# Central Maghreb

Central Maghreb (in Arabic: المغرب الأوسط, al-Maghrib al-Awsaṭ), or even Central Berberia is a territorial zone of the Maghreb, between the 7th and 16th centuries, whose fixed limits are difficult to designate. Arab historiographers see it as the territory of rural Berber communities in revolt against the central power before integrating the Fatimid economic and political space. It is bordered by the Extreme Maghreb to the west and Ifriqiya to the east. The Central Maghreb is seen in Arab historiography as the territory of dissident Berber communities before the advent of the Fatimid political and economic order.

## Etymology

The chroniclers of the medieval Islamic period of the Maghreb distinguish three territorial groups : the Maghreb al-Adna (nearest Maghreb, of the East) or Ifriqiya, the Maghreb al-Awsat (central or median Maghreb) and the Maghreb al-Aqsa (Extreme Maghreb). But these geographical divisions do not correspond to stable and lastingly fixed States. Thus after the attempts at Maghreb empires, the Maghreb is divided between three political entities: Hafsids, Zianids and Merinids, fluctuating States which compete to establish their hold over the whole Maghreb but which can according to Gilbert Meynier "in anachronism (pre)figure for the nationalist teleologies the nation-states of today".
We also find the term "Central Berberia" for this region bordered by the Moulouya or the Middle Atlas to the West, and as far as the Constantinois and the Aurès, to the East, which was the ancient land of the Numidian civilization and which contains numerous ancient funerary monuments.

## Geography

The central Maghreb generally corresponds to a large part of northern Algeria. For other authors, notably Ibn Khaldoun, it is a group that extends from Moulouya to Annaba.
In the West, the Moulouya wadi seems a convenient way to delimit the Maghreb al-Aqsa (Extreme Maghreb) from the Central Maghreb. The Moulouya constitutes the eastern limit of the "kingdom of Fez" according to Leo Africanus, and in Antiquity it was already the limit between the Moors and Massaessyls (Numids) according to Strabo and Pliny, then under the Roman Empire the delimitation between the Tingitan and Caesarian provinces. It is this limit that was chosen during the Treaty of Monteagudo in 1291 between Castilians and Aragonese to identify the two countries and delimit their zones of influence in North Africa.
In the East, the boundary of the Central Maghreb changes according to the authors and the eras. Sometimes some authors connect Béjaïa to Ifriqiya, a region to the East of the central Maghreb, while for others Ifriqiya begins at Bône (Annaba). Generally the boundary between the central Maghreb and Ifriqiya is located in eastern Algeria, near the cities of Annaba or Constantine. To the North and South, the Mediterranean Sea and the Great Sahara stand out as the consensual natural boundaries of this space.
The territory of the central Maghreb is characterized by imposing mountains parallel to the coast, known as the Tell Atlas. The Tell Atlas is divided by river valleys such as the Chelif which flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the port of Mostaganem or the Soummam which flows into the sea near Béjaïa. From west to east, it includes : the Tessala mountains, the Ouarsenis, the Titteri, the Bibans, the Hodna mountains and the Babors. Another line of fragmented mountain ranges, called the Saharan Atlas, runs roughly parallel to the central Maghreb's southern border with the Sahara. These chains are from west to east : the Ksour mountains, the djebel Amour, the Ouled Naïl mountains and the Aurès. The unity of the Saharan Atlas is broken by depressions such as the Chott el Hodna and the Zab. Between the Saharan Atlas and the Tell Atlas there are significant plains, particularly in the west surrounding Tlemcen.

## History
### The formation of a historical space

The succession of political structures in the Central Maghreb has, temporarily, resulted in an increased and gradually more complete appropriation of Saharan territories through trade. The relations between the kingdoms of the North of the Maghreb and the Saharan regions are strained and locally particularized, but based above all on the wealth drawn from trans-Saharan trade. The northern Maghreb kingdoms of the Middle Ages, Rustamide (8th-10th centuries), Zirid (10th century), Hammadid (11th-12th centuries) and Abdelwadide (13th-14th centuries) were spatially inland states, centered more on the High Plains and the Tell than on the Mediterranean coastal area, generally to the south, their spheres of influence merged, approximately, with the south of the Saharan Atlas, along a line Chott Melrhir - south of present-day Laghouat - foothills of the Ksour Mountains. The Saharan space remains marked by a reticular type of operation, structured around axes of exchange, which partially invalidates the very idea of limits or borders. The control of space passes through that of axes and points. Thus, no Maghreb kingdom succeeded in imposing a lasting mark on the organization of the Saharan space.
After Ifriqiya, Muslim conqueror, Moussa Ibn Nusayr created three new provinces: the central Maghreb with Tlemcen as its capital, the Maghreb al-Aqsa with Tangier as its capital, and al-Sūs al-Aqṣā. The Central Maghreb was considered by historians of the Middle Ages as the territory of rural Berber communities and often linked to revolts against the central Arab power before the advent of the Fatimid political-economic space. To the west, the boundary between the central Maghreb and the extreme Maghreb is marked by the Moulouya wadi.
The central Maghreb will very quickly distinguish itself by the establishment of Kharijism, an egalitarian religious doctrine that resists the tax collected by the Umayyad governors in the 8th century. This doctrine is intended as a response to the Umayyad policy that privileges Arabs over non-Arabs. Three successive powers will take Kharijim as their ideology: the Sufrite kingdom of Tlemcen of Abu Qurra, that of Sijilmassa and finally that of the Rustamid of Tahert, the most lasting and structuring. Abu Qurra also participates in the Great Berber Revolt that will reconfigure the whole of the Maghreb. These three successive proto-powers of the central Maghreb each rely on the existence of a city and a trading community. The Rustamid founded their state in 761 but must deal with the Idrisids in the west and the Aghlabids in the east. These two Arab dynasties encroach on the borders of the rustamid Central Maghreb.

### Great Berber Revolt

In 740, against a backdrop of inequality between Berbers and Arabs, the former revolted and put to death the Umayyad governor of Tangier. The Battle of the Nobles, on the banks of the Chelif, saw the defeat of the armies of the Umayyad caliph. The Maghreb, except for Kairouan, broke away from the authority of the Umayyad caliphs. The latter, replaced by the Abbasids in 750, would never have the opportunity to regain a foothold in the Maghreb.