The toponym maghrib is a geographical term that the Muslim Arabs gave to the region extending from

Alexandria in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Etymologically it means both the western
place/land and the place where the sun sets. It is composed of the prefix ma−, which makes a noun out of
the verb root, and ‫( غرب‬gharaba, to set, as in setting sun) (from gh-r-b root ( ‫ب‬-‫ر‬-‫))غ‬.[citation needed]

Muslim historians and geographers divided the region into three areas: al-Maghrib al-Adna (the near
Maghrib), which included the lands extending from Alexandria to Tarabulus (modern-day Tripoli) in the
west; al-Maghrib al-Awsat (the middle Maghrib), which extended from Tripoli to Bijaya (Béjaïa); and al-
Maghrib al-Aqsa (the far Maghrib), which extended from Tahart (Tiaret) to the Atlantic Ocean.[14] They
disagreed, however, over the definition of the eastern boundary. Some authors place it at the sea of
Kulzum (the Red Sea) and thus include Egypt and the country of Barca in the Maghrib. Ibn Khaldun does
not accept this definition because, he says, the inhabitants of the Maghreb do not consider Egypt and
Barca as forming part of Maghrib. The latter commences only at the province of Tripoli and includes the
districts of which the country of the Berbers was composed in former times. Later Maghribi writers
repeated the definition of Ibn Khaldun, with a few variations in details.[15]

As of 2017 the term Maghrib is still used in opposition to Mashriq in a sense near to that which it had in
medieval times, but it also denotes simply Morocco when the full al-Maghrib al-Aksa is abbreviated.
Certain politicians seek a political union of the North African countries, which they call al-Maghrib al-
Kabir (the grand Maghrib) or al-Maghrib al-Arabi (the Arab Maghrib).[15][16]

Speakers of Berber languages call this region Tamazɣa or Tamazgha, which translates to "land of the
Berbers").[17][18] Since the second half of the twentieth century, this term has been popularized by
activists promoting Berberism.