This Ceylal is no representative of any Algerian. He is not even an Arab but an Berber who lives in USA. I know many Algerian Arabs and even Algerian Berbers who are much more respected than he is. After all we have Algerian Arabs in KSA. I will not have any respect for his likes. I think you do not know his history on this page and his views on us Arabs. If not then please see his history.
I am solely talking to him as a individual and the Berbers he represents as a Berber. Nothing else.
You do realize that he just called us Saudi men "assholes"? The same people whose ancestors left an everlasting influence in Algeria in the form of Arabs and in the entire Arab and Muslim world?
Anyway he has no business in any Arab women matters and especially not Saudi women. He should concentrate on Berber women then we will concentrate on Saudi and Arab women.
You are a lying half bred bastard. I am reasonnably sure that the Saudi participants in this forum are smart enough to know that my reply was directed at you and only you! On top of being a monster thru your posting, you are a miserable bigoted little human being that deserve no respect from anyone and I will pursue you and deconstruct your lies, your hatred to others until you quit being what you are and I will be your shadow and the shadow of your inseparable quintet of yours.
Even Yemenis women start revolting against your stone age ways...
And against this
and this...
For something like this, living openly like their Berber sisters with protected right like any DZ citizen..
And keep dreaming about this, [your avatar]
It will never happen...read on us...Can you stay concentrated enough to read the following...
Definition of Berber & Etymology of Imazighen:
The perplexed term 'Berber' is shrouded with mystery, just as the Berbers themselves. Regardless of whether some people like or dislike the use of the term 'Berber', the name had entered the international vocabulary, and therefore it will be used here when writing in English. The matriarchal name 'Tamazight', albeit more popular in its recent masculine and patriarchal form Amazigh, is gradually becoming known to the outside world. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with using the term Berber, just because it was mistakenly associated with Greek barbarous and the negative connotation it conveys; as it existed long before the Greeks and the Romans, and was also used by the Ancient Egyptians and the Berbers long before them. The etymology of the name 'Berber' was altogether misunderstood, and it never meant 'barbaric' or 'savage', simply because the Romans used it to describe the Ancient Egyptians whom we all know were far more advanced and civilised than both the Romans and the Greeks.
The etymology of 'Imazighen', namely 'The Free People', also has no etymological basis nor historical foundation, and it was merely a superstitious conjuncture that somehow gained widespread popularity amongst both Berberists and European scholars, probably after it was introduced to them by Berber Leo Africanus without questioning its authority or explaining how it came to have this bizarre etymology. Which part in the term 'Imazighen' that says 'free' and which part that means 'people' remain to be explained. The only etymology that can be concluded, so far, is "nobel", as in Tuareg Tamaheqt majegh ('nobel'). Nobel, they are, no doubt; but free is far from true! Freedom starts in the mind, then manifests in the real world.
Imazighen is the plural form of the masculine singular Amazigh or Mazigh, while 'Timazighin' is the plural form of the feminine singular Tamazight. This means that the recent use of the term 'Amazigh' to describe a group of people, as in "the Amazigh of Libya" or "the Amazigh of Algeria", is inaccurate because the term is singular; and therefore the correct form to use is the plural "Imazighen", as in "the Imazighen of Libya" -- in the same way one cannot say: "the Berber of Libya", because the correct form to use here is "the Berbers of Libya". However, there are instances where one can use the singular form to describe a group, like "the Berber people"; but "the Berber of North Africa" (or "the Amazigh of North Africa") is also incorrect. One can also note the fact that most Imazighen say 'Mazigh', rather than "Amazigh", as in 'netsh d mazigh'; which could indicate that both "Amazigh" and "Alamazigh" are the Arabic forms of the Mazigh name.
And so the term Berber was used by foreigners, or aliens some would say, while the Berbers call themselves Imazighen; as they came to call Berber language by the name of "Tamazight", (also 'Tamaheqt' or 'Tamasheght', depending on language and dialect). The popular and masculine form used almost world-wide, namely "Amazigh Language", does not exist, violates the sacred "Tamazight", and is heading towards threatening the very base on which it was founded -- the matriarchal nature of the whole Berber culture & society. Tamazight by itself means exactly that: 'Berber language'; full stop.
'Tamazgha', meaning the 'land of the Imazighen', namely North Africa, was also invented by activists to describe what the Berbers have always prescribed as 'Tamort', or 'Thamorth', ('land, village, town, country, earth'). Terms like 'Amazighity', which mixes the English suffix -ty with the Berber noun a-Mazigh- in a rare percussion, and 'Imazighenautes' ('the Berber geeks of the Internet') give the amusing impression that things are getting complicated. For some unknown reason, there seems to be the attempt, not quite sure by whom, to abandon the original matriarchal form of the appellation "Tamazight" and ultimately all its associated forms.
