Abstract This paper covers the Almoravid and Almohad -Berber Kings and the impact that they have had on society, as well as religion throughout time. The paper focuses on the influence that these kings had on northern Africa.
From the Paper "The history of the Berber people in northern Africa is both extensive and diverse. The name Berber comes from the word barbarians. Berbers make up a clear majority of the population of North Africa; Berber's represent 80% of the population in Morocco and Algeria, more than 60% in Tunisia and Libya and 2% in Egypt. The origin of Berbers is not certain, but it is safest to say that the Berbers were the original population of North Africa."
Abstract The first part of the paper is an overview of the role of women in Bedouin society. The next part examines how the same gendered divisions can be discerned in societies as diverse as the Yanomamo Indians of northern Brazil and the Berbers of Morocco. In the third part, the paper looks at how the effects of economic development and the forces of modernity reach even into the nomadic tribes of the desert and the rainforests. It examines how these changes have affected the communal relations among the groups and if modernity had effects on their existing gender ideals, and how these ethnic groups have responded.
From the Paper "Unlike Western society, the Bedouins do not place a great emphasis on the individual. In fact, blood ties serve to link people to the past and "bind them in the present" (41). Members of the Bedouins could trace their lineage back to genealogy, and these blood ties form an important part of their identity. In traditional Bedouin society, outsiders perceive thus people of the same kin interchangeably, and the way one kin member acts or is treated reflects on the entire group.
The foundation of honor in Bedouin society is based on the concept of asl. It is interesting to note that asl is closely linked with a person's genealogy as well. As with the ancient Chinese, who regarded non-Chinese visitors as ?barbarians,? the Bedouins of the Awlad ?Ali thus use asl to delineate between people who are of Bedouin and non-Bedouin descent."
Abstract This paper discusses the history of the Muslim migration into Spain from the early 1000s until the modern day. It looks at how how this migration affected the culture and history of the Spanish locals. It also discusses the Berber peoples and how the Muslims in Spain are still affected today.
From the Paper "When thinking of Islamic states, the contemporary world lists countries like Iran, Pakistan and Jordan. Yet in he history of the world, there is an almost forgotten Muslim state- al Andalus, the great empire of the Muslims from North Africa that lasted from the year 711, the date of the first Muslim invasion in Spain, to the year 1492, when the last independent Muslim power in Granada was destroyed."
Abstract In this paper the author examines the trading routes of the Roman Empire and how changes in them led to the rise of Islam. The author pays particular attention to the development of Islam in Africa and how it remains a great influence in African society even in this modern day.
From the paper:
?Islam offered a number of attractions within Africa. Its fundamental teaching that all Muslims are equal within the community of believers made the acceptance of conquerors and new rulers easier. The Islamic tradition of uniting the powers of the state and religion in the person of the ruler or caliph appealed to some African kings as a way of reinforcing their authority.?
Abstract The author begins this paper with an examination of the development and decline of the Roman Empire and its various trade connections. The author moves on to look at the rise of Islam in the 7th century and the subsequent fall of the Axum Empire. The author continues by looking at the rise of Christianity in the Mediterranean region and its move into Africa and then how Islam essentially eliminated Christianity in those regions. The author then discusses Islam's effect on commerce and military matters and its development in Africa by means of conquests and it's ideology of equality among believers.
From the paper:
?The spread of Islam, from its heartland in the Middle East and North Africa to India and Southeast Asia, revealed the power of the religion and its commercial and sometimes military attributes. Civilizations were altered without being fully drawn into a single Islamic statement. A similar pattern developed in sub-Saharan Africa, as Islam provided new influences and contacts without amalgamating African culture as a whole to the Middle Eastern core. New religious, economic, and political patterns developed in relation to the Islamic surge, but great diversity remained.?
Abstract The paper states that the Islamic rule over Spain lasted for almost 800 years, starting in 711 A.D., and left its indelible marks on the Spanish culture and European history. The author describes several Muslim contributions. The paper concludes that the contribution of the Muslims to the European Renaissance is obscured by centuries of prejudice and animosity towards the Muslims in Spain.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Background & Reasons for the Easy Conquest
Culture
The Golden Period (756-1031 A.D.)
