC&pg=PA161 |title=Encyclopedic World Atlas |last2=Press |first2=Oxford University |date=26 December 2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-521920-3 |language=en}}</ref> of Morocco and 98%<ref>{{Citation |title=Tunisia |date=2 December 2022 |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/tunisia/ |work=The World Factbook |access-date=12 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110024851/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/tunisia/ |url-status=live |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |language=en |archive-date=10 January 2021}}</ref> of Tunisia's population. The Berbers comprise 20%<ref name=":03"/> of Algeria, 10%<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zurutuza |first=Karlos |title=Berbers fear ethnic conflict |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/1/6/libyas-berbers-fear-ethnic-conflict |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129190339/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/1/6/libyas-berbers-fear-ethnic-conflict |archive-date=29 January 2023 |access-date=12 December 2022 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> of Libya, 35%<ref>{{Cite book |last=Danver |first=Steven L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vf4TBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |title=Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues |date=10 March 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-46400-6 |language=en |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315191149/https://books.google.com/books?id=vf4TBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> of Morocco and 1%<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 March 2004 |title=Q&A: The Berbers |language=en-GB |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3509799.stm |url-status=live |access-date=12 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112181804/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3509799.stm |archive-date=12 January 2018}}</ref> of Tunisia's population. The region is predominantly [[Muslim]] with a [[Jews|Jewish]] minority in [[Morocco]] and [[Tunisia]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Jerry M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdAdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA44 |title=The Rebirth of the Middle East |date=28 September 2009 |publisher=Hamilton Books |isbn=978-0-7618-4846-2 |language=en}}</ref> and significant Christian minority—the [[Copts]]—in [[Egypt]], [[Algeria]],<ref>* {{in lang|fr}} [http://matoub.kabylie.free.fr/kabylie/article.php3?id_article=174 Sadek Lekdja, ''Christianity in Kabylie'', Radio France Internationale, 7 mai 2001] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018134716/http://matoub.kabylie.free.fr/kabylie/article.php3?id_article=174|date=18 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=P S Rowe |first=Paul |title=Routledge Handbook of Minorities in the Middle East |publisher=Routledge |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-317-23379-4 |page=133 |quote=}}</ref> Morocco,<ref>{{cite web |title=Refworld – 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) |url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/4f4361e72.html |website=Refworld.org}}</ref> Libya,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morgan |first1=Jason |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R65iYMCuK6gC |title=Culture and Customs of Libya |last2=Falola |first2=Toyin |last3=Oyeniyi |first3=Bukola Adeyemi |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-313-37860-7 |page=40}}</ref> and Tunisia.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fahlbusch |first=Erwin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ly4DgtT3LkC&pg=PA653 |title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity: J-O |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8028-2415-8}}</ref> In 2001, the number of Christians in North Africa was estimated at 9 million, the majority of whom live in Egypt, with the remainder live in [[Maghreb]] countries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Juang |first1=Richard M. |title=Africa and the Americas [3 Volumes]: Culture, Politics, and History |last2=Morrissette |first2=Noelle |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-521-88952-0 |location=UK |pages=929–930}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Juergensmeyer |first1=Mark |title=The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-976764-9 |location=Oxford |page=317}}</ref>

The inhabitants of the Spanish [[Canary Islands]] are of mixed Spanish and North African Berber ancestry, and the people of [[Malta]] are of primarily Southern Italian/Sicilian, as well as, to a lesser extent, North African and Middle Eastern ancestry<ref name="auto">{{cite book |url=http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20070805/opinion/genetic-origin-of-contemporary-maltese.9032 |title=Genetic Origin of Contemporary Maltese People |date=5 August 2007 |quote=Repopulation is likely to have occurred by a clan or clans (possibly of Arab or Arab-like speaking people) from neighbouring Sicily and Calabria. Possibly, they could have mixed with minute numbers of residual inhabitants, with a constant input of immigrants from neighbouring countries and later, even from afar. There seems to be little input from North Africa.}}</ref><ref>Geoffrey Hull, ''The Malta Language Question: A Case Study in Cultural Imperialism'', Valletta: Said International, 1993, pp. 317–330. Scientific etymologies of the longest-established Maltese family names are given in Geoffrey Hull, "The Oldest Maltese Surnames: A Window on Sicily's Medieval History", in Claudia Karagoz and Giovanna Summerfield (eds), ''Sicily and the Mediterranean: Migration, Exchange, Reinvention'', New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 78–108; "Late Medieval Maltese Surnames of Arabic and Greek Origin", ''Symposia Melitensia'' No. 11 (2015), pp. 129–143</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20070805/opinion/genetic-origin-of-contemporary-maltese.9032 |title=Genetic Origin of Contemporary Maltese People |date=5 August 2007 |quote=Together with colleagues from other institutions across the Mediterranean and in collaboration with the group led by David Goldstein at the University College, London, we have shown that the contemporary males of Malta most likely originated from Southern Italy, including Sicily and up to Calabria. There is a minuscule amount of input from the Eastern Mediterranean with genetic affinity to Christian Lebanon....We documented clustering of the Maltese markers with those of Sicilians and Calabrians. The study is published in the Annals of Human Genetics by C. Capelli, N. Redhead, N. Novelletto, L. Terrenato, P. Malaspina, Z. Poulli, G. Lefranc, A. Megarbane, V. Delague, V. Romano, F. Cali, V.F. Pascali, M. Fellous, A.E. Felice, and D.B. Goldstein; "Population Structure in the Mediterranean Basin; A Y Chromosome Perspective", AHG, 69, 1–20, 2005..}}</ref> and speak a [[Maltese language|derivative of Arabic]]. However, these areas are not generally considered part of North Africa, but rather Southern Europe, due to their proximity to mainland Europe and their European-based cultures and religion.

