The Maghreb

(noun)

Much or most of the region of western North Africa or Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. The traditional definition as the region including the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya was later superseded by the inclusion of Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara (mostly controlled by Morocco).

Related Terms

Examples of The Maghreb in the following topics:

  • The Maghreb

  • Islamic Conquest of the Maghreb

    • It is important to keep in mind, however, that because of the constantly changing borders of the first caliphates in the region, the history of the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb is intertwined with the history of the territories east of the border of the region that is today defined as the Maghreb.
    • The Arabs reached the Maghreb in early Umayyad times.
    • Arab expansion and the spread of Islam into the Maghreb pushed the development of trans-Saharan trade.
    • Arab control over the Maghreb was quite weak.
    • Discuss the effects the Islamic conquest of the Maghreb had on the area

  • The Modern Era

    • From the 15th century the number of smaller Islamic courts began to fall, as the Ottoman Empire, and later the Safavids and European powers, swallowed them up.
    • This had an effect on Islamic art, which was usually strongly led by the patronage of the court.
    • The Turks of the Ottoman Empire adopted versions of Rococo which had a lasting effect on sculpture and architecture, and the Qajars, a Turkmen tribe established after the fall of the Iranian Safavids, displayed art with an increasing European influence, as seen in their steelwork and in the large oil paintings portraying the Qajar shahs.
    • The carpet industry has remained large, but mostly uses designs that originated before 1700, and competes with machine-made imitations both locally and around the world.
    • Arts and crafts with a broader social base, like the zellige mosaic tiles of the Maghreb (the region of northwest Africa, west of Egypt), have often survived better .

  • The Mediterranean

    • After their fall, the Spanish Umayyads were replaced by various autonomous kingdoms, the taifas (1031–91), but the artistic production from this period does not differ significantly from that of the Umayyads.
    • At the end of the 11th century, two Berber tribes, the Almoravids and the Almohads, captured the head of the Maghreb and Spain, successively, bringing Maghrebi influences into art.
    • By the end of the 14th century, a series of military victories by Christian monarchs had reduced Islamic Spain to the city of Granada, ruled by the Nasirid dynasty, who managed to maintain their hold until 1492, when they had to abandon the Alhambra, a complex of Islamic palaces built for the Muslim emirs in Spain .
    • The pyxis of al-Mughira is a masterwork of the genre.
    • The Alhambra is a reflection of the culture during the last centuries of the Moorish rule of Al-Andalus, reduced to the Emirate of Granada.

  • The Abbasid Empire

    • The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 750 CE, and ruled over a large, flourishing empire for three centuries.
    • The Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads, and the geographic power shift appeased the Persian mawali support base.
    • Within 50 years, the Idrisids in the Maghreb, the Aghlabids of Ifriqiya, and the Tulunids and Ikshidids of Misr became independent in Africa.
    • The political power of the Abbasids largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks in 1258 CE.
    • Discuss the political stability during the Abbasid Era and the Abbasids' rise to power

  • Expansion Under the Umayyad Caliphates

    • The Umayyad Caliphate, the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad, expanded the territory of the Islamic state to one of the largest empires in history.
    • The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad.
    • The Umayyads incorporated the Caucasus, Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb, and the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) into the Muslim world.
    • Eventually, supporters of the Banu Hashim and the supporters of the lineage of Ali united to bring down the Umayyads in 750.
    • The caliph's palace, Medina Azahara, was on the outskirts of the city, and had many rooms filled with riches from the East.

  • Post-Byzantine Egypt

    • The Muslim conquest of Egypt took place shortly after Muhammad's death, but it was three centuries later, under the Fatimid Caliphate, that the region became the center of the Islamic world.
    • Before the Muslim conquest of Egypt began, the Byzantines had already lost the Levant and their Arab ally, the Ghassanid Kingdom, to the Muslims.
    • At its height, the caliphate controlled an empire from the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant to the Caucasus in the north, North Africa from Egypt to present-day Tunisia in the west, and the Iranian plateau to Central Asia in the east.
    • The main pillar of the early Muslim rule and control in the country was the military force, or jund, provided by the Arab settlers.
    • At its height the caliphate included, in addition to Egypt, varying areas of the Maghreb, Sudan, Sicily, the Levant, and Hijaz.

  • Ulna and Radius (The Forearm)

    • The forearm contains two bones—the radius and the ulna—that extend in parallel from the elbow, where they articulate with the humerus to the wrist, where they articulate with the carpals.
    • The space between the two bones is spanned by the interosseous membrane.
    • The cornoid process, together with the olecranon, forms the trochlear notch where it articulates with the trochlea of the humerus.
    • Laterally to the trochlear notch lies the radial notch, which articulates with the head of the radius to form the proximal radioulnar joint.
    • Distally the radius expands, medially the ulnar notch articulates with the head of the ulnar.

  • Human Appendicular Skeleton

    • The humerus is the largest and longest bone of the upper limb and the only bone of the arm.
    • The pelvis joins together in the anterior of the body the pubic symphysis joint and with the bones of the sacrum at the posterior of the body.
    • The lower limbs consists of the thigh, the leg, and the foot.
    • The tarsals are the seven bones of the ankle, which transmits the weight of the body from the tibia and the fibula to the foot.
    • The metatarsals are the five bones of the foot, while the phalanges are the 14 bones of the toes .

  • Orbits

    • The orbit is the cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated.
    • To the rear of the orbit, the optic foramen opens into the optical canal through which the optic nerve and ophthalmic artery pass.
    • The frontal bone forms the superior border of the orbital rim and also the superior wall (roof) of the orbital surface.
    • The zygomatic bone forms the lateral (and half of the basal) border of the orbital rim, and also the lateral wall of the orbital surface—this is the thickest region of the orbit as it is most exposed to external trauma.
    • Finally, the sphenoid bone forms the posterior wall of the orbit and also contributes to the formation of the optic canal.