The Maghreb

The name

From the root gh-r-b (غ-ر-ب), the west and the place the sun sets: in Lisān al-ʿArab al-maghrib is both the place and the time of sunset, and it stands opposite al-mashriq, the east. The name is relative before it is geographic — writers in the east applied it to the lands lying west of them, so what it covers moves with the writer.

Extent

In the classical geographies the Maghreb is the western end of North Africa, beginning where Ifrīqiya ends, and it is often divided into a nearer, a middle and a farther Maghreb. The geographers draw the line with Ifrīqiya in different places, so in the sources the two names overlap rather than dividing cleanly.

In genealogy

The Maghreb matters to Arab genealogy mainly as a destination. Ibn Khaldūn treats the westward movement of Banū Hilāl and the tribes that travelled with them in the fifth century AH, after which Arab tribal names appear across the region — the nisba al-Hilālī among them. These are transmitted accounts, and the sources differ over how many moved, when, and how far: the framework is reported here, not asserted. A Maghribī family carrying an Arabian tribal name may hold it by descent, by alliance or by long association, and the name alone does not say which.