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The Moroccans - People of Morocco, Atlas, Sahara, Atlantic-Mediterranean Coast
Most Moroccans practice Sunni Islam and are of Arabized Berber and Berber stock. Arab-Berber comprise about 99.1% of the Moroccan population.
Morocco has been inhabited for at least the last 200,000 years. The Arabs conquered the territory that would become Morocco in the 7th and 11th centuries, at the time under the rule of various late Byzantine Roman leaders and indigenous Berber and Romano-Berber principalities, laying the foundation for the emergence of an Arab-Berber culture. A sizeable portion of the population is identified as Haratin and Gnawa (or Gnaoua), black or mixed race. Morocco's Jewish minority (265,000 in 1948) has decreased significantly and numbers about 5,500 (See History of the Jews in Morocco). Most of the 100,000 foreign residents are French or Spanish. Some of them are colonists' descendants, who primarily work for European multinational companies, others are married to Moroccans and preferred to settle in Morocco. Prior to independence, Morocco was home to half a million Europeans,
In the 12th and 13th centuries an invasion of Arab nomads, the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym tribes, swept the whole Maghreb, but recent studies make clear no significant genetic differences exist between Arabic and non-Arabic speaking populations, highlighting that in common with most of the Arab World, Arabization was mainly via acculturation of indigenous populations over time. The Moorish refugees from Spain settled in the coast-towns. According to the European Journal of Human Genetics, Moroccans from North-Western Africa were genetically closer to Iberians than to Sub-Saharan Africans of Bantu ethnicity.
The largest concentration of Moroccans outside Morocco is in France, which has reportedly over one million Moroccans. The Netherlands and Belgium have 1 million Moroccans from the Riff (Al Hoceima, Nador). There are also large Moroccan communities in Spain (about 700,000 Moroccans), the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Israel and the United States. Moroccan Jews are the second biggest Jewish ethnic group in Israel.
Most people live west of the Atlas Mountains, a range that insulates the country from the Sahara Desert. Casablanca is the center of commerce and industry and the leading port; Rabat is the seat of government; Tangier is the gateway to Morocco from Spain and also a major port; Fes is the cultural and religious center; and Marrakech is a major tourist center.
There is a European expatriate population of 100,000, mainly of French or Spanish descent; many are teachers or technicians or retirees, especially in Marrakech.
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