Maghreb
Rank Country GDP ( PPP ) $ M
35 Algeria 681,396
54 Morocco 328,651
76 Tunisia 149,190
101 Libya 61,559
143 Mauritania 19,811
The Maghreb (/ˈmʌɡrəb/; Arabic: المغرب al-Maghrib, the west), also known as Northwest Africa, the Arab Maghreb (المغرب العربي al-Maghrib al-ʻArabī), and Barbary, is a region of North Africa that is effectively a western part of the Arab world and is predominantly Muslim. The region includes Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia, which are all member states of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU). The Maghreb additionally includes the disputed territories of Western Sahara (controlled mostly by Morocco and partly by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla (both are controlled by Spain but claimed by Morocco). As of 2018, the region had a population of over 100 million people. Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, English and European sources often referred to the region as the Barbary Coast or the Barbary States, a term derived from the Berbers. Sometimes, the region is referred to as the Land of the Atlas, derived from the Atlas Mountains found in the region. In Berber languages, Tamazgha refers to the Maghreb region together with smaller parts of Mali, Niger, Egypt, and the Spanish Canary Islands - the lands traditionally inhabited by Arab-Berbers. The Maghreb is usually defined as much of northern Africa, including a large portion of Africa's Sahara Desert, but excludes Egypt and Sudan, which are considered to be in the Mashriq, the eastern part of the Arab world. The traditional definition of the Maghreb, which restricted it to the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, was expanded by the inclusion of Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara. During the era of Al-Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula (711-1492), the Maghreb's inhabitants, the Muslim Berbers or Maghrebi, were known by Europeans as Moors, or as Afariqah (Roman Africans). [need quotation to verify] Morocco transliterates into Arabic as al-Maghreb (The Maghreb). Before the establishment of modern nation states in the region during the 20th century, Maghreb most commonly referred to a smaller area, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains in the south.