In this Issue
The Maghreb Review, founded in 1976 is a quarterly independent journal and is the oldest, longest-running English- and French-language journal dedicated to the study of North Africa and Islamic culture and religion.
For nearly half a century, the review has published articles by distinguished scholars from the US and the UK, from the Maghreb and from many European and Middle Eastern countries in fields ranging from archaeology and anthropology, to politics and economics, to history, literature, art, women’s studies and religion.
The editorial board of The Maghreb Review is drawn from academic institutions in no less than ten different countries. Since its foundation in 1976, The Maghreb Review has devoted itself entirely to the study of the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia) and Islamic culture and religion. But this focus on the territorial state might be seen as an aberration from longer-term patterns in the Maghreb. One might also argue that the Maghreb can play a unique and dynamic role in a global age. Perhaps the remarkable characteristic of the region is that, while it sustains intense local traditions, it has long been a crossroads with links to sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Further, it is misleading to call the states of the Maghreb national since they all share a common Berber, Arab and Islamic heritage. As we enter the twenty-first century, therefore, we would like to encourage more attention to the Maghreb’s crossroads character - to its interaction through migration, trade, travel and cultural-education links with other regions. We would also like to promote theoretically informed comparison with neighbouring regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, the Iberian peninsula, southern France, Italy and the former Ottoman lands, the Middle East and with more distant areas that share related historical experience, such as Central Asia, Southern Africa or South and Central America.
The Maghreb Review is politically unbiased. The journal invites original, well-authenticated articles on any topic related to the areas described above from the earliest times to the present day (history, ethnography, economics, politics, Islamic culture, philosophy and science in the Islamic world, linguistics, literature, agriculture, sociology, anthropology, ethnomusicology, and relevant medical issues in our fields from the earliest times to the present day).
