Berber Religion

Berbers are indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa where they live in scattered communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and to a lesser degree Tunisia, Mauritania, northern Mali and northern Niger. Many ancient Berber beliefs were developed locally. Other beliefs were influenced by neighboring ancient Egyptian religious beliefs or borrowed during antiquity from the Punic (Carthaginian) religion, Judaism, Iberian mythology, and the religions of the Hellenistic Age. Ancient Berber beliefs still exert a subtle influence on contemporary Berber popular culture and tradition. First century Roman historian Pomponius Mela recorded that Berbers considered the spirits of their ancestors as deities. They swore by them and consulted them. After petitioning these deities, Berber descendants slept in their tombs to await an ancestral response in a dream. The Berbers also worshiped their rulers. The tombs of the Numidian rulers are among the most notable of the extant monuments created by the Classical Berbers. The Berber pantheon embraced multiple deities, known to the Romans as the Dii Mauri (Moorish gods). During the Roman period, Saturn and Ops were the focus of an important cult, supplanting the cults of Baal Hammon and Tanit, two deities of Punic origin. The Egyptian goddess Neith and Egyptian god Khnum may been the model for Punic Tanit and Baal Hammon.