Editing Berbers (section)

=== Other sources ===
According to the ''[[Al-Fihrist|Al-Fiḥrist]]'', the Barber (i.e. Berbers) comprised one of seven principal races in Africa.<ref>Ibn al-Nadim. ''Al-Fiḥrist'', Book I, pp.&nbsp;35–36</ref>

The medieval Tunisian scholar [[Ibn Khaldun]] (1332–1406), recounting the oral traditions prevalent in his day, sets down two popular opinions as to the origin of the Berbers: according to one opinion, they are descended from [[Canaan, son of Ham]], and have for ancestors Berber, son of Temla, son of Mazîgh, son of Canaan, son of Ham, a son of Noah;<ref name="Khaldun1925">{{cite book |last=Ibn Khaldun |title=Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale |publisher=P. Geuthner |year=1925 |volume=1 |location=Paris |page=176 |language=fr |translator-last=de Slane |translator-first=William MacGuckin |oclc=556514510 |author-link=Ibn Khaldun |translator-link=Baron de Slane}}</ref> alternatively, [[Abu Bakr bin Yahya al-Suli|Abou-Bekr Mohammed es-Souli]] (947 AD) held that they are descended from Berber, the son of Keloudjm ([[Casluhim]]), the son of [[Mesraim]], the son of Ham.<ref name=Khaldun1925/>

{{blockquote|They belong to a powerful, formidable, brave and numerous people; a true people like so many others the world has seen – like the Arabs, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. The men who belong to this family of peoples have inhabited the Maghreb since the beginning.|Ibn Khaldun<ref name=Berbers/>}}

==== Scientific ====
As of about 5000 BC, the populations of North Africa were descended primarily from the [[Iberomaurusian]] and [[Capsian culture|Capsian]] cultures, with a more recent intrusion being associated with the [[Neolithic Revolution]].<ref>J. Desanges, "The proto-Berbers", pp. 236–245, especially p. 237, in ''General History of Africa, vol. II: Ancient Civilizations of Africa'' (UNESCO 1990).</ref> The 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>

[[Uniparental inheritance|Uniparental DNA]] analysis has established ties between Berbers and other Afroasiatic speakers in Africa. Most of these populations belong to the [[Haplogroup E-M215 (Y-DNA)|E1b1b]] paternal haplogroup, with Berber speakers having among the highest frequencies of this lineage.<ref name=Trombetta2015>{{cite journal|last1=Trombetta|first1=Beniamino|last2=D'Atanasio|first2=Eugenia|last3=Massaia|first3=Andrea|last4=Ippoliti|first4=Marco|last5=Coppa|first5=Alfredo|last6=Candilio|first6=Francesca|last7=Coia|first7=Valentina|last8=Russo|first8=Gianluca|last9=Dugoujon|first9=Jean-Michel|last10=Moral|first10=Pedro|last11=Akar|first11=Nejat|last12=Sellitto|first12=Daniele|last13=Valesini|first13=Guido|last14=Novelletto|first14=Andrea|last15=Scozzari|first15=Rosaria|last16=Cruciani|first16=Fulvio|title=Phylogeographic Refinement and Large Scale Genotyping of Human Y Chromosome Haplogroup E Provide New Insights into the Dispersal of Early Pastoralists in the African Continent|journal=[[Genome Biology and Evolution]]|date=24 June 2015|volume=7|issue=7|pages=1940–1950|doi=10.1093/gbe/evv118|pmid=26108492|pmc=4524485}}</ref>

Additionally, genomic analysis found that Berber and other Maghreb communities have a high frequency of an ancestral component that originated in the Near East. This Maghrebi element peaks among Tunisian Berbers.<ref name=Henn2012>{{cite journal|last1=Henn|first1=Brenna M.|last2=Botigué|first2=Laura R.|last3=Gravel|first3=Simon|last4=Wang|first4=Wei|last5=Brisbin|first5=Abra|last6=Byrnes|first6=Jake K.|last7=Fadhlaoui-Zid|first7=Karima|last8=Zalloua|first8=Pierre A.|last9=Moreno-Estrada|first9=Andres|last10=Bertranpetit|first10=Jaume|last11=Bustamante|first11=Carlos D.|last12=Comas|first12=David|title=Genomic Ancestry of North Africans Supports Back-to-Africa Migrations|journal=[[PLOS Genetics]]|date=12 January 2012|volume=8|issue=1|pages=e1002397|doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1002397|pmid=22253600|pmc=3257290 |doi-access=free }}</ref> This ancestry is related to the Coptic/Ethio-Somali component, which diverged from these and other West Eurasian-affiliated components before the [[Holocene]].<ref name=Hodgson2014>{{cite journal |last1=Hodgson |first1=Jason A. |last2=Mulligan |first2=Connie J. |last3=Al-Meeri |first3=Ali |last4=Raaum |first4=Ryan L. |title=Early Back-to-Africa Migration into the Horn of Africa |journal=[[PLOS Genetics]] |date=12 June 2014 |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=e1004393 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004393 |pmid=24921250 |pmc=4055572 |doi-access=free }}; {{cite journal |title=Supplementary Text S1: Affinities of the Ethio-Somali ancestry component |journal=PLOS Genetics |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004393.s017 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