Some might say this is not bad and should not pose a threat, but one can only agree that modernisation, in the context that was applied to justify elimination of identities rather than illuminate, is part of biological evolution overall and is not man's invention. TEK ('Traditional Environmental Knowledge') is already taking care of modernising all aspects of human existence in one complete system we know as evolution. This extensive TEK system of indigenous People's heritage and accumulative wisdom, which modern scientists now seek for new insights, insures culture's continuation and inspires new inventions of material types, smart tools and even new human societies altogether; encompassing all aspects of human's existence. Yet despotic systems, in contrast, emphasise only one single aspect on the expense of all other aspects including the desecration of nature, polluting the environment, and feeding the earth with toxic waste. This reckless and temporary expression will not succeed in evolutionary terms because it violates long range perspective with which nature sees its future offspring thriving as ever!
The Berber mentality, their cheerful attitude to life, their customary egalitarian justice and tribal council of the elders (of both female and male transparent members of the society who could lead by example), and all the good and unique elements that distinguish Tamazight society from most of the warring ideals of the neighbouring and far distant countries, may all become affected, and may even become infected with the new cultureless direction towards which the Berber society may one day find itself led to -----> something the Imazighen of today should be concerned-with right now, rather than shortsightedly endure later. If the Berbers loose their own unique identity, as a Berber, one may no longer wish to remain a Berber, since there will be no one in essence.
To take away from indigenous people the values at the heart of their existence, rather than preserve their priceless world heritage, goes against all human ideals reverberating across the moral world. The Tuareg of the Sahara have also come under the patriarchal hammer in the last decade or so, where they were forced to perform some patriarchal con-sessions, and even were pressurised to abandon a number of Tamazight matriarchal institutions including the "sacred matrilineal naming system".
"If the only tool we have is a hammer, I guess all problems must look like a nail."
Berber Language:
Scientist estimate that 50% of the 7,000 languages currently spoken today on earth will disappear by the year 2100. The main reasons for the language loss, they say, are 'opression' and 'injustice' (endangeredlanguages.com). If unprotected constitutionally a language may eventually die. On average, one language goes extinct every week in this modern age (of technology), often due to democratic and dictatorial conquerors' open neglect. Berber language, however, is one of the oldest languages on the surface of the earth.
Berber, Arabic, Italian, French and English are all widely used in North Africa, where most if not all educated Berbers are either bilingual or trilingual speakers. Berber languages of North Africa are classified as close relatives of Chadic and Ancient Egyptian in the Afroasiatic Phylum, as well as they strongly relate to Euskara, Asian Dravidian, Polynesian Maori, Japanese Ainu, American Zuni, European Greek, Latin, Celtic, Welsh and Germanic languages, and even more relatives at the Nostratic group of families. The term Afro-Asiatic designates nothing to us other than translate the old Hamito-Semitic label, where Hamitic was somehow removed and replaced by "Afro" and where Semitic became "Asiatic", even though both terms give the wrong impression that this family encompasses all African and Asian languages in one single family, which they do not.
The old and outdated practice of slicing and segmenting languages by geographical and mythical boundaries, as politicians did divide so many countries in total disregard for their ethnic unities, is like judging "people" by the colour of their skin. Instead, linguists have come full circle and began reversing the trend, just as geneticists began tracing all humans to one African Mother, and embarked on uniting the chaotic classification of languages into one Mother Language. Pessimists say this will never be possible, while optimists state the classification of languages is flawed from the start and was mostly formalised at a time when hardly any of the world's languages were documented, let alone studied. One is inclined to accept only time will reveal the daring truth dear brothers are fighting for.
And so it follows that studying Berber in isolation of Egyptian, Chadian, Omotic and Cushitic languages is not necessary since one needs to approach the whole Family of Afroasiatic as one entity, not to prove whatever was meant to be proven, but to attempt to venture deeper in time to understand its source. That source will tell us what we do not know, or at least guide us in the right direction. And even then, regardless of any amusing skin-colour theories or genetic interpretations, which ultimately regress us to our primal state, inescapably, it is the culture question that requires correct interpretation and unperplexed understanding. Simply speaking, attributing divinity or superiority to the sweat of our ancestors is hardly a scientific approach to conquer the mystery of darkness, which only the wisdom of light can expose.