=== Historic movements ===
The Maghreb or western North Africa on the whole is believed to have been inhabited by [[Berbers]] and their ancestors since at least 10,000 B.C.,<ref>{{Cite book
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0E8qp_k515oC
|title=Historical Dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen)
|series=Historical Dictionaries of Peoples and Cultures
|page=112
|last=Ilahine | first=Hsain|year=2006
|publisher=Scarecrow Press 
|isbn=0-8108-6490-8}}</ref> while the eastern part of North Africa or the [[Nile Valley]] has mainly been home to the [[Egyptians]] and [[Nubians]]. Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber. As the [[Tassili n'Ajjer]] and other rock art findings in the Sahara have shown, the [[Sahara]] also hosted various populations before its rapid [[desertification]] in 3500 B.C and even today continues to host small populations of [[Tuareg people|nomadic trans-Saharan peoples]]. Laboratory examination of the [[Uan Muhuggiag]] [[Uan Muhuggiag#Tashwinat Mummy|child mummy]] and Tin Hanakaten child, suggested that the Central Saharan peoples from the [[Epipaleolithic]], [[Mesolithic]], and [[Pastoral Period|Pastoral]] periods possessed dark skin complexions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Soukopova |first1=Jitka |title=Round Heads: The Earliest Rock Paintings in the Sahara |date=16 January 2013 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-4579-3 |pages=19–24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=07wwBwAAQBAJ&q=Tuareg&pg=PR5 |language=en}}</ref> The archaeological evidence from the Holocene period has shown that [[Nilo-Saharan]] speaking groups had populated the central and southern Sahara before the influx of [[Berber languages|Berber]] and [[Arabic]] speakers, around 1500 years ago, who now largely populate the Sahara in the modern era.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Drake |first1=Nick A. |last2=Blench |first2=Roger M. |last3=Armitage |first3=Simon J. |last4=Bristow |first4=Charlie S. |last5=White |first5=Kevin H. |title=Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=11 January 2011 |volume=108 |issue=2 |pages=458–462 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1012231108 |pmid=21187416 |pmc=3021035 |bibcode=2011PNAS..108..458D |issn=1091-6490|doi-access=free }}</ref>

[[File:Griechischen und phönizischen Kolonien.jpg|thumb|Map of [[Phoenicia]]n (in yellow) and [[Second Greek colonisation|Greek colonies]] (in red) about 8th to 6th century BC.]]
After [[Phoenician settlement of North Africa|migrating to North Africa]] in the 1st millennium BC, [[Semitic people|Semitic]] [[Phoenicia]]n settlers from the [[Levant]] established over 300 coastal colonies throughout the region and built a [[Ancient Carthage|powerful empire]] that controlled most of the region from the 8th century BC until the middle of the 2nd century BC.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woolmer |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lbmKDwAAQBAJ&dq=300+colonies+phoenician+strabo&pg=PA201 |title=A Short History of the Phoenicians |date=30 April 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-78672-217-1 |pages=201 |language=en}}</ref>

Several waves of [[Arab migrations to the Maghreb]] began in the 7th century, including the migration of the [[Banu Hilal]] and the [[Banu Sulaym]] westward into the Maghreb in the eleventh century, which introduced Arab culture and language to the countryside. Historians mark their movement as a critical moment in the Arabization of North Africa.<ref name="AppiahGates2005">{{cite book|author1=Anthony Appiah|author2=Henry Louis Gates|title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA360|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517055-9|page=360}}</ref> As Arab nomads spread, the territories of the local Berber tribes were moved and shrank. The [[Zenata]] were pushed to the west and the [[Kabyle people|Kabyles]] were pushed to the north. The Berbers took refuge in the mountains whereas the plains were Arabized.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Farida |first1=Benouis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmaWEAAAQBAJ |title=An Architecture of Light. Islamic Art in Algeria. |last2=Houria |first2=Chérid |last3=Lakhdar |first3=Drias |last4=Amine |first4=Semar |date=30 August 2022 |publisher=Museum With No Frontiers, MWNF (Museum Ohne Grenzen) |isbn=978-3-902966-14-8 |page=9 |language=en}}</ref> This heavily shifted the demographics of the Maghreb.

