The Berbers and arabism: A look at an ancestral relationship

There is a non-negligible amount of work dealing with the origins of the Berbers. However, almost all of these productions are not by the Berbers themselves, and their vision is therefore external to these populations. This book does not fit into this intellectual approach, since its aim is precisely to question the Berbers, to give the floor to the main people concerned; it was high time to look closely at their point of view. Thanks to a meticulous research work, the author was able to exploit many forgotten sources, never or little exploited. From this study, it emerges that a fact, however established, is rarely mentioned in contemporary works: the attachment of the Berbers, since the medieval period, to the Arab people. An emic vision of the Berber identity, a look from the inside of these populations as for their origins, will allow us to note an ideological contrast on the part of the pre-colonial Maghrebians with the hysterical anti-Arab "Berberist" currents of our time.

There is a non-negligible amount of work dealing with the origins of the Berbers. However, almost all of these productions are not by the Berbers themselves, and their vision is therefore external to these populations. This book does not fit into this intellectual approach, since its aim is precisely to question the Berbers, to give the floor to the main people concerned; it was high time to look closely at their point of view. Thanks to a meticulous research work, the author was able to exploit many forgotten sources, never or little exploited. From this study, it emerges that a fact, however established, is rarely mentioned in contemporary works: the attachment of the Berbers, since the medieval period, to the Arab people. An emic vision of the Berber identity, a look from the inside of these populations as for their origins, will allow us to note an ideological contrast on the part of the pre-colonial Maghrebians with the hysterical anti-Arab "Berberist" currents of our time.