Linguists increasingly believe that the ancient Mediterranean peoples were more closely related than has been documented. Isolate Basque's Euskara is more related to Berber language than any other language, yet it was abruptly placed with the Na-Dene group. Celtic languages and earlier "Britanic" languages were also connected with Berber by some German linguists and Celticists, some of whom suggested placing Celtic and other Western European languages with Afroasiatic rather than with IE. The geographic route from the Atlas Mountain, via the straits of Gibraltar, to Iberia and on to Britain and Ireland, speaks volumes by itself -- without any words.
No doubt, being the bridge between Africa, Europe and Asia implies long and continuous contact with various migrations and invaders, of all sorts and colours, but then these often take place both ways and not only one way. According to Diakonoff, It is reasonable to suppose that the speakers of Proto-Semitic had separated from Proto-Berbero-Libyan some time during the Neolithicum (6th - 5th millennium B.C.) . . . The tribes speaking the Proto-Semitic language went north-eastward crossing the Nile valley (still unfit for settlement), and, passing onward over the Suez isthmus, spread throughout the Middle East . . . The Libyan-Guanche tribes went in the opposite direction up to the Atlantic coast and the Canaries; and possibly, over into the Pyrenaean Peninsula [24] . . . The Iberians, the ancient population of the Pyrenaean Peninsula . . . are sometimes believed to be linguistically related to the Berbero-Libyans, but the surviving Iberian texts make this hypothesis very plausible" (Afrasian Languages, Moscow 1988, pp. 32, 33).
Long before the Romans appeared across the pages of history, Cretan, Sumerian and other extinct Mediterranean languages and cultures were also linked with Berber. All these were further connected with other language families from around the world by Nostratic and other global groupings in super-families encompassing yet much bigger boundaries; and therefore again the direction of influence in which some recent supremacists narrowly entertained the foreign origin of the Berbers can be dislodged and replaced by a dual highway through which traffic still flows to nurture culture. At times it looks more like a roundabout.
As humanity genetically belongs to one single family, the old argument of segmented ethnicity versus language is no longer valid. Regardless of school, race, colour or genes, language evolves across time and space to find speakers from all walks of life, where English, for example, has achieved a nearly-global status.
To make premature conclusions about a civilisation that is hardly documented, let alone studied, where the hundreds of thousands of prehistoric art sites in the Sahara still are awaiting discovery and analysis, and where countless ancient cities still buried beneath the sand (seen recently only by satellites), and where terms like "Berber civilisation" and "Berber art" are envisaged as "blank slates" can only fuel further confusion and debate; at times justifiably leading to unjust wars.
The number of serious studies about Berber language(s) and civilisation(s) is hardly any - naturally due to the persecution and oppression imposed upon them for generations, compared to the popularised and misrepresented Greek's or Ancient Egyptian's; and therefore until then one can only wait for the facts to emerge from the desert before one is empowered by its claimed secrets. To this day Berber language remains persecuted, unofficial and extensively neglected, as much as recorded history itself refuses to update its outdated pages with the most recent results.
Libya's previous rulers showed no serious interest in its deepest history, and one can only hope for the new leaders to see the light that made them who they are - the light that made them see in pitch-black darkness.
And Libya's prehistoric art heritage and other obscure-d venues shall provide a rich research environment for future, determined Berberists and Berber students to explore, once freedom sinks in; and like the martyr Said Sifaw had said: it will be "papered" one day.
Berber Origins & Fake Genealogies:
The Berbers supposed Iberian, Cretan, Canaanite or Yemenite origins are wholly unfounded, and in many respects colonially impostored, as anthropologists and historical linguists are increasingly pointing to the native nature of the Berber nations. As for Ibn Khaldun's widely-quoted Berber ancestors, Olwen Brogan points out that his genealogies are as artificial as are most similar genealogies. While specific Oric Bates (1919) affirms The literary opinion generally current among the Arab writers acknowledged several lines of descent for the various groups of Berbers, each group being referred to an imaginary, and usually eponymous, ancestor.
The histories of Al-Bakari and Ibn Qotaybah, who identified the Berbers with the vanquished Philistines and the slayed, giant Goliath, are obviously a "big joke", which Ibn Khaldun calls a "mistake"; so are those genealogies tracing the Berbers to Yemen, H'imir or Ber-Bin-Qis Ghilan, which according to the anonymous author of Mafakher Al-Barbar (The Boasts of the Berbers', 1312 AD, p. 78) are false and exist only in the minds of "jahilite".
