Berber Quotes

“In this city [Tingis] the Libyans say that Antaeus is buried; and Sertorius had his tomb dug open, the great size of which made him disbelieve the Barbarians. But when he came upon the body and found it to be sixty cubits long, as they tell us, he was dumbfounded, and after performing a sacrifice filled up the tomb again, and joined in magnifying its traditions and honours. Now, the people of Tingis have a myth that after the death of Antaeus, his wife, Tinga, consorted with Heracles, and that Sophax was the fruit of this union, who became king of the country and named a city which he founded after his mother; also that Sophax had a son, Diodorus, to whom many of the Libyan peoples became subject, since he had a Greek army composed of the Olbians and Mycenaeans who were settled in those parts by Heracles. But this tale must be ascribed to a desire to gratify Juba, of all kings the most devoted to historical enquiry; for his ancestors are said to have been descendants of Sophax and Diodorus. [The Life of Sertorius]”
― Plutarch, Parallel Lives

“He was obviously proud of his Berber skin. "This is the colour of wheat and gold.”
― André Aciman, Harvard Square

“Here dwell a people whom the Greeks call Maurusians, and the Romans and the natives Mauri — a large and prosperous Libyan tribe, who live on the side of the strait opposite Iberia. Here also is the strait which is at the Pillars of Heracles, concerning which I have often spoken. On proceeding outside the strait at the Pillars, with Libya on the left, one comes to a mountain which the Greeks call Atlas and the barbarians Dyris.
17.3.2”
― Strabo

“Marrakesh is translated from the words Mur N’Akush in the Berber language meaning “Land of God.”
― Jake Tour, Discovering Morocco: The Simple Travel Guide For The Best Experience

“Dehbia connaît bien les siens Il n'ont de chrétien que le nom. L'un des premiers d'entre eux, converti au début du siècle et qui a d'ailleurs sa croix au cimetière de la paroisse, leur traça une ligne de conduite que beaucoup suivent ingénieusement. Jadis, racontent-ils, ce néophyte à peine dégrossi fut surpris par un Père faisant à la mosquée sa prière parmi les musulmans.
- C'était bien toi, hier soir, à la mosquée?
- Oui, mon père.
- Tu n'es pas musulman.
- Pourquoi pas, mon père ? Je le suis de naissance. Il paraît que le Père n'a pas beaucoup insisté.
Actuellement, ils ne vont plus à la mosquée mais ils jurent par les saints du pays, pratiquent la circoncision comme les bons musulmans et célèbrent es Aïds aussi bien que la Noël. Leurs femmes, aussi superstitieuses que toutes les autres, croient aux pratiques des bonnes vieilles et, pour connaître l'avenir, rendent visite aux mêmes derviches.
Tout cela, Dehbia le sait et beaucoup d'autres choses. Bien sûr qu'ils ont reçu le baptême et avec le baptême un nom chrétien. Les Pères leur ont distribué généreusement des "Marie", des "Jean", et surtout des "Augustin", des "Monique" comme cela se devait en pays berbère, mais à côté de ces noms, existe toujours le nom kabyle, Mohammed, Akli, Rabah, Saïd, et la faculté de s'en servir.”
― Mouloud Feraoun

“إلى صدور زينت ب ءوفّان
تحسبها عند المسيس ءورفان
ففي الضخامة تداني ءينكان
وفي الصلابة تباري ءيزران
لبست على جسومهن ءيركان
لكن على خدودهن ءيضلان
كأنهن في البياض ءازاليم
وفي رشاقة القدود ءاغانيم
استغفر الله فان ءيزري
يسقيك بعد الكره كاس تايري”
― أحمد بن محمد الرسموكي, الأرجوزة العربية الامازيغية

