Situation of the Berbers in a Christian North Africa

How might the Berbers effect the development of a Christian North Africa. They always provided an indigenous element, an indigenous resistance, to whoever intruded on them, be it Carthage, Rome, or the Arabs. And religiously, their role in the Christianity of the region (mostly heretical) and later their interpretation of Islam was extremely important. Politically, they were also very important throughout Moroccan and Algerian history.

So say we cut out Islam from the picture through some POD or another. How will the role of the Berbers evolve? By "Berbers", I mean those least likely to be assimilated into the dominant culture (Romanisation/Punicisation). It doesn't matter if North Africa ends up speaking Punic or a local version of Latin, the role of the Berbers will be similar. It will still be foreigners imposing their will and society on the indigenous population who survive mainly in the highlands and remote regions.

The highlands will preserve Berber culture and their form of tribalism and society. Contemporary maps of Berber-speaking regions in Algeria and Morocco illustrate a map of where I think longer-term ethnolinguistic boundaries could be drawn between Romance (or Punic) speaking peoples and Berber speaking groups.

I'm tempted to draw an analogy to the Scottish Highlands compared to the Lowlands, but I think that might be a bit inaccurate although an interesting way to help romanticise the Berber tribesman compared to a city dweller in Carthage/Tingis/Volubilis/wherever.

But since a Christian North Africa will link the region to the cultural identity of "Europe" far more than OTL, I wonder how the role of the Berbers might evolve. Any thoughts?
 
Possible source of mercaneries in various European wars. Hell, maybe a Hispanian civil war happens and one side flees to the Berbers and launches a counterattack leading to Berber domination of the Iberian peninsula
 

Deleted member 67076

Its worth noting that in a Christian North Africa scenario the Berbers are going to be less likely to be nomadic as increased nomadization was the result of the Banu Hilal tribes being spread out accross the Caliphate. Its possible you could see the opposite scenario occurring instead (assuming Christian North Africa keeps the Roman sea based trading economy, which I think it will in the absence of the Caliphate) where in which the Berbers continue to settle down into a largely agricultural based society.
 
Its worth noting that in a Christian North Africa scenario the Berbers are going to be less likely to be nomadic as increased nomadization was the result of the Banu Hilal tribes being spread out accross the Caliphate. Its possible you could see the opposite scenario occurring instead (assuming Christian North Africa keeps the Roman sea based trading economy, which I think it will in the absence of the Caliphate) where in which the Berbers continue to settle down into a largely agricultural based society.
I think these are fair points.
On the other hand, I wonder how sustainable settled agricultural society could be in late 1st millennium / early 2nd millennium CE, given the aridisation of formerly fertile regions - a situation to which pastoralism was better adapted. So, basically a hen-egg-conundrum: were the Arabs` goats to blame, or was the weather drying out anyway?
If the latter, then pastoralism is going to prevail anyway, and some transhumant variety of it, more specifically.

Either way, even if more Berbers settle down in the fertile valleys, there would still be other Berbers in the dry mountains, too, wouldn`t there?
 
Even if more Berbers are assimilated into the dominant post-Roman society, there will still be areas where the culture hangs on due to the unsuitable nature for farming. It was like that since at least the Romans. The difference between this and OTL is you'll have less of the "Berber" element and more of the "Roman" element, but the Berber element will certainly exist and play a powerful role.

I think these are fair points.
On the other hand, I wonder how sustainable settled agricultural society could be in late 1st millennium / early 2nd millennium CE, given the aridisation of formerly fertile regions - a situation to which pastoralism was better adapted. So, basically a hen-egg-conundrum: were the Arabs` goats to blame, or was the weather drying out anyway?
If the latter, then pastoralism is going to prevail anyway, and some transhumant variety of it, more specifically.

Either way, even if more Berbers settle down in the fertile valleys, there would still be other Berbers in the dry mountains, too, wouldn`t there?

Speaking of climate, according to studies, the Moroccan climate was comparatively very wet from the Little Ice Age to the late 20th century, compared to the early 2nd millennium. Something to consider.
 
I sensed that more Berbers would speak their own languages and/or Berber-influenced Romance language (in case of OTL Tunisia) and even a southern variant of Mozarabic, in case of Morocco (although I'm not so sure or even doubt about it).

For the Arabs, especially among the Banu Hilal, I think they would still migrate, but in a succession and more likely to assimilate to the rest of ATL North African society
 
I sensed that more Berbers would speak their own languages and/or Berber-influenced Romance language (in case of OTL Tunisia) and even a southern variant of Mozarabic, in case of Morocco (although I'm not so sure or even doubt about it).

For the Arabs, especially among the Banu Hilal, I think they would still migrate, but in a succession and more likely to assimilate to the rest of ATL North African society

As far as I know, the Mauretanian Vulgar Latin was akin to the Tunisian Vulgar Latin in some aspects--both would've formed a separate family of the Romance languages had it developed further, but the Mauretanian and Tunisian dialects would be quite divergent. Not sure how close the links would be to Mozarabic, but it would probably have significant elements of the Tunisian Romance languages based on the shared heritage of Berber and Punic.

The Arabs I've accounted for. They'd both assimilate but also reinforce the tribalism already present in parts.
 
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