In relation to the Berbers' Canaanite origin, who adopted the language of the conquered Hamites, myth has it both Phoenix and Cadmus were the sons of Agenor the son of Libya by Poseidon, who left Egypt to settle in the land of Canaan, and thus one reads in Genesis (10: 22) that: Ham [is] the father of Canaan (not vice versa). Both sources are discredited and therefore their authority is deemed by science unfit to recorded history; but the science of linguistics does say Hamitic languages are much older than Semitic languages.
It is probably because of these and similar influences that, like Oric Bates had pointed out, The Byzantine historian Procopius has, like Sallust, preserved a story of African origins which reflect this tendency on the part of the Libyans to relate their remote ancestry to Asia Minor. In fact Ibn Khaldun himself makes it clear that people "chose" to relate their origin to Semitic ancestors because Sam had five profits when Ham had none.
Unlike a number of popular genealogies that seem to relate our origins to male ancestors, recent mitochondrial DNA studies trace all modern humans to one female ancestor, named "African Eve", who lived around 100,000 years ago in Africa.
History & Archaeological Evidence:
The authors of "The Berbers" (1996) came under sharp criticism by a number of scholars and activists (cf. H. Hagan) for the poor picture they claim to be the first comprehensive guide to the Berbers in the English language. In the Introduction, M. Brett and E. Fentress, state that, No general book on the Berbers is available in English. One of the most unfortunate consequences of this is the total ignorance in both Great Britain and the United States of the existence of the Berbers . . . This book is intended as a step towards answering the question, and perhaps toward a modification of the idea that Mediterranean history can be divided between black Africans and white Europeans.
This, of course, sounds a very good book, especially when its back cover carries the approval of the Journal of North African Studies (JNAS): Here at long last is a decent and thoroughly worthwhile general book on Berbers. It may be of relevance to some to know that JNAS was founded in 1996 and that Michael Brett was a member of its International Advisory Board.
However, it remains a fact that there are may British people, writers and readers, who probably know more than most people do about the Berbers' existence, their language and history; and many of whom went on to write hundreds and hundreds of books about the Berbers in English, presumably for English-speaking readers to read. The rare work of Oric Bates remains unique, nearly a hundred years on.
In this black-and-white history, in which Berber culture was made to start as recently as 7000 BC, one comes face to face with the European or the Semitic origin of the white Berbers who had subjugated the existing black population not to say that the black cover of the book and the white title ('The Berbers') graphically, or even openly, illustrate the point! Many Afrocentricists, Eurocentricists, Arayanists and other specialists are getting lost in chat rooms discussing colour and applying colour to the gods and the goddesses of the ancient world.
Of course, ignorance could have played an important role in this, as they say; but the massive material available in privileged libraries, such as London's British Library (in English and conceivably in any other language), would easily allow any serious scholar to write a comprehensive Berber history going back not to the beginning of Afroasiatic language but all the way back to the beginning of human civilisation, if not to 'African Eve' herself - at least in terms of continuity in the region.
For some reason, or another, this is yet to emerge, and it is about time the Imazighen of Tamazgha start writing their own history, and break away from this long-sought period of darkness in which supremacists wrote like tyrants, and in which democratic conquerors and brutal dictators ruled like "brats", barring free speech and flow of information, and hunting down what Gaddafi called "rats".
Despite the fact that numerous studies had began Berber history from the recent Capsian culture (9000-6000 BC.), there are several serious studies and fossils, from Casablanca, Cyrenaica, Ternifine and Rabat, documenting the existence of the native Berbers (or/and their extinct ancestors) in North Africa for at least one million years. When the first wave of early modern humans began to leave Africa, presumably arriving from East Africa, to explore the "savage" world, African Eve weaned from cannibalism.
The Lower Pleistocene sites of Algerian Ain Hanech ('the eye of the snake') and Moroccan Casablanca have long time ago provided some of the earliest evidence for "human behaviour", which, arriving at a time when most archaeologists believed no human artifacts older than the Pleistocene can be found, can only confirm tool-making humans had lived in North Africa in the Pliocene.
Among the sprung, flourished and vanished cultures of North Africa are the Libyan Pre-Aurignacian culture (85,000 BC); the Libyan Dabba culture (40,000 BC); the Ibero-maurusian culture (22,000 BC) - which archaeologists recently noted it was purely a Berber culture and that the name "Ibero-" was added by "others" for political reasons; the Eastern Oranian culture (15,000-9,000 BC); and the Mesolithic (Epipaleolithic) culture of Murzuk in southern Libya (10.000-6.000 BC).
