Berber

Berber comes from the Arabic word Al Barbar (البربر), which comes from the onomatopoeia Bar-Bar (see also βάρβαρος), used by Greeks as Bla-Bla to describe other languages. Bar-Bar was adopted by the Arabic speakers to refer to the original inhabitants of North Africa, west and south of Egypt as a non civilized population. The word 'Berber' is itself related to the older word Barbaroi, which is used in the document Periplus Maris Erythaie (Periplus of the Red Sea), a document written in Greek in the middle of the first century A.D. This document indicates that the Barbaroi, meaning the inhabitats of northern Somali coast, were trading with the Ancient Egyptians, Romans and inhabitants of Pre-Islamic Arabia. It also gives the names of some of the ports like Berbera. Nowadays the word Berber is used to refer to the Amazigh. Historically the term was applied by ancient Greek and medieval Arab geographers to the original inhabitants of Somalia.

Berber may refer to:

• a member of the Berber people
  • the Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
  • Berberism, a political-cultural term supporting a distinct Berber identity
  • Berber calendar
  • Berber cuisine
  • Berber Jews and the Judeo-Berber language
  • Berber music
  • Berber mythology
  • Berber pantheon
  • Berber Revolt in 740-43 AD
  • Berber (etymology), the etymology of the word
• Bilad-al-Barbar, the ancient and medieval name of Somalia
• Berbera, a port city in Somalia
• Berbere, a spice mixture from Ethiopia
• Berber Spring was a period of political protest in Algeria
• Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
• Berber Toad, a species of toad found in Algeria
• Berber carpet, a type of carpet