Algeria
POPULATION 32,277,942
MUSLIM 97 percent
CHRISTIAN AND JEWISH 1 percent
ATHEIST 2 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria lies in North Africa. It is bordered on the east by Tunisia and Libya; on the south by Niger, Mali, and Mauritania; on the west by Western Sahara and Morocco; and on the north by the Mediterranean Sea. It is the second largest country in Africa and the eleventh largest in the world. There is a narrow coastal area in the north, which is fairly fertile, and a vast desert in the south. The two parts are separated by mountain ranges, including the Atlas.
From 1100 B.C.E. the Phoenicians established colonies in the region. The Romans ruled from 200 B.C.E. to about 670 C.E., when the area was conquered by Arabs. Christianity, which had arrived with the Romans, declined after the Arab conquest. From the eighth to the eleventh centuries the region was fragmented into kingdoms ruled by Berbers, who took Shiite Islam as their creed. From the eleventh to the thirteen centuries, two empires, the Almoravid and the Almohad, successively ruled northwestern Africa, part of the Maghreb. These empires followed Sunni Islam. The Almohad court especially was known for its cultivation of learning, and it was there that Ibn Rushd (Averroës) wrote his commentaries on Aristotle.
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