North Africa

Exclusive of Egypt, these listings cover the African coastal regions of the Mediterranean Sea, together with the interior districts directly adjacent to the coastal ones.

Presently, this covers: Adrar, Aïr, Algeria, Algiers, Aloa, Bagirmi, Bou Regreg, Brakna, Canary Islands, Carthage, Ceuta, Constantine, Cyrenaica, Damagaram, Dar al-Masalit, Darfur, Dendi, Djebel Nefusah, Djerba, Dotawo, Fez, Fezzan, Gabes, Gao, the Garamantes, (Old) Ghana, Gobir, the Jarawa, Kaarta, Kanem-Bornu, Kangaba, Kel Ahaggar, Kenedugu, Kerkennah Islands, Kordofan, Libya, Macina, Madeira Islands, Mali, Mascara, Masmouda, Melilla, Meroë, Monastir, Morocco, Mukurra, Napata, Nekor, Nobatia, Nubia, Numidia, Oran, Phazana, the Rif, Segu, Sfax, the Shilluk, Sijilmasa, Sikasso, Songhai, the Sudan, Tabarca, Tagant, Tahert, Tamesna, Tangier, Taqali, Tibesti, Timbuktu, Trarza, Tripoli, Tugurt, Tukolor, Tunis, Tunisia, Wadai, and Zaghawa.
 


ADRAR A Berber region in north-central Mauretania, north of Tagant, northeast of Trarza. It's chief city, Atar, is located at the southern end of the Meddahia Ridge, about 270 miles (435 km.) northeast of the national capital of Nouakchott and about 55 miles (88 km.) south of the border with Western Sahara.



AÏR A hilly region in northern Niger, more-or-less in the middle of the entire Sahara desert. The region has been a Berber Sultanate until nearly the present day.


ALGERIA The western portion of North Africa, opposite France, together with a considerable extent of the Western Sahara.


BAGUIRMI A Sultanate in western Chad, bordering Kanem-Bornu.


BOU REGREG A district in coastal northwestern Morocco, involving the twin cities of Salé and Rabat. The region attracting numerous Moriscos (Islamic Spanish refugees) in the 16th and early 17th centuries, it became the autonomous headquarters of the Sallee Rovers, Muslim pirates and slave raiders who preyed upon European shipping and coastal communities, a practice that did not abate until the latter 18th century.


BRAKNA An Emirate in southwestern Mauretania, east of Trarza Province and southwest of Tagant Province.


CANARY ISLANDS A group of islands off the coast of southern Morocco


CEUTA (Sabta) A port situated beside the southern Pillar of Hercules, opposite Gibraltar.


CONSTANTINE (Qustantina, Blad el-Hawa; Phoen. Kirtha, Rom. Cirta) An ancient city in northeastern Algeria, traditionally populated largely by Kabyle Berbers. It is about 180 miles (300 km.) east of Algiers, about 90 miles (145 km.) west of the Tunisian frontier, and about 30 miles (48 km.) south of the Mediterranean coast. Sited on a superbly defendable natural plateau nearly surrounded by deep gorges, the place has had a chequered history.


CYRENAICA On the coast of eastern Libya, a Greek Colony-Kingdom founded from Thera in the 7th century BCE. The interior just behind the coastal settlements was the scene of intense fighting during WWII between FM. Montgomery and FM Rommel.

DAMAGARAM A Sultanate in south-central Niger, based in modern times on the provincial capital of Zinder.


DAR al-MASALITAn ephemeral Sultanate in extreme western Sudan, near the frontier with Chad.


DARFUR An ancient district in extreme western Sudan, between Kordofan and Wadai. There has been a shadowy state, or series of states, of some sorts here since at least 2500 BCE, and a recognizable link exists to one degree or another between the early indigeneous people of Darfur and the people of pre-dynastic Egypt. The communities formed from early times one leg of trade routes between Pharaonic Egypt on the one hand and Napata/Meroë on the other, and it has been suggested that surviving elements of the Kingdom of Cush may have set up a dynasty here after that state fell in c. 350 CE.


