{"product_id":"inventing-the-berbers-history-and-ideology-in-the-maghrib-hardback-9780812251302","title":"Inventing the Berbers; History and Ideology in the Maghrib (Hardback) 9780812251302","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eInventing the Berbers\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eHistory and Ideology in the Maghrib\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eRamzi Rouighi (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812251302\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 2 August 2019\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e312 pages, 4 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm, 0.542 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"[A] masterly reading that is undoubtedly necessary for understanding the history of the medieval and contemporary Maghrib, as well as for its anthropologists and philologists. It involves a lesson in methodology for approaching and reflecting on written sources, but also in maturity, critical thinking, and exposition of ideas. It is an update that provides a profound analysis of the historical term. \u003ci\u003eInventing the Berbers\u003c\/i\u003e has become perhaps the most up-todate work that has not invented the Berbers.\" (\u003ci\u003eComitatus\u003c\/i\u003e) \"\u003ci\u003eInventing the Berbers\u003c\/i\u003e is an essential contribution to the history of the Maghrib, not only in the Middle Ages, but in our own time as well. It will, no doubt, be controversial, for it touches on issues of colonial historiography and ethnic definition that remain politically sensitive, especially in Algeria and Morocco. But Ramzi Rouighi's arguments are firmly grounded in the sources-and are overwhelmingly convincing.\" (Dominique Valérian, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eBefore the Arabs conquered northwest Africa in the seventh century, Ramzi Rouighi asserts, there were no Berbers. There were Moors (Mauri), Mauretanians, Africans, and many tribes and tribal federations such as the Leuathae or Musulami; and before the Arabs, no one thought that these groups shared a common ancestry, culture, or language. Certainly, there were groups considered barbarians by the Romans, but \"Barbarian,\" or its cognate, \"Berber\" was not an ethnonym, nor was it exclusive to North Africa. Yet today, it is common to see studies of the Christianization or Romanization of the Berbers, or of their resistance to foreign conquerors like the Carthaginians, Vandals, or Arabs. Archaeologists and linguists routinely describe proto-Berber groups and languages in even more ancient times, while biologists look for Berber DNA markers that go back thousands of years. Taking the pervasiveness of such anachronisms as a point of departure, \u003ci\u003eInventing the Berbers\u003c\/i\u003e examines the emergence of the Berbers as a distinct category in early Arabic texts and probes the ways in which later Arabic sources, shaped by contemporary events, imagined the Berbers as a people and the Maghrib as their home.\u003cbr\u003e Key both to Rouighi's understanding of the medieval phenomenon of the \"berberization\" of North Africa and its reverberations in the modern world is the \u003ci\u003eKitāb al-'ibar\u003c\/i\u003e of Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406), the third book of which purports to provide the history of the Berbers and the dynasties that ruled in the Maghrib. As translated into French in 1858, Rouighi argues, the book served to establish a racialized conception of Berber indigenousness for the French colonial powers who erected a fundamental opposition between the two groups thought to constitute the native populations of North Africa, Arabs and Berbers. \u003ci\u003eInventing the Berbers\u003c\/i\u003e thus demonstrates the ways in which the nineteenth-century interpretation of a medieval text has not only served as the basis for modern historical scholarship but also has had an effect on colonial and postcolonial policies and communal identities throughout Europe and North Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e PART I. MEDIEVAL ORIGINS\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Berberization and Its Origins\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. Making Berbers\u003cbr\u003e PART II. GENEOLOGY AND HOMELAND\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. The Berber People\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. The Maghrib and the Land of the Berbers\u003cbr\u003e PART III. MODERN MEDIEVAL BERBERS\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. Modern Origins\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6. Beacons, Guides, and Marked Paths\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52685567263000,"sku":"9780812251302","price":53.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/inventing-the-berbers-history-and-ideology-in-the-maghrib-hardback-9780812251302","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}