The Garamantian civilisation was also one of the cultures involved in the Sahara's cultural proliferation. Rüdiger and Gabriele Lutz (1955) recall the cultures of Fezzan to have evolved over the past hundreds of thousands of years and vanished under adverse conditions. Stone tools of bygone eras are lying about in millions, from the relics of early and late Acheulian (up to 500.000 years), Levalloisian (100.000 years) and Mousterian (50.000 years) to Aterian (40.000-20.000 years).
The unique Haua Fteah Cave in Cyrenaica was documented by McBurney and others to preserve a continuous history in Libya from about 100,000 BC to the present -- one continuous line of living entities in one single cave, the largest cave in the Mediterranean basin, and one of the largest caves in the (visible) world. Scientists say African Eve lived in Africa 100,000 years ago, before her daughters began to immigrate to Asia and Europe; and only time will reveal if her genes could be found in the cave.
Geographic Distributions of The Berbers:
The conglomerate tribes known under the generic term of Berbers or Imazighen are the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa since time immemorial; currently distributed across a wide extent of country including Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso. Recent genetic studies show that more than 90% of the current Arabs in North Africa had Berber matrilineal genes and that they are mostly Arabised Berbers. In spite of the fact that extant linguistic evidence proves the Berbers racial unity, from the Mediterranean to the Sudan and from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, many Arab regimes still perceive Berber speech as a threat to their (presumed) national unity - not so much for the unity of the aforementioned eleven conquered countries.
The majority of Berbers (in terms of percentage) are found in Morocco, followed by Algeria then Libya. Tuareg tribes of the Sahara Desert are also Berbers, whose language Tamasheght or Tamaheqt is considered the least corrupted out of all the Berber languages, due to their geographical isolation from the turbulent north, coveted by various invaders. Northern Mali was home for the largest concentration of Tuareg in the Sahara, until before they were forced to flee their homeland as refugees to neighbouring countries in the past few decades. In 2012 the Tuareg were "lured" into liberating their own "occupied homeland" Azawad (others call northern Mali) only to be later hijacked by foreign infiltrators to provide the catalyst for it to be destroyed in 2013.
The number of Berbers still in Tunisia is very small, estimated at 1%, mainly found in the island of Djerba, Metmata, Tataouine and east of Gafsa. In Mauritania only a small group of Berbers still speak the Zenaga dialect (or language) and Tamasheq (Tuareg). There is also a small population of Tuareg in Nigeria, speaking Tawallamat Tamajaq. The natives of the Canary Islands were also Berbers, right down to the 16th century before they were massacred to extinction by savage Spanish conquerors.
The Berbers of The Canary Islands:
Probably the most disastrous event in the Berbers' history in relation to European conquests is the terrible plight of the Berber Guanche tribes of the Canary Islands. Unimaginable catastrophe. They were completely isolated from the outside world, where they failed to appear in the history of the Berber and Arab writers of the time, and reportedly had no contact with the outside world until Spanish conquerors arrived to embark on their systematic genocide -- an act that took nearly 90 years of savage slaughter to complete. Those Berbers who hid in the sacred caves were slowly hunted to extinction like poor animals; while the captured survivors were sadly sold as first-class slaves in Europe's aristocratic markets. Apparently, "those" strong and powerfully-built slaves had also ended up in North Africa as fellahs ('land workers').
Without anyone learning anything about them or their history, they were forced not only to give up their beloved pride and hide in the prehistoric caves of the Canary Islands and see their own children and wives slaughtered before their eyes, but also were forced to vanish off the surface of the earth.
Imagine, imagine, what it would be like today if the Berber Guanche civilisation remained so onto the present day -- a true treasure from our prehistoric past where anthropologists (are) telling us they did not even know about the "wheel" -- the wheel that goes round an empty circle, Sifaw said; the ouroboros wheel that eats itself to infinity!
In Pre-Historic Civilization In The Philippines, in the Far East, of course, Elsdon Best says:
Unfortunately, in the case of the Spanish conquests of the sixteenth century, that nation appears never to have considered it a duty to hand down to posterity any detailed description of the singularly interesting races they had vanquished. As it was with the Guanches of the Canaries, the Aztecs of Mexico, and the Quichuas of Peru, so was it with the Chamorro of the Ladrones, and the Tagalo-Bisaya tribes of the Philippines. (Journal of The Polynesian Society, vol. 1,1892, p. 118).
The Berbers of Egypt:
In ancient times, all Egypt west of the Nile was inhabited by Berbers, including the Delta itself and all the oases in the Libyan Desert, and even in pre-Dynastic Egypt, the Berbers were the dominant population regardless of what others still say. Today, the Berbers in Egypt are found mainly in Siwa, numbered at 30,000 people, and in the region of Beni Suef. They are severely neglected by the Arab Egyptian authority, where Siwans feel they were forced to adopt the Arab identity, and were even described by one Egyptian official as being "Dogs". Their ancient religion centred around the worship of the Libyan (Berber) God Amon, adopted by the Ancient Egyptians as Amen-Ra, by the Greeks as Zeus-Amon, and by the Phoenicians as Baal-Amon.
