Abstract

Historical evidence pertinent for the study of Mediterranean regions of Africa comes in texts written in a number of languages (Arabic, Latin and vernacular) and uses categories such as Maghrib and Barbaria but in very distinct ways. In the past, historians have addressed this question by trying to “solve” these discrepancies rather than by historicising the relation between geographical imaginations and the social practices that sustained them on both sides of the sea. Showing that this approach has created its own entanglements and difficulties, this article argues that a return to the sources offers firmer ground for reclaiming the historicity of categories and regions and allows for a more productive way of situating the Maghrib in the Mediterranean and vice versa.