In 2013, Iberomaurusian skeletons from the prehistoric sites of [[Taforalt]] and [[Mechta-Afalou|Afalou]] in the Maghreb were also analyzed for [[ancient DNA]]. All of the specimens belonged to maternal clades associated with either North Africa or the northern and southern Mediterranean [[littoral]], indicating gene flow between these areas since the [[Epipaleolithic]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kefi|first1=R.|last2=Bouzaid|first2=E.|last3=Stevanovitch|first3=A.|last4=Beraud-Colomb|first4=E.|title=Mitochondrial DNA and Phylogenetic Analysis of Prehistoric North African Populations|url=http://www.isabs.hr/PDF/2013/ISABS-2013_book_of_abstracts.pdf|publisher=International Society for Applied Biological Sciences|access-date=21 April 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311200852/http://www.isabs.hr/PDF/2013/ISABS-2013_book_of_abstracts.pdf|archive-date=11 March 2016}}</ref> The ancient Taforalt individuals carried the mtDNA [[haplogroup]]s [[Haplogroup U6 (mtDNA)|U6]], [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)|H]], [[Haplogroup JT (mtDNA)|JT]], and [[Haplogroup V (mtDNA)|V]], which points to population continuity in the region dating from the Iberomaurusian period.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Secher|first1=Bernard|last2=Fregel|first2=Rosa|last3=Larruga|first3=José M.|last4=Cabrera|first4=Vicente M.|last5=Endicott|first5=Phillip|last6=Pestano|first6=José J.|last7=González|first7=Ana M.|title=The history of the North African mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U6 gene flow into the African, Eurasian and American continents|journal=[[BMC Evolutionary Biology]]|volume=14|number=109|doi=10.1186/1471-2148-14-109|pmid=24885141|pmc=4062890|date=19 May 2014|page=109|doi-access=free|bibcode=2014BMCEE..14..109S }}</ref>

[[File:Persepolis14.JPG|thumb|left|Ancient Libyan delegation at [[Persepolis]].]]

Human fossils excavated at the Ifri n'Amr ou Moussa site in Morocco have been [[radiocarbon dated]] to the Early Neolithic period, {{circa|5000}} BC. Ancient DNA analysis of these specimens indicates that they carried paternal haplotypes related to the [[Haplogroup E-M215 (Y-DNA)|E1b1b1b1a]] (E-M81) subclade and the maternal haplogroups [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)|U6a]] and [[Haplogroup M (mtDNA)|M1]], all of which are frequent among present-day communities in the Maghreb. These ancient individuals also bore an [[Indigenous peoples|autochthonous]] Maghrebi genomic component that peaks among modern Berbers, indicating that they were ancestral to populations in the area. Additionally, fossils excavated at the [[Kelif el Boroud]] site near [[Rabat]] were found to carry the broadly-distributed paternal haplogroup [[haplogroup T-M184|T-M184]] as well as the maternal haplogroups [[Haplogroup K (mtDNA)|K1]], [[Haplogroup T (mtDNA)|T2]] and [[Haplogroup X (mtDNA)|X2]], the latter of which were common mtDNA lineages in Neolithic [[Europe]] and [[Anatolia]]. These ancient individuals likewise bore the Berber-associated Maghrebi genomic component. This altogether indicates that the late-Neolithic [[Kehf el Baroud]] inhabitants were ancestral to contemporary populations in the area, but also likely experienced gene flow from [[Europe]].<ref name="Kelif el Boroud">{{cite journal|last1=Fregel|first1=Rosa|last2=Méndez|first2=Fernando L.|last3=Bokbot|first3=Youssef|last4=Martín-Socas|first4=Dimas|last5=Camalich-Massieu|first5=María D.|last6=Santana|first6=Jonathan|last7=Morales|first7=Jacob|last8=Ávila-Arcos|first8=María C.|last9=Underhill|first9=Peter A.|last10=Shapiro|first10=Beth|last11=Wojcik|first11=Genevieve|last12=Rasmussen|first12=Morten|last13=Soares|first13=Andre E. R.|last14=Kapp|first14=Joshua|last15=Sockell|first15=Alexandra|last16=Rodríguez-Santos|first16=Francisco J.|last17=Mikdad|first17=Abdeslam|last18=Trujillo-Mederos|first18=Aioze|last19=Bustamante|first19=Carlos D.|date=12 June 2018|title=Ancient genomes from North Africa evidence prehistoric migrations to the Maghreb from both the Levant and Europe|journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]]|volume=115|number=26|pages=6774–6779|biorxiv=10.1101/191569|doi=10.1073/pnas.1800851115|pmid=29895688|pmc=6042094|bibcode=2018PNAS..115.6774F |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The late-Neolithic Kehf el Baroud inhabitants were modelled as being of about 50% local North African ancestry and 50% [[Early European Farmer]] (EEF) ancestry. It was suggested that EEF ancestry had entered North Africa through [[Cardial Ware]] colonists from Iberia sometime between 5000 and 3000 BC. They were found to be closely related to the [[Guanches]] of the [[Canary Islands]]. The authors of the study suggested that the Berbers of Morocco carried a substantial amount of EEF ancestry before the establishment of [[Roman colonies in Berber Africa]].<ref name="Kelif el Boroud"/>