Architecture
Language
Other Influences of Muslim Spain
Conclusion
From the Paper "The Andalusian Umayyad dynasty ruled Muslim Spain for about three centuries (756-1031). In the early part of the dynasty, Andalusia was an independent kingdom. It became a caliphate in 929 when Abd-ar-Rahman III proclaimed himself caliph. His capital, C?rdoba, became the most splendid city in Europe apart from Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), and as noted earlier, the Spanish civilization during the Muslim rule was far in advance of the rest of Europe. Numerous schools were built, many of them provided free education to the poor. There were several Muslim universities where medicine, mathematics, philosophy, and literature were studied and researched."
Abstract Discusses internal issues and problems of the African country. Political, economic, religioius, legal and other conflicts. Electoral corruption, and loss of faith in the electoral process and government. Terrorism, ethnic and factional violence of the Algerian Civil War. Dictorial government & threat of nuclear weapons. Islamic fundamentalist threat. Berber/Arab conflicts.
From the Paper "Algeria's internal issues reflect those of a number of troubled nations in the region that have a large and active anti-government population of fundamentalist Muslims who seek to establish the nation as a strictly Islamic state. The civil war of the past decade has abated, but the danger of serious instability remains. Algeria is run today by Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a powerful individual whose reign has focused on putting down internal dissension and protests, often brutally. He is backed by the military, and although he was elected, the entire electoral process is under the cloud of corruption. This corruption and suspicion is almost a decade old, since the military usurped the legal power of the fundamentalist party which won the elections in 1992. Electoral corruption and particularly the election of Bouteflika are representative of the ..."
Abstract The slave trade carried Africans far from their homeland, but the problem of slavery began in Africa as warring tribes captured members of other tribes and sold them into slavery. The paper shows that the slave trade in West Africa served the labor requirements of the New World and other areas for more than three centuries. The slave trade in West Africa began with the Portuguese in the fifteenth century and increased until it was a major trade linking Africa with Europe and North and South America. The paper examines how slave ships, heading for the New World, would stop at sites along the West African coast to pick up their human cargo, often purchasing members of one tribe from another. The Spanish and English would also become involved in the slave trade over the next two centuries and slavery in the New World in particular would be a matter of economic need because of an agricultural system that needed a large labor force for as little economic outlay as possible. The paper shows that when the Native American population did not prove viable as a labor force, the various European settlers turned to Africa and the slave trade to solve their labor problems.
From the Paper "The entry of the Portuguese into Africa came at the same time as the Turkish Ottoman conquest of Africa's Mediterranean and Red Sea areas. Portugal at that time expanded into Africa's Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts and introduced new weapons and new demands for war captives throughout the continent. Different communities and different kingdoms adapted in different ways to this new supply of guns and new demands for war captives, and at the same time, Spanish, Dutch, British, French, German, Scandinavian, and Arab armed ships joined the Portuguese in demanding increasing numbers of young Africans for the international slave trade. This was during Africa's "early modern" period from 1600 to 1800, at which time the gold, sugar, tobacco, and cotton produced by African slaves in the New World contributed toward making more capital available for the "commercial revolution" taking place in Europe in banking, corporate stock arrangements, insurance, and investment houses. This trade then helped fund European expansion in overseas trade, colonization, and the scientific and industrial revolutions (Khapoya 92)."
This paper discusses the history and culture of the Basque who today consider their "nation" to be located in the seven Pyrenean provinces, four in Spain and three in France.
Abstract This paper explains that, although the origins of the Basque people are unclear but possibly of Turkish, Magyar or Berber descent, the Basques may be the oldest indigenous race in Europe; their language Euskera has supposedly been traced back to Babel. The author points out that, for centuries, the region south of the Pyrenees was recognized as "una tierra apartada", a self-governing area, subject to an absolute monarchy and had its own code of laws and rights (fueros); in 1876, the Basque country was assimilated into the rest of Spain. The paper relates that the Spanish Civil War had a major impact on the Basque because the Franco regime, which exercised cultural repression over the whole nation, was particularly severe in those regions where a language other than Spanish was spoken.
