Genetically speaking, they are not Arabs in any sense but native North Africans who adopted Islam at one stage in history and spoke a sort of creole-Arabic. Even today, North Africans speak "dialects" of Arabic which could be classed as separate langauges, much like the Romance languages (e.g. Spanish, French, etc.) which descend from Vulgar Latin. But French people are not Romans, so why are North African arabs?
From Wikipedia:
"Different genetic studies along with historians such as Gabriel Camps and Charles-André Julien lend support to the idea that the bulk of modern Northwest Africans irrespective of language are descended from Berbers. The medieval Arabic historian Ibn Khaldun also expressed this understanding in his writings. Furthermore, the Arabic dialects spoken in Algeria (especially in some parts of the Petite Kabylie like El Milia, Jijel and Setif) and the Maghreb countries in general contain a large number of Berber words, idioms and other linguistic features."
2007-02-27
03:07:08
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10 answers
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asked by
darth_maul_8065
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