ABSTRACT
Throughout the years of work on this book, our shorthand working title was “Diwan Ifrikiya,” which has the advantage of being brief and concise, though the disadvantage of being slightly obscure compared to the longer, less elegant, but more explicit appellation Book of North African Literature. “Diwan Ifrikiya”—as we refer to it throughout this introduction—combines the well-known Arabic word for “a gathering, a collection or anthology” of poems, diwan, with one of the earliest names of (at least part of) the region that this book covers. Ifrikiya is an Arabization of the Latin word Africa —which the Romans took from the Egyptians, who spoke of “the land of the Ifri,” referring to the original inhabitants of North Africa. The Romans called these people Berbers, but they call themselves the Amazigh, and even today tribal names—such as Beni Ifren—in their language, Tamazight, include words derived from ifri. 1