From the Paper "The father of Basque nationalism, Sabino Arana, described by Mark Kurlansky as an 'unpleasant zealot', insisted that to be Basque a person's four grandparents must all have been born in the Basque country and have Euskera names - a qualification which would be much modified when the terrorist organization ETA admitted to its membership people whose families came from elsewhere in Spain. Both Arana's party and ETA were officially founded on the saint's day, 31 July, of the Basques' most famous son, Ignatius Loyola. (The first Basque underground movement in the 1950s, formed by a handful of Guipuzcoans, initially called itself by the acronym ATA, unaware that in the dialect of the neighbouring province, Viscaya, ata means 'duck'.) "
This paper discusses four individuals and one group of journeymen weavers who were affected by late nineteenth-early twentieth century European imperialism in the Middle East.
Abstract This paper explains that the history of the modern Middle East is peppered with revolts and revolutions against European dominance and against self-serving individuals within the culture who attempted to rule the area. The author points out that European colonial imperialism had a capacity of forcing divergent groups to integrate or to marginalize or peripheralize those who are not willing to work within its economic policies. The paper relates that the leaders who fought for their country's freedom had to modernize defensively their military, which also led to modernizing the internal political structure of their nations.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Imperialism
Integration and Peripheralism
Five Biographies
Journeymen
Textile Weavers
The Revolutionaries
Mohand N'Hamoucha, Middle Atlas Berber Ramadan al-Suwayhli Hero of the Libyan Resistance
Abu Ali al-Kilawi A Damascus Qabaday
Muhammed El Merid - The Man Who Became Qaid
Conclusion
From the Paper "When Abd al-Krim proclaimed himself the head of a Rifian republic in 1923, it appeared he might be able to take control of northeastern Morocco from Spain. El Merid's efforts to assist the Spanish during this period were noted by Spanish authorities and the made him Quaid of the qabila of Ulad Stut. Muhammed El Merid was the most powerful and influential of the indigenous Spanish protectorate officials in Zaio. He was responsible for day to day law and order, general administration and justice in the tribe. In this position, El Merid was able to acquire and control the lands of the Sebra. Although the other Moroccan groups legally challenged El Merid's claim to this ill gotten land, even when Morocco became an independent state his progeny continued to be the most influential and wealthy members of the notability of Zaio to this day."
Abstract This paper discusses the Jugurthine war fought between the Romans and the Numidian Kingdom, which was ruled by Jugurtha. The paper explains that the Jugurthine war took place in Numidia, which is located near the western coast of Africa where modern-day Algeria is. The paper also explains that Numidia was a kingdom made-up of mostly semi-nomadic Berber tribes that are closely related to the Moors and present-day Moroccans. The paper points out that this war inadvertently exposed the rampant corruption that occurred towards the end of the Roman Republic. The paper concludes that this war served to foreshadow Rome's change from a republic to an empire, and that these leaders squabbled for many years until Julius Caesar took control of Rome as its first emperor in 49 BC.
From the Paper "Numidia became united during the 2nd Punic War when Masinissa, the chief of the Massyli tribe, united it. They originally were allied with Carthage but ended it when the Romans offered land and money incentives in exchange for the loyalty of the Numidians. Masinissa accepted and the spent the next 50 years ruling over the people that lived on that land. He brought peace to the people and tried to convert them to farmers.
"His death in 148 BC marked the height of the Numidian Kingdoms. Around the same time as his death, the Romans invaded Carthage and essentially destroyed it during the Third Punic War. This left Numidia the largest empire in Northern Africa."
Abstract This paper examines the view that traditional societies are less friendly to individuals with mental illness, which leads to the perception that there is less mental illness when, in truth, it is simply more well hidden. The paper then compares views of mental illness in modern socieites, and, in particular in Canada, to those of traditional socieities such as China, the Aboriginal socieites of Canada, and Middle Eastern societies and concludes that there is no single answer to how traditional cultures treat mental illness.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Mental Illness in Modern Societies
Mental Illness in Canada
Mental Illness in Traditional Societies
Mental Illness in Canada's Aboriginal Population
Conclusion
From the Paper "It is this kind of practice that differentiates the Chinese and the Canadian process of caring for the mentally ill and may lead to a difference in how they are perceived. However, the practice goes far beyond simple numbers on a percentage scale. Some traditional cultures rely first on their own traditional forms of mental healing, turning only to modern solutions when their preferred methods fail to work. In Morocco, for example, a Berber family might first consult a fquih, a traditional healer, before turning to the services of the Centre Psychiatrique Universitaire Ibn Rochd (CPU) to treat mental illness."
Tags: chinese, berber, aboriginal, spiritual, family
