464 al-Maghrib
universities in Europe is not clear. Their building styles
reflect important aspects of Islamic architecture.
See alsoART AND ARCHITECTURE,ISLAMIC.
Further reading:Michael Chamberlain, Knowledge
and Social Practice in Medieval Damascus, 1190–1350
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Robert
Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and
Meaning (New York: Columbus University Press, 1994),
173–251; George Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges: Institu-
tions of Learning in Islam and the West(Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1981); George Makdisi, The Rise
of Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West:
With Special Reference to Scholasticism(Edinburgh: Edin-
burgh University Press, 1990); J. Pederson, George Mak-
disi, and Robert Hillenbrand, “Madrasa,” Encyclopedia of
Islam5.1,123–1,154; Ahmad Shalabi, History of Muslim
Education(Karachi: Indus, 1979).
al-Maghrib (Maghreb, the West) Al-Maghrib has its
origins in an Arabic word meaning “sunset.” Al-Maghrib
was considered the furthest western part of the Muslim
world, but its regions have varied. One tradition was in
the 14th century IBNKHALDUNmade al-Maghrib coincide
with BERBERareas from before the ARABconquest, from
the Atlantic coast and along the Mediterranean to the
edge of the Sahara. Al-Maghrib can be divided into four
parts, the modern states of Libya (Tripolitania), Tunisia
(Ifriqiya), Algeria, and MOROCCO(the far Maghrib). Its
history began with Islamization in the seventh century,
with the invasion of nomadic Arab armies, then the
Berber empires of the 11th and 12th centuries, first the
ALMORAVIDSand then the ALMOHADS.
LONG SERIES OF INVASIONSMuslim armies began to raid al-Maghrib in 643, 647, and
- Byzantine armies were defeated by them at Sufetula
in Tunisia and at Hadrumetum, but the Muslims only
withdrew with their booty. A permanent conquest began
in 670, when a military camp was founded at AL-
QAYRAWAN. The capture of Carthage in 698 ended most
Berber resistance. Many of the BERBERSconverted to ISLAM
and enrolled in Muslim armies in search of further
conquest. The Arabs, few in number, occupied the
fortresses and certain parts of the lower elevations of the
country. The Berbers sometimes resisted Arab dominance
by welcoming heterodox sects banished by the UMAYYADS,
especially the KHARIJITES. In 742, they defeated a caliphal
army, and they massacred the population of al-Qayrawan
in 758. In 777 Kharijite principalities grew up at Tahert, at
Sijilmassa, and at Tlemcen. The whole Saharan border of
al-Maghrib was in the hands of the Kharijites.
RULING DYNASTIESThe IDRISIDS, opponents of the caliph in BAGHDAD, intro-
duced Arab culture to the far Maghrib, founding the town
of FEZ. The other point of resistance to Kharijism was in
Tunisia an Ifriqiya, where the AGHLABIDS became the
dominant dynasty between 800 and 909. The FATIMIDS,
displaced the Aghlabids and other dynasties, and spent
more than half a century there without having much of
an impact on the region before departing for EGYPT,
allowing the ZIRIDSto govern.CRIPPLING DISUNITY
In the mid-11th century, two events changed the political
and social landscape of al-Maghrib: the invasion of the
nomadic Banu Hilal Arabs and the establishment of the
Almoravid Empire. Political unity in al-Maghrib decreased
steadily thereafter. Various other dynasties took control
over the next few centuries, sometimes seizing wider areas
of the Maghrib but often confined to smaller regions. The
MERINIDS, who conquered the far Maghrib and ruled from
the 13th to the 15th century, tried to unify the entire
region. But after a short occupation of Tlemcen and
TUNIS, they retreated to Morocco, where, in the 14th cen-
tury, they developed a brilliant society and culture, attract-
ing European scholars and merchants. By the later Middle
Ages, when the Europeans began attacks along the coasts,
the response of the various kingdoms of the Maghrib was
only partially effective because of their lack of unity.
See also AL-ANDALUS;ATLAS MOUNTAINS;HAFSIDS;
HAMDANIDS; PORTUGAL; RECONQUEST.
Further reading:Michael Brett, “The Maghrib,” in
The New Cambridge Medieval History.Vol. 5, c. 1198–
c. 1300,ed. David Abulafia (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1999), 622–635; Michael Brett, The Moors:
Islam in the West(London: Orbis, 1980); Michael Brett,
Ibn Khaldun and the Medieval Maghrib(Aldershot: Ash-
gate Variorum, 1999); Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The
New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical
Manual(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996);
G. S. Colin, G. Yver, and E. Levi-Provençal, “Al-Maghrib”
and “Al-Maghrib, al-Mamlaka, al-Maghribiyya, Morocco,”
Encyclopedia of Islam5.1,183–1,209; H. T. Norris, The
Arab Conquest of the Western Sahara: Studies of the Histori-
cal Events, Religious Beliefs and Social Customs Which
Made the Remotest Sahara a Part of the Arab World(Burnt
Mill, England: Longman, 1986).magic and folklore Magic in the Middle Ages was a
central but alternate mode of rationality, almost always
portrayed as deviant because it varied from elite and offi-
cial religious and scientific practices and ideas. It ranged
from occult practices such as ASTROLOGYand ALCHEMY, to
the use of CHARMSand amulets, to sorcery and necro-
mancy, all based on the principle that the natural world
contained hidden powers that human beings through var-
ious practices and activities can use for good or evil.
The activities and ideas surrounding these beliefs var-
ied in terms of acceptability and approval throughout the