The arrival of Islam in the 7th century was a seminal and essential moment in the formation of the Moroccan nation. But before Muslim troops reached Morocco’s borders, the country already had its own identity, history, and geographical and cultural characteristics. Let’s take a look back at the origins of an ancient country and a very old nation.

Many Moroccan historians like to recount, with a certain delight, this anecdote that took place in the court of an Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. A courtier, believing he was flattering the caliph, explained to him that the world resembled a huge bird, with its head in the East, its two wings spread over Yemen and Syria, its heart in Iraq, and its tail in the West, in the Maghreb. A Moroccan present at the caliph’s court then intervened to confirm the courtier’s words, saying: « Yes, the world is indeed like a peacock, » alluding to the beautiful, ticklish fan of feathers that forms the peacock’s tail, the most noble part of this bird. The caliph smiled at his Moroccan guest’s remark and rewarded him for his wit and national pride. As this anecdote shows, Moroccans have always had a deep-rooted conviction that they belong to a distinct geographical entity with a specific culture and history. Their country is not exclusively Berber, Arab, Muslim, Jewish, or African, but all of these things at once. It is a mixture, a synthesis.

A mythical country
Its former name, Al Maghrib Al Aqsa, the Far West, reflects this uniqueness and specificity, even in the eyes of foreigners who perceived it as a distant, remote land that fascinated and intrigued them. Various myths and legends express the curiosity aroused by the « Far West » of the world: it was there that Atlas, the giant of Greek mythology, lived, giving his name to the mountain range, condemned by Zeus for his insubordination to carry the vault of heaven on his powerful shoulders.

It was in Tangier that Hercules opened the Strait of Gibraltar by splitting two mountains with a powerful blow of his sword, thus separating Europe from Africa forever. And it was in this region that the Atlanteans, a mythical people descended from the god of the ocean, settled and founded a powerful empire that, according to legend, stretched from Senegal to the British Isles. The history of Morocco before the advent of Islam in the 7th century demonstrates the cultural and geographical specificity of Morocco, « a country detached from all other countries, » as Ibn Khaldoun described it. Ancient history shows how Morocco was formed and shaped by successive waves of races, cultures, religions, and influences from all horizons, of which Islam and Arabism are only one component, albeit an essential and important one.

« Soukan al Maghrib al awaloun »
Without going back to time immemorial, it is generally accepted that the first inhabitants of Morocco were the Berbers, a group of peoples who appeared more than 9,000 years ago in North Africa following waves of migration from the Near East. The movement of groups from the East and their settlement in Morocco is a characteristic feature of the country’s history over the centuries. Another prehistoric migratory wave came from the Mediterranean, joining and merging with the populations from the East, giving the inhabitants of Morocco and the Maghreb their physical and cultural uniqueness.

In his monumental History of the Berbers, Ibn Khaldoun attributes the origin of the word « Berber » to the difficulty of the dialects spoken by the populations of the Maghreb, which the various invaders were unable to decipher and understand. The great historian explains that the word « barbara » in Arabic means incomprehensible cries as well as the roars of a lion. Ibn Khaldoun’s explanation draws on an older origin of the word Berber, which derives from the Latin word Barbarus, meaning foreign to the language and culture of the Greeks, and also referring to the populations who lived outside the Roman Empire.

The question of the origin of the Berbers has always been a crucial and important issue, one that goes beyond the scope of scientific knowledge. Historical research has often been used to serve political ambitions and forge an ideological vision of Morocco’s identity and history. Thus, many colonialist authors have sought to prove the European origin of the Berbers, sometimes resorting to scientific acrobatics and muddled arguments. The presence of groups with fair skin and light eyes in certain mountainous areas of Morocco was presented as confirmation that the Berbers are descendants of Celtic tribes from northern Europe. This interpretation aimed to legitimize French colonization by finding a common ethnic origin with the indigenous population and sowing division between Arabs and Berbers. Modern anthropological and archaeological research has completely dismantled and invalidated the hypothesis of the European origin of the Berbers, which was very popular during the colonial period.

