Documents for "North African History":

• Alamayn, Al Egypt: see Alamein, El.

• Alamein, El or Al Alamayn , town, N Egypt, on the Mediterranean Sea. It was the site of a decisive British victory in World War II (see North Africa, campaigns in ). In preparation for an attack by German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel from Libya (begun May 26, 1942) the British forces retreated into Egypt and by June 30 had set up a defense line extending 35 mi (56 km) from Alamein S to the Qattara Depression, a badland which...

• Barbary States term used for the North African states of Tripolitania , Tunisia , Algeria , and Morocco. From the 16th cent. Tripolitania, Tunisia, and Algeria were autonomous provinces of the Turkish Empire. Morocco pursued its own independent development. The corsair Barbarossa and his brothers led the Turkish conquest to prevent the region from falling to Spain. A last attempt by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to drive out the Turks failed in 1541. The piracy carried on...

• French Morocco see Morocco.

• French North Africa originally general name for Algeria , former French Morocco , and Tunisia.

• Mameluke see Mamluk.

• Moors nomadic people of the northern shores of Africa, originally the inhabitants of Mauretania. They were chiefly of Berber and Arab stock. In the 8th cent. the Moors were converted to Islam and became...

• Nile, battle of the see Abu Qir.

• North Africa, campaigns in series of military contests for control of North Africa during World War II. The desert war started in 1940 and for more than two years thereafter seesawed between NE Libya and NW Egypt. The almost...

• Pyramids, battle of July, 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars, battle fought between the French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte and the Egyptian Mamluks led by Murad Bey. Napoleon's victory gave the French...

• Songhai or Songhay , largest of the former empires in the western Sudan region of N Africa. The state was founded (c.700) by Berbers on the Middle Niger, in what is now central Mali. The rulers accepted Islam c.1000...

• Spanish Morocco see Morocco.

• Spanish Sahara see Western Sahara.

• Tripolitan War 1800-1815, conflict between the United States and the Barbary States. Piracy had become a normal source of income in the N African Barbary States long before the United States came into existence. The new republic adopted the common European practice of paying...

• Wafd in modern Egyptian history, a political party. It arose out of the delegation [Arabic wafd =delegation] headed by Zaghlul Pasha that was to have visited Great Britain in 1918 to urge Egypt's independence. Zaghlul formed the party in 1919. In addition to espousing independence, the Wafdists called for extensive social and...