10 Facts About Maghreb

The Maghreb includes the disputed territory of Western Sahara and the Spanish cities Ceuta and Melilla.

Maghreb is usually defined as encompassing much of the northern part of Africa, including a large portion of the Sahara Desert, but excluding Egypt and Sudan, which are considered to be located in the Mashriq — the eastern part of the Arab world.

The traditional definition of the Maghreb — which restricted its scope to the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya — was expanded in modern times to include Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

In May 2015 foreign ministers of the Arab Maghreb Union declared a need for coordinated security policy at the 33rd session of the follow-up committee meeting; this revived hope of some form of cooperation.

Ibn Khaldun does not accept this definition because, he says, the inhabitants of the Maghreb do not consider Egypt and Barca as forming part of Maghrib.

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The Maghreb region was occasionally briefly unified, as under the Almohad Berber empire, Fatimids and briefly under the Zirids.

Maghreb is primarily inhabited by peoples of Berber ancestral origin.

Y-chromosome genetic structure of the Maghreb population seems to be modulated chiefly by geography.

Original religions of the peoples of the Maghreb seem to have been based in and related to fertility cults of a strong matriarchal pantheon.

Maghreb is divided into a Mediterranean climate region in the north, and the arid Sahara in the south.