Welcome to the Moors
In ancient times, the Berber population of North Africa was called « the Libyans. » For Greek and Roman historians, this name covered a vast geographical area that stretched across what is now known as the « Greater Maghreb. » Known for their military and warrior qualities, the Libyans, or « Lebou, » even rose to power in Egypt with King Shishak I, founding a new dynasty of pharaohs in 950 BC. This date is considered the beginning of the Berber calendar.
However, another, more precise name appeared in Greek and Roman writings to refer to the population located in western North Africa: the Moors. Due to a lack of traces and written documents, not much is known about this population of Berber tribes who inhabited a territory corresponding largely to present-day Morocco. Of Phoenician origin, the word Moors means « the Westerners » and was used to geographically distinguish this territory from other regions of North Africa. The name of this people would have a different fate when the Spanish used it, following the end of the Muslim presence in Andalusia, to refer to what we now call the Maghrebis. Located between the Atlantic Ocean and the Moulouya River, the Moorish population consisted mainly of farmers, shepherds, and nomads. Contact with the Phoenicians, who established trading posts and stopovers in various parts of Morocco, enabled the Moorish tribes to develop political and administrative structures that transformed into a kingdom from the 4th century BC onwards. Moorish princes and high officials used Phoenician as their administrative and diplomatic language, while the various Berber dialects were the language of exchange between the populations. The fall of Carthage, which led to the collapse of Phoenician power and the emergence of the Roman Empire, allowed the Moorish kingdom to emerge and step out of the shadows. The Moorish kings then entered into complex alliances with the Romans to expand their territory at the expense of other Berber kingdoms in North Africa, particularly their Numidian neighbors.

Game of Kings…
For three centuries, the Bocchus dynasty ruled the Moorish country, which resembled a confederation of tribes with a leader rather than a centralized monarchy. The founding of the Moorish kingdom and its exact extent remain little known due to the scarcity and near absence of written documents. The few references found in Roman historians suggest that it was a kingdom stretching from northern Morocco to the Atlas Mountains, with the Moulouya River forming a natural border separating it from Numidia, an eastern Berber kingdom that was sometimes an ally and often a rival.

For a long time, the Moorish kingdom was a friend and supporter of the Romans in their various struggles in North Africa. Thus, at the end of the 3rd century BC, King Baga provided Scipio Africanus, the famous Roman general, with contingents of fighters to wage a final battle against the powerful Carthage. The Roman victory over Carthage and the destruction of the latter reshaped the Mediterranean and North Africa. An empire was born out of this victory. The alliance of the Moors with the Roman Empire allowed the Bocchus dynasty to expand its kingdom, encroach on the territory of its neighbors, and gain power and influence. The outbreak of a conflict between Rome and the Berber kingdom of Numidia was an opportunity seized by the Bocchus to spectacularly expand the territory of the Moors.

Then, around 109 BC, Jugurtha, the young Numidian king, rejected Rome’s plan to divide his kingdom among various heirs, thus triggering a long war with the Romans. Jugurtha then turned to his neighbor and father-in-law Bocchus I, king of the Moors, for help and support in his fight. But the Moorish king, fearing a devastating reaction from Rome and thinking first of his own political interests, ended up handing his son-in-law Jugurtha over to his enemies. The reward for his betrayal was great: Bocchus I received from the Romans the entire western part of the Numidian kingdom, which covered a large part of present-day Algeria. The new subjects of the Moorish kings gradually lost their former name, and the name of their fallen kingdom, Numidia, disappeared to become the land of the Moors.

But Roman influence continued to grow, and their control over North Africa reached considerable proportions. The fall of the Moorish kingdom in 40 AD with the assassination of Ptolemy, the last ruler of the Bocchus dynasty, put an end to the Berber kingdoms and placed North Africa under direct Roman administration.

The cultural exception
An off-center country, bordered by seas and crossed by massive mountain ranges, of little economic interest to the great powers of the time, ancient Morocco was only slightly influenced culturally and politically by its invaders. The Romans, Vandals, and Byzantines successively occupied Morocco and prevented the resurgence of Berber kingdoms, but without managing to profoundly alter its ethnic composition or radically transform its identity and culture. Only Islam and successive waves of Arab migration succeeded in integrating with the Berber component and laying the foundations of the Moroccan nation. Despite a presence lasting more than five centuries, the Romans left only a superficial mark on Morocco, and the impact of their colonization was very limited. The region of « Mauretania Tingitana, » which corresponded to Morocco according to the Roman administrative division, was less Latinized and less influenced by the culture of the empire than Algeria and Tunisia. Roman occupation remained confined to a narrow territory in certain cities such as Tingis (Tangier), Lixus (Larache), and Volubilis. There are few traces of the large-scale monuments that the Romans left in other countries, such as aqueducts, bridges, or major roads. Two worlds coexisted in this context: a Roman civilization cloistered in a few garrison towns reserved for soldiers and officials from the metropolis, and a population that kept its customs, traditions, and dialects intact. The marks of the Roman presence diminished and faded with the shrinking of the empire and the arrival of new conquerors. Around 429, the Vandals, hordes of Germanic tribes whose name is synonymous with destruction, depredation, and pillage, invaded Morocco in search of fertile land and natural resources. They then headed east to reach ancient Carthage, leaving only desolation and ruins in their wake. Despite a presence of more than a century in North Africa, the Vandals left few traces of their passage in Morocco. The Byzantines, heirs to the Roman Empire, attempted to restore the glory and prestige of their ancestors by setting out to reconquer the Maghreb. However, they had little success in Morocco and their area of influence remained limited to Tangier and Sebta due to strong resistance from the Berber tribes. The field was then open to new conquerors from the East, galvanized by their religion, which they sought to spread and convert other peoples to: the Arabs.

When Islam arrived
After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the Muslims embarked on a series of rapid and dazzling conquests, with light troops and few men and weapons. In just a few months, with a small army of 4,000 men, the Arab warriors were able to defeat the Byzantines in Egypt and annex the ancient land of the pharaohs to the young Muslim empire. But things were different and more complicated in the Maghreb, where they faced fierce Berber resistance. It took the Muslim army more than half a century of fighting, raids, and negotiations to gain definitive control of North Africa—as long as it took to conquer Syria, Egypt, Iran, and Spain combined! Oqba Ibn Nafiî, a legendary figure and fervent and stubborn fighter, symbolizes the difficulty of the task and the violence of the resistance put up by the Berbers. Appointed by Caliph Yazid in 669, Oqba launched a vast general offensive in the Maghreb. After defeating the Byzantines and building the Tunisian city of Al Kairouan, he pushed forward on a long raid to the western tip of the Maghreb, reaching Tangier, then rode south to Morocco to arrive in the « land of the Blacks. »

According to the legend reported by Muslim historians, Oqba advanced with his horse into the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, or « the sea of darkness » as it is called in Arabic, and swore to God that if he had the opportunity to extend his conquest beyond the ocean, he would not hesitate to do so. On his way to Al Kairouan, Oqba was killed near Biskra in Algeria in a battle against the Awraba tribe led by Kousseila, the Berber chief. After Oqba’s death, new Muslim military campaigns were launched in the Maghreb, but few of them reached Morocco. The alliance between the Byzantines and the Berber tribes gave the troops sent by the caliphs of Damascus a run for their money and delayed Muslim domination of North Africa. One woman distinguished herself in the resistance of the Berber tribes of the Aurès Mountains in Algeria and forced the Muslim troops to retreat. Dihiya or Damiya, depending on the source, nicknamed Kahina by Arab historians, has become a figure of Maghreb mythology for having resisted the advance of Muslim troops until her death. But a new and final offensive was launched by Moussa Ibn Noussaïr in 704. Impetuous, a skilled negotiator and determined military leader, Moussa Ibn Noussaïr succeeded in conquering all of Morocco and convincing the Berbers to convert to Islam. The new religion adopted by the Berbers provided them with a strong bond that transcended local and tribal divisions and cemented the different components of the population living in Morocco. Many Berbers joined the Muslim army and participated actively and ardently in the conquests carried out under the banner of Islam. One of them, Tariq Ibn Ziad, was even tasked by Moussa Ibn Noussaïr with leading the troops to conquer Spain. Quite symbolic.

Recommended reading

• Ibn Khaldoun. History of the Berbers (Editions Geuthner 1999). This monumental work by the Maghreb historian is an essential reference, particularly on the arrival of Islam in Morocco.
• Gabriel Camps. Les Berbères: mémoire et identité (Actes Sud 2007). Simple, rigorous, and erudite, this book by the great specialist in Berber history is a classic.
• Henri Terrasse: History of Morocco (Frontispice 2005). Unavailable for years, Henri Terrasse’s book is undoubtedly a must-read for anyone interested in the origins and history of Morocco.
• Abdellah Laroui. Mojamal Tarikh Al Maghrib (Arab Cultural Center 2007). In the section on the history of Morocco before Islam, Laroui provides an interesting and harsh critique of the colonialist authors who have addressed this subject.
• Charles-André Julien. Histoire de l’Afrique du Nord (Payot 1994). An essential reference on the Maghreb written by a great historian and fervent lover of Morocco.
• Michel Abitbol. Histoire du Maroc (Perrin 2009). Educational, enjoyable to read, and interesting, particularly on the Jewish history of Morocco.
• Bernard Lugan. Histoire du Maroc (Perrin 2000). A good textbook on the history of Morocco with a clear bias and assertive theories on the formation of the Moroccan nation.

Written in French by Abdellah Tourabi; edited in English by AngloMedia Group.