DENDI A nation and ethnic group located in the Niger watershed in southern Niger and northern Dahomey. They speak a dialect of Songhai, and became organized as a distinct political entitity following the absorption of Songhai into the Moroccan Empire at the end of the 16th century.


DJEBEL NEFUSAH The hill country in the interior of western Libya, south of Tripoli. The district was in the hands of a group of Kharijite Imams of the Ibadhiyah sect during the 8th through 10th centuries CE. The Kharijites ("Withdrawers", "Seceders") are Muslims who rejected both Sunni and Shi'ite interpretations of Caliphate succession and developed an idealist and deed-oriented version of Islam. The Ibadhiyah are the moderate wing of the Kharijtes, as opposed to the radical Azariqah movement of Basra, in Iraq.


DJERBA An island of about 200 sq. miles (510 sq. km.) in the Gulf of Gades, along the southern Tunisian coast. It was known in ancient times as Lotophagitis Nasos (Island of the Lotus-Eaters), and thought to be the place where the Hero Odysseus met with that folk whose diet caused amnesia.


FEZ An inland city located in northern Morocco.


FEZZAN The arid interior of western Libya.


GABÈS (Qabis)A town and oasis on the southern Tunisian coast, capital of the central Tunisian Vilayet (province) of the same name. It is the chief port on the Golfe de Gabès, 100 miles (161 km.) from the Libyan border.


GOBIR An ancient Hausa state, centered in what is now Maradi province of Niger. It was from the area of Gobir that the Fulani Jihad erupted, creating the Fulani states in northern and central Nigeria during the 19th century. At the end of the 18th century, a Muslim cleric of Fulani origin, Usman dan Fodio, established a religious training center in Gobir with the initial support of the Hausa King. Alarmed, however, by the schools growing autonomy and influence, the King attempted to rein it in, with the result that Usman resisted and ultimately declared Jihad, Holy War, on the Hausa. Ceding political and military control of the new empire to his two sons, Muhammad Bello at Sokoto and Abdullah at Gwandu, Usman created a puritanistic Muslim presence in the central Niger River basin.


The JARAWA A Berber tribal confederacy in the Aures Mountains in eastern Algeria. The tribe absorbed large numbers of Jews fleeing Visigothic persecution in Spain and Byzantine persecution in North Africa, and converted to Judaism en masse sometime in the 600's.


KAARTA A Bambara state in the interior of southern Mauretania, south of Tagant, in the Hodh. Founded by a brother of the founder of Segu, to the southeast.


KANEM-BORNU An old realm lying north of Lake Chad, on the edge of the desert.


KEL AHAGGAR A Tuareg confederation located in the wastes of central and southern Algeria.

KENEDUGU (Sikasso) A small kingdom in far southern Mali, near the Cote d'Ivoire frontier - the town of Sikasso itself is a provincial capital about 20 miles (32 km.) from the Burkina Faso border and about 183 miles (294 km.) southeast of the national capital of Bamako.


KERKENAH ISLANDS (Insulae Cercinae)Two larger islands (Chergui, to the east, and Gharbi, closer to the coast to the west), and a number of small islets, on the Tunisian coast opposite Sfax. In Classic times, they were thought to be the place where Aeas (Ajax), king of Locrea brought his army and populated them after the destruction of Troy.


KORDOFAN A Montana-sized semi-arid province of central Sudan - the Sudanese capital of Khartoum is just beyond it's northeastern frontier. The region is the world's principal source of gum arabic. See also, Taqali.


LIBYA Central North Africa, between Tunisia and Egypt. See also, Fezzan and Tripoli.


MACINA The marshy region of the upper Niger, southwest of Timbuktu, in what is now central Mali.


MADEIRA ISLANDSAn archipelago in the North Atlantic, about 400 (640 km.) miles west of Morocco and roughly 300 miles (480 km,) north of the Canary Islands.