“Macrinus was a Moor by birth, from [Mauretania] Caesarea, and the son of most obscure parents, so that he was very appropriately likened to the ass that was led up to the palace by the spirit; in particular, one of his ears had been bored in accordance with the custom followed by most of the Moors. But his integrity threw even this drawback into the shade. As for his attitude toward law and precedent, his knowledge of them was not so accurate as his observance of them was faithful. It was thanks to this latter quality, as displayed in his advocacy of a friend's cause, that he had become known to Plautianus, whose steward he then became for a time. Later he came near perishing with his patron, but was unexpectedly saved by the intercession of Cilo, and was appointed by Severus as superintendent of traffic along the Flaminian Way. From Antoninus he first received some brief appointments as procurator, than was made prefect, and discharged the duties of this office in a most satisfactory and just manner, in so far as he was free to follow his own judgment.
Book 79 - 11”
― Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius: Roman History, Volume IX, Books 71-80

“Sometimes we also find a tendency to view everything that's indigenous as good and anything "European"-such as Spain-as evil. That view overlooks such historical realities as the Aztec empire's oppressive domination of other indigenous societies and its class system, which privileged priests and the military. That view also forgets Spain was not a typically European nation after 600 years of rule by the Moors, an Arab/Berber people from Africa.”
― Elizabeth Martínez, De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century

“A similar process occurred in the Arab Empire. When it was established in the mid-seventh century AD, it was based on a sharp division between the ruling Arab-Muslim elite and the subjugated Egyptians, Syrians, Iranians and Berbers, who were neither Arabs nor Muslim. Many of the empire’s subjects gradually adopted the Muslim faith, the Arabic language and a hybrid imperial culture. The old Arab elite looked upon these parvenus with deep hostility, fearing to lose its unique status and identity. The frustrated converts clamoured for an equal share within the empire and in the world of Islam. Eventually they got their way. Egyptians, Syrians and Mesopotamians were increasingly seen as ‘Arabs’. Arabs, in their turn - whether authentic Arabs from Arabia or newly minted Arabs from Egypt and Syria - came to be increasingly dominated by non-Arab Muslims, in particular by Iranians, Turks and Berbers. The great success of the Arab imperial project was that the imperial culture it created was wholeheartedly adopted by numerous non-Arab people, who continued to uphold it, develop it and spread it - even after the original empire collapsed and the Arabs as an ethnic group lost their dominion.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Tıraş olduğun berbere güvenmiyorsan, yüzünün kesilme ihtimali daha yüksektir!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“The caliphate of al-Nasir saw the first sustained involvement by the Umayyads in North African politics.26 Morocco at this stage was, compared with Muslim Spain, a very underdeveloped country. There had been very little Arab settlement and the country remained over-whelmingly Berber and largely rural, the inhabitants living either as pastoral nomads or settled farmers. Tribal allegiances and rival-ries remained the basis of political activity. Only Fes, settled in the ninth century by colonists from Qayrawan and Cordoba, was a really urban community, although Sijilmassa, the great entrepot for Saharan trade far to the south, was a large oasis settlement. In theory much of the area was under the authority of the Idrisids, based in Fes. The Idrisids were descendants of 'Ali, who had fled west in 786 after a failed rebellion against the Abbasids.27 They did not rule a state in the conventional sense but, somewhat like the traditional Zaydi Imams of Yemen, enjoyed a certain prestige among the tribal leaders because of their religious status and were acknowledged as mediators if not rulers. They seem to have had no organized administration or government apparatus. By the beginning of the tenth century, the Idrisid family had split into many different branches which vied ineffectually for such authority as the family name could still command. Smaller but more coherent were the political units based on Sijilmassa and Nakur. Sijilmassa on the fringes of the Sahara was ruled by the Midrarids, a Berber dynasty of Kharijite persuasions. Nakur on the Mediterranean coast was a small city-state ruled by a popular Sunni dynasty, the Banu Witt, who had had contacts with the Umayyads in the previous century. There had certainly been commercial and personal contacts between al-Andalus and North Africa in the ninth century, especially with the Rustamid dynasty of Tahert in central Algeria.”
― Hugh Kennedy