Date of Award
2005
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Political Science
First Reader
Dr. Susan Zlomke
Second Reader
Dr. Trey Berry
Third Reader
Dr. Barbara Pemberton
Abstract
Man has ever invaded, pushing aside previous owners to claim possession. Thus history tells us: of nations conquered, peoples displaced, and foreigners that become inhabitants, who will in tum be conquered, displaced, and replaced. In this telling of history, however, a position exists for those whose story knows no previous inhabitants. These people are called indigenous. The shore of North Africa is a vast land that has known countless invasions and times of foreign rule. It has also known the continuation of a single people group, indigenous to its soil for as long as history can recall. These people are known as the Berbers.
How the Berbers of North Africa acquired the agnomen that serves them today is a disputed segment of their history. Some regard the name as derivative from the Roman term "Barbare" meaning barbarian. Others, like Ibn Khaldun, the Arab historian, record the name Berber as coming from an Arab. The Berber language is "highly distinct from any other language spoken of in the Mediterranean," and Khaldun relates the tale of lfriqish, an Arab conqueror, who calls the Berber tongue "barbara" when he first encounters it. Title, however, is of little consequence to a people who have endured many names under many rulers. Such is the case of the Berbers who have been known as Libyans or Garamantes to the Egyptians, Numidians to the Carthaginians, and finally Berbers in both Roman and Arab tongues, and to the world after them.
Recommended Citation
Cates, Alaina, "Islam "Saint-ified": A Description of Islamic Saint-Worship Practiced by Middle Atlas Berbers" (2005). Honors Theses. 34.
https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/34
Included in
African History Commons, African Languages and Societies Commons, Other Religion Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons