The MENA is historically home to a vast number of long-standing ethnic groups. In honor of International Day of Indigenous Peoples, which is marked on August 9, we look at some of the native tribes of the region.
6 indigenous groups in the MENA region
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Berbers
Also known as Amazigh, the inhabitants of North Africa are scattered across Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Mali, Niger and Mauritania.
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Ma’dan
In Southern Iraq, near where the Tigris and Euphrates River join, lie the Iraqi marshlands where the semi-nomadic tribe lives. They are known to be experts in herding water buffalo, hunting of wildfowl and building of houses made of woven reeds.
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Tuaregs
Descendants of Berbers from North Africa, the semi-nomadic herders, agriculturalists and traders can mostly be found living in Northern Mali. They are believed to have migrated from today’s Libya in the 7th century CE.
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Copts
These are descendants of pre-Islamic Egyptians, who spoke a late form of the Egyptian language known as Coptic.
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Assyrians
Also referred to as Syriacs, the ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East come from Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, dating back to 2500 BC in ancient Mesopotamia.
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Jahalin Bedouins
A semi-nomadic Palestinian tribe who currently live in the eastern desert of the West Bank.
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