The [[trans-Saharan slave trade]] resulted in increased levels of sub-Saharan African ancestry in North Africa.<ref>{{cite news |title=Understanding the genomic heterogeneity of North African Imazighen: from broad to microgeographical perspectives |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-60568-8 |work=[[Scientific Reports]] |date=1 May 2024}}</ref> The [[Haratin]] are commonly perceived as an endogamous group of former [[Slavery in Africa|slaves]] or descendants of slaves.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Anthony Appiah |author2=Henry Louis Gates |title=Encyclopedia of Africa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0XNvklcqbwC&pg=PA549 |year=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-533770-9 |page=549}}, Quote: "Haratine. Social caste in several northwestern African countries consisting of blacks, many of whom are former slaves (...)"</ref>

===Genetic history===
{{See also|Genetic history of North Africa}}
DNA studies of [[Iberomaurusian]] peoples at [[Taforalt]], Morocco dating to around 15,000 years ago have found them to have a distinctive Maghrebi ancestry formed from a mixture of [[Near East]]ern and African ancestry, which is still found as a part of the genome of modern Northwest Africans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=van de Loosdrecht |first1=Marieke |last2=Bouzouggar |first2=Abdeljalil |last3=Humphrey |first3=Louise |last4=Posth |first4=Cosimo |last5=Barton |first5=Nick |last6=Aximu-Petri |first6=Ayinuer |last7=Nickel |first7=Birgit |last8=Nagel |first8=Sarah |last9=Talbi |first9=El Hassan |last10=El Hajraoui |first10=Mohammed Abdeljalil |last11=Amzazi |first11=Saaïd |last12=Hublin |first12=Jean-Jacques |last13=Pääbo |first13=Svante |last14=Schiffels |first14=Stephan |last15=Meyer |first15=Matthias |date=4 May 2018 |title=Pleistocene North African genomes link Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African human populations |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aar8380 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=360 |issue=6388 |pages=548–552 |doi=10.1126/science.aar8380 |pmid=29545507 |bibcode=2018Sci...360..548V |issn=0036-8075}}</ref> A 2025 study sequenced individuals from [[Takarkori]] (7,000 YBP) and discovered that most of their ancestry was from an unknown ancestral North African lineage, related to the African admixture component found in Iberomaurusians.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Salem |first=Nada |last2=van de Loosdrecht |first2=Marieke S. |last3=Sümer |first3=Arev Pelin |last4=Vai |first4=Stefania |last5=Hübner |first5=Alexander |last6=Peter |first6=Benjamin |last7=Bianco |first7=Raffaela A. |last8=Lari |first8=Martina |last9=Modi |first9=Alessandra |last10=Al-Faloos |first10=Mohamed Faraj Mohamed |last11=Turjman |first11=Mustafa |last12=Bouzouggar |first12=Abdeljalil |last13=Tafuri |first13=Mary Anne |last14=Manzi |first14=Giorgio |last15=Rotunno |first15=Rocco |date=2 April 2025 |title=Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08793-7 |journal=Nature |language=en |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1038/s41586-025-08793-7 |issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free |pmc=12043513 }}</ref> According to the study, the Takarkori people were distinct from both contemporary sub-Saharan Africans and non-Africans/Eurasians. They had "only a minor component of non-African ancestry" but did "not carry sub-Saharan African ancestry, suggesting that, contrary to previous interpretations, the [[Green Sahara]] was not a corridor connecting Northern and sub-Saharan Africa."<ref>Reuters. [https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/sahara-desert-once-lush-green-was-home-mysterious-human-lineage-2025-04-04/ Sahara desert, once lush and green, was home to mysterious human lineage]. 5 February 2025</ref>

Later during the [[Neolithic]], from around 7,500 years ago onwards, there was a migration into Northwest Africa of [[Early European Farmers|European Neolithic Farmers]] from the Iberian Peninsula (who had originated in [[Anatolia]] several thousand years prior), as well as pastoralists from the [[Levant]], both of whom also significantly contributed to the ancestry of modern Northwest Africans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Simões |first1=Luciana G. |last2=Günther |first2=Torsten |last3=Martínez-Sánchez |first3=Rafael M. |last4=Vera-Rodríguez |first4=Juan Carlos |last5=Iriarte |first5=Eneko |last6=Rodríguez-Varela |first6=Ricardo |last7=Bokbot |first7=Youssef |last8=Valdiosera |first8=Cristina |last9=Jakobsson |first9=Mattias |date=15 June 2023 |title=Northwest African Neolithic initiated by migrants from Iberia and Levant |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=618 |issue=7965 |pages=550–556 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-06166-6 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=10266975 |pmid=37286608|bibcode=2023Natur.618..550S }}</ref> The [[Proto-Berber language|proto-Berber]] tribes evolved from these prehistoric communities during the late [[Bronze Age|Bronze]]- and early [[Iron Age|Iron]] ages.<ref>Mário Curtis Giordani, ''História da África. Anterior aos descobrimentos.'' Editora Vozes, Petrópolis (Brasil) 1985, pp. 42f., 77f. Giordani references Bousquet, ''Les Berbères'' (Paris 1961).</ref>