North Africa

==Culture==
{{Main|Culture of North Africa}}
{{See|African art#North Africa|Architecture of Africa#North Africa|Folk costume#Northern Africa|African cuisine#North Africa|List of African cuisines#Central African cuisine|Music of Africa#North Africa and the Horn of Africa|Cinema of Africa#North Africa|History of theatre#North African theatre|Traditional African religions#North Africa}}
[[File:Biskra market 1899.jpg|thumb|A market in [[Biskra]] in [[Algeria]] in 1899]]
[[File:Flickr - stringer bel - Ait Benhaddou.jpg|thumb|The [[kasbah]] of [[Aït Benhaddou]] in [[Morocco]]]]
The majority of the people of the Maghreb and the Sahara regions speak [[varieties of Arabic]] and almost exclusively follow Islam. The Arabic and Berber languages are distantly related, both being members of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic language family]]. The [[Tuareg languages|Tuareg]] Berber languages are notably more conservative{{Clarification needed|reason=What is the meaning of conservative in this context?|date=September 2023}} than those of the coastal cities.

Over the years, Berbers have been influenced by contact with other cultures: [[Egyptians]], [[Greeks]], [[Punic people]], [[Ancient Rome|Romans]], [[Vandals]], [[Arabs]], [[Ethnic groups in Europe|Europeans]], and [[Africa]]ns. The cultures of the Maghreb and the Sahara therefore combines Arab, indigenous Berber and African elements. In the Sahara, the distinction between sedentary [[oasis]] inhabitants and nomadic [[Bedouin]] Arabs and [[Tuareg people|Tuaregs]] is particularly marked. 

[[Egyptians]] over the centuries have shifted their language from [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] (in its late form, [[Coptic language|varieties of Coptic]]) to modern [[Egyptian Arabic]] while retaining a sense of national identity that has historically set them apart from other people in the region. Most Egyptians are [[Sunni Islam|Sunni Muslim]], although there is a significant minority of [[Coptic Christians]]. The Copts are the largest Christian denomination in the [[Christianity in the Middle East|Middle East and North Africa]].<ref name="CNN1">{{cite web |title=Who are Egypt's Coptic Christians? |date=10 April 2017 |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/09/middleeast/egypt-coptic-christians/index.html |publisher=CNN |quote=The largest Christian community in the Middle East, Coptic Christians make up the majority of Egypt's roughly 9 million Christians. About 1&nbsp;million more Coptic Christians are spread across Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to the World Council of Churches.}}</ref>

The Maghreb formerly had a significant Jewish population, almost all of whom emigrated to France or [[Israel]] when the North African nations gained independence. Prior to the modern establishment of Israel, there were about 500,000 Jews in Northern Africa,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jews of the Maghreb on the eve of World War II|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jews-of-the-maghreb-on-the-eve-of-world-war-ii|access-date=2022-02-18|website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org|language=en}}</ref> including both [[Sephardi Jews]] (refugees from Spain, France and Portugal from the Renaissance era) as well as indigenous [[Mizrahi Jews]]. Today, less than 3,000 remain in the region, almost all in Morocco and Tunisia,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rosenberg|first=Jerry M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bdAdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA44|title=The Rebirth of the Middle East|date=2009-09-28|publisher=Hamilton Books|isbn=978-0-7618-4846-2|language=en}}</ref> and are mostly part of a French-speaking urban elite. (See [[Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries]].)