Tunisia Way

People known as the Berbers (anciently often known as Libyans, who today call themselves the Imazighen or Tamazight), their relations and descendants, have been the major population group to inhabit North Africa during the last eight thousand years. This anciently included terrain from the Nile to the Atlantic, encompassing the vast Sahara with Ahaggar and Tibesti, and the long Mediterranean shore, including the region now called the Republic of Tunisia.

The twenty or so Berber languages form one of the branches of Afroasiatic, a language family stretching from Mesopotamia to the Niger, its other branches being: Ancient Egyptian, Semitic (which includes Arabic and Hebrew), Cushitic, and Chadic (Hausa). Berber, however, is no longer widely spoken in present day Tunisia; e.g., centuries ago many Zanata Berbers became Arabized.

Rock inscriptions in the Sahara, the Capsian stone blades and tools, and small figurines, found in al-Maghrib, as well as many of the dolmens by the Mediterranean have been associated with the Berbers. Seasonal and migration routes across the Sahara evidence their travels in prehistoric times.

Egyptian hieroglyphs from early dynasties testify to the cultural presence of Libyans, the Berbers of the "western desert". A Berber of the Meshwesh tribe, Shoshenq I (r.945-924) became pharaoh of Egypt, and founder of its Twenty-second Dynasty (945-715). In 926 Shoshenq (Shishak) campaigned to Jerusalem then under Solomon's heir. For several centuries Egypt was governed by a decentralized system based on Libyan tribal organization. Acculturated, Libyans also became high priests at Egyptian religious centers. Hence during the classical era of the Mediterranean, all of the Berber peoples of North Africa were often known collectively as Libyans.

To the west the Berbers were also referred to as Numidians, or as Mauri or Maurisi (later Moors). There the Berbers developed their own writing system, called today Tifinagh. The Berbers, particularly those of Tunisia, became well known in antiquity also due to their contact with the Mediterranean trade.

Tunisia Migrating peoples

Tunisia in its history has seen the arrival of many peoples. By three thousand years ago the eastern Mediterranean had prospered, resulting in an excess of population. Consequently city-states started organizing their youth to migrate in groups to where land was less densely settled. To these migrants the western Mediterranean presented an opportunity and could be reached relatively easily by ship, without marching through foreign territory. Such colonists sailed westward across the seas, following the lead of their commercial traders. The Greeks later followed, coming to (what is now) Libya, Sicily, Italy, and southern France. Earlier the Phoenicians had arrived in (what is now) Sardinia, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Sicily, and of course, Tunisia.

Throughout Tunisia's history many peoples have arrived among the Berbers to settle: most recently the French, before them came the Ottomans, yet earlier the Arabs who brought their language and the religion of Islam, before them the Byzantines, and the Vandals. Over two thousand years ago came the Romans, whose Empire long governed the region. The Phoenicians founded Carthage close to three thousand years ago. Also came migrations from the south. Perhaps eight millennia ago, there were already peoples established among whom the proto-Berbers mingled, and from whom the Berbers would spring, during an era of their ethno-genesis.