Barbary piratesThe Barbary pirates, Barbary corsairs, or Ottoman corsairs were mainly Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from the Barbary States. This area was known in Europe as the Barbary Coast, in reference to the Berbers. The main purpose of their attacks was to capture slaves for the Barbary slave trade. Slaves in Barbary could be of many ethnicities, and of many different religions, such as Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.
ZellijZellij (الزليج; also spelled zillij or zellige) is a style of mosaic tilework made from individually hand-chiseled tile pieces. The pieces were typically of different colours and fitted together to form various patterns on the basis of tessellations, most notably elaborate Islamic geometric motifs such as radiating star patterns. This form of Islamic art is one of the main characteristics of architecture in the western Islamic world.
MasmudaThe Masmuda (المصمودة, Berber: ⵉⵎⵙⵎⵓⴷⵏ) is a Berber tribal confederation of Morocco and one of the largest in the Maghreb, along with the Zenata and the Sanhaja. Today, the Masmuda confederacy largely corresponds to the speakers of the Shilha (Tachelhit) Berber variety, whereas other clans, such as Regraga have adopted Arabic. The Masmuda settled large parts of Morocco, and were largely sedentary and practised agriculture. The residence of the Masmuda aristocracy was Aghmat in the High Atlas mountains.
BiskraBiskra (بسكرة ; Tibeskert; Latin Vescera) is the capital city of Biskra Province, Algeria. In 2007, its population was recorded as 307,987. Biskra is located in northeastern Algeria, about from Algiers, southwest of Batna and north of Touggourt. It is nicknamed "The Queen of the Zibans", "The Door of the Desert" or "The Saharan Nice" because of its location at the beginning of the Sahara Desert. Due to its geographical location, its climate and natural resources, particularly farming, Biskra has always been a crossroad between the cities in the north and south.
BéjaïaBéjaïa (bɪˈdʒaɪə; beʒaja; بجاية, Bijāya, bid͡ʒaːja), formerly Bougie and Bugia, is a Mediterranean port city and commune on the Gulf of Béjaïa in Algeria; it is the capital of Béjaïa Province, Kabylia. Béjaïa is the largest principally Kabyle-speaking city in the region of Kabylia, Algeria. The town is overlooked by the mountain Yemma Gouraya, whose profile is said to resemble a sleeping woman.
SfaxSfax (s(@)ˈfaeks ; Ṣafāqis, ˈsʕfaːqəs) is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Berber Taparura, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate (about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014), and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has a population of 330,440 (census 2014). Its main industries include phosphate, olive and nut processing, fishing (it's the largest fishing port in Tunisia) and international trade. The city is the second-most populous in the country after the capital, Tunis.
