A History of Islamic Societies

The modern history of Arab North Africa parallels the history of the Arab Middle East. By the nineteenth century, North Africa was substantially Muslim. Sufism played a large part in the organization of rural communities, and states were legitimized in Islamic, rather than patrimonial, cosmopolitan, or ethnic terms. The urban populations were Arabic in speech and culture, although in the southern, Saharan, and mountain regions, Berber was the common language and the basis of social identity.

In the pre-modern era, there were considerable variations in the social and political structure of each region and state, but in each one, lineage communities were the basis of society and pastoralists were an important social and political force. Under Ottoman suzerainty, some consolidation took place, but Libya had no central government and the Tunisian and Algerian states did not extend to the whole territory of each country. Morocco maintained a central state by emphasizing the Islamic credentials of its sultans. Islam played a crucial political role both in the integration of tribal communities and the legitimization of regimes.