Berber Personalities & North African Explorers:
As Phys Carpenter had pointed out, To say that enormous areas of the Sahara remained unexplored until the nineteenth century merely means that these regions had not until then been visited and examined by any European traveller.
The five Berber Libyan Nasamonians of ancient Eastern Libya were perhaps the first ever to venture into the Sahara desert at least the first to leave a record of their heroic efforts. During the conversation between some Libyans (from Cyrene) and the Ammonian king Etearchus regarding the (then) riddle of the source of the river Nile, the latter, according to Herodotus, said that, he had once had a visit from certain Nasamonians, a people who live in Syrtis and the country a little to the eastward. Being asked if there was anything more they could tell him about the uninhabited parts of Libya, these men declared that a group of wild young fellows, sons of chieftains in their country, had on coming to manhood planned amongst themselves all sorts of extravagant adventures, one of which was to draw lots for five of their number to explore the Libyan desert and try to penetrate further than had ever been done before.
The North African navigator Hanno (ca 500 450 BC) was also among the first to explore the west African coast; and about 2000 years ago Berber Mauritanias king Jubas expedition went as far west as the Canary Islands. [It might be of interest to note here that Pausanias (Description of Greece, v. 1, xvii, 2) informs us that there were statues of the Libyan Juba in the gymnasium of Ptolemy, near the market-place of Athena.] Whether Hanno was a Berber or a Phoenician it is difficult to say, for sure, not for lack of destroyed records and the burnt Berber libraries, as much as references were made to "Hanno the Libyan, starting out from Carthage", and travelling beyond "the Columns of Heracles out into the ocean, keeping Africa on his left.
The North African al-Idrisi (12th century) had discovered the river Nile flowed from the equatorial lakes of Africa long before European explorers claimed the discovery and named its source Lake Victoria. Between 1325 and 1354 the Berber Moroccan Ibn Batuta explored the western portions of the Sahara, and along the northern coast of the continent he reached east Africa, before he continued his quest into Arabia. His claim of reaching as far as the "Far East" were said to be far fetched, just as those of other ancient and medieval travellers. Not to mention that the proper geography of Africa itself became known to Europeans only after the Berber Leo Africanus published his Description de lAfrique in 1550 on which Marmol based his book Afrique (1573 AD).
To speak of geographers without mentioning astrolabes would be unfair, and so the Berber story goes by saying that the Moorish (Berber) astrolabe (1067) was used for geographical orientation before the Chinese invented the magnetic needle in 1119, and long before the invention of the octant and then the sextant in the 18th century.
Aebdlaziz Ben A'ebdellas book Aluloum Alkawniyyah Wattajribiyyah Fi Almaghrib (p. 125) lists a number of astrolabes invented by North African scientists including Abu Ar-Rabia al-Laji al-Fasi (from Fas, in Morocco) and Yaqoub Ben Mousa al-Fasi. The same author, in citing the French historian Ronan, informs us (p. 34) that Columbus himself confessed that he did not feel that there was a dry continent beyond the Atlantic until he read the Kulliyyat book, written by the North African scientist Ibn Rushd.
America may have been discovered several times, and not once, before Columbus by Berber and Celtic navigators; and as Anthony Burgess puts it: "Any boy named Maurice . . . ought to be proud at apparently having named a continent. Dr Basil Cottle, the onomastic expert, considers that 'America' derives from the Welsh 'Ap Meuric', son of Maurice. A certain Richard Amerik, senior collector of customs for Bristol, was probably the 'heaviest investor' in John Cabot's second westward voyage in 1498. The nominative claim of Amerigo Vespucci as regards America Dr Cottle considers 'frivolous'" (A Mouthful of Air, p. 328, 329).
According to a recent discovery by Kirsten Seaver (Maps, Myths and Men) (endorsed by Peter Barber of the British Library, London, UK) the Vinland map, which rewrote the history of America and was thought to have been drawn in 1440 (or fifty years before C. Columbus trip to America), is a 1930 forgery by the Austrian Father Joseph Fischer as a protest about Nazi Norse mythology. The map appears to confirm the arrival of Norsemen in America five centuries before Columbus paved the way for the destruction of Aztec and other Native cultures and sacred temples, which Father Fischer hoped to cure the Nazis disease with. Bjarni Herjolfsson is believed, reports Nicholas Hellen, to have sailed there in 985 and Leif Eriksson in 1002. Historians now accept that the Norse explorers were indeed first but the map which appeared to prove it was an inspired fraud (Sunday Times, London, 04/08/2002).
As yet undocumented academically, Berber and Berber-related-Iberian inscriptions were found in Iowa, Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, California, and St. Johns, as well as in Polynesia. A collection of these inscriptions were published by Barry Fell in his Saga America and America BC, and in The Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications (volumes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 18, 19, 20; 1975 1991). He also published papers comparing North African languages to American Zuni. But although Fells research may show that Africans and Iberians were in America long before Columbus, scholars made no attempt to follow his results, which they said are debatable.
Another Berber explorer rarely mentioned in history books is the Moroccan Estevan (Estevanico) De Dorantes. He was from the Berber village of Azemmour (olive), who was a member of the Narvaez expedition that sailed from Spain in 1527. They were stranded on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico at Texas and consequently captured by the native American. He was reported to have died when he was attacked by the Berber-like Zuni tribes between 1539 and 1540. Apparently he continued practicing his native Berber religious duties, to eventually become highly respected by the Zuni people, some of whom even worshipped him as a demi-god.
The Berber, Andalusian inventor-engineer Abbas Bin Firnas (عباس بن فرناس, 810887 AD) was born in Izn-Rand Onda (Ronda, Spain) in 810 AD. At the age 70 he has entered the pages of history as the first man to fly. Inspired by birds, he invented artificial wings, covered them and himself with feathers, took to a hill in Cordoba, Spain, and launched himself into the air. He was said to have flown for a considerable time before he crash-landed, badly hurting his back; apparently because he had failed to include a tail in his design. His story was told by the Moroccan historian Ahmed Mohammed Maqqari (d.1632), based on a 9th century account of the poet Mu'min Ibn Said, who said that Ibn Firnas flew faster than the phoenix and that he dressed his body in the feathers of a vulture [Lynn Townsend White, Jr., Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition, Technology and Culture 2 (2), 1961, p. 97111].
List of Berber Personalities In History:
Ancient Berber Kings, Queens & Personalities:
Shoshenq I: (Shishenq I): Berber Pharaoh, founder of the Egyptian 22nd dynasty (945-924 BC); (946-925); (943-922)?
Wayheset: Libyan king.
Osorkon I: Berber King, probably son of Shoshenq from Karima (Egyptian 22nd dynasty: 924-889 BC).
Queen Makere: wife of King Osorkon I.
Shoshenq II: Berber King (Egyptian 22nd dynasty: 890-889 BC).
Takeloth I: Berber King (Egyptian 22nd dynasty: 889-874 BC).
Osorkon II: Berber King (Egyptian 22nd dynasty: 874-850 BC).
Horseise: Hight Preist of Amon: son of Sheshonk II.
Takeloth II: Berber King (Egyptian 22nd dynasty: 850-825 BC).
Amazigh chief Larbas: negotiated a deal to marry Princess Dido in 814 BC (Tarshish: Carthage)?
Pediese: Great Chief of the Meshwesh.
Hetihenker: Great Chief of the Meshwesh.
Shoshenq Ill: Berber King (Egyptian 22nd dynasty 825-773 BC).
Pimay ('The Cat'): son of Shoshenq III: (Egyptian 22nd dynasty 773-767 BC).
Bakennefi: brother of Pimay: Prince of Heliopolis.
Shoshenq IV: Berber King (Egyptian 22nd dynasty 767-730 BC).
Osorkon IV: Berber King (Egyptian 22nd dynasty: 730-715).
Pedubast: Berber King (Egyptian 23rd dynasty).
Input II: Berber King (Egyptian 23rd dynasty).
Sheshong VI: Berber King (Egyptian 23rd dynasty).
Osorkon III: Berber King (Egyptian 23rd dynasty).
Takeloth III: Berber King (Egyptian 23rd dynasty).
Rudamon: Berber King: (Egyptian 23rd dynasty).
Tefnakht: Berber King, founder of the Egyptian 24th dynasty (unified the Delta).
Bocchoris: Berber King (Egyptian 23rd dynasty).
Masinissa: King of Numidia.
Jugurtha: King of Numidia.
Juba II: King of Numidia.
Macrinus: Roman emperor.
Clodius Albinus: ruler of Britannia.
Lusius Quietus: ruler of Judaea.
Quintus Lollius Urbicus: ruler of Britannia (138 144 AD).
Septimius Severus: Libyan Roman emperor (193 211 AD).
Tacfarinas: (Leader of the wars against the Romans in the Aures Mountains).
Firmus: (fought the Romans: 372 375).
Gildo: (fought the Romans in 398).
Publius Terentius Afer (Terence: writer, Latin).
Lucius Apuleius: author of "The Transformations of Lucius Apuleius of Madaura", otherwise known as "The Golden ***". Wonderful work of written-art. A maze of clues. A treasure for the future to indulge. Humour at its best. Isis.
Priscian: (Latin grammarian).
Marcus Cornelius Fronto: (Roman grammarian).
Saint Augustine of Hippo: Christian philosopher; the founder of Christian Philosophy).
Saint Monica of Hippo: (Saint Augustine's mother).
Arius: (proposed the doctrine of Arianism).
Donatus Magnus: (head of Donatist School).
Gelasius I: (Pope: 492-496).
Victor I: (Pope: 186-201).
Miltiades: (Pope: 311-314).
Abd ar-Rahman I: (731-788).
Al-Mansur: (712-775).
Tariq ibn Ziyad (Zeyyad): (leader of the army that invaded Spain in 711).
Adrian of Canterbury: Abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury.
Dihya: Kahina: Berber Queen, Priestess and War General. The fiercest Berber leader who resisted the new arrivals to death. According to the Arab generals themselves, she defeated them like no other general had done before Her; and that whenever a Berber tribe is defeated (or slaughtered) another emerges from the mirage like the jinn of the desert.
Aksil: Kusayla: King or Tribal leader.
Salih ibn Tarif of Berghouata: translated the Koran to Berber.
Abbas Ibn Firnas: inventor and aviator; first attempt at controlled flight?
Ibn Tumart: founder of the Almohad dynasty.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin: Almoravid dynasty.
Al Idrisi: scientist and geographer.
Ibn Battuta: traveller.
Ibn Khaldoun: histography.
Leo Africanus: geographer and historian.
Abu Yaqub Yusuf I.
Abu Yaqub Yusuf II.
Ziri ibn Manad: founder of Zirid dynasty.
Muhammad Awzal.
Muhammad al-Jazuli: Sufi.
Imam al-Busiri: poet.
Abu Ali al-Hassan al-Yusi.
Septimius Severus: Libyan Roman Emperor (193 211 AD). Died in UK.
Modern Berber Personalities:
Solaiman al-Barouni: Berber from Yefren, Nafousa Mountain, Libya: creator of the first republic in the North Africa and the Middle East: the Tripolitania Republic.
Jean Amrouche, (19061962) writer and Taos Amrouche's brother.
Taos Amrouche: powerful Algerian writer and singer (1913-1976).
Said Sifaw al-Mah'rouq: Libyan scholar, poet, writer, activist, and linguist, from Jado, Nafousa Mountain.
Mohammed Bessaoud: Algerian spiritual father of Berberism.
Hocine Aït Ahmed: Algerian revolutionary fighter and secularist politician.
Saïd Sadi: Algerian politician.
Ali Yahya Mua'amar: Libyan Abadi Scholar.
Mouloud Feraoun: Algerian writer assassinated by the OAS.
Mouloud Mammeri: Algerian writer, anthropologist and linguist.
Salem Chaker: Algerian Berberist, writer, linguist, cultural and political activist.
Sidi Said: leader of the Algerian syndicat of workers: UGTA.
Khalida Toumi: Algerian feminist and secularist.
Ahmed Ouyahia: Prime Minister of Algeria.
Belaïd Abrika: one of the spokesmen of the Arouch.
Nordine Ait Hamouda: secularist politician and son of Colonel Amirouche.
Driss Jettou: Prime Minister of Morocco.
Lalla Fatma n Soumer: female worrior (Amazon) who led western Kabylie in battle against French troops.
Kateb Yacine: writer founder of the berberiste mouvement.
Mohamed Chafik: Moroccan writer; IRCAM.
Tahar Djaout: writer and journalist assassinated by the GIA in 1993.
Si Mohand: Kabyle poet.
Fidel Castro (Cuba: his mother was a Berber from the Canary Islands).
Morocco's King Mohammed VI (the monarchy's mother was a Berber).
Zinedine Zidane: Kabyle footballer.
The Berber Flag:
The flag was adopted by Berber activists and was used most commonly by the Kabyles in Algeria, when the flag appeared in political demonstrations and in banners, before it spread to websites. It was said that the flag was designed by Mohammed Bessaoud, the spiritual father of Berberism in Algeria, who fought during the independence wars between 1954 and 1962.[/quote]
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