Mauretania

Mauretania (also spelled Mauritania) was in ancient times a part of North Africa corresponding to the Mediterranean coast of what is today Morocco (and the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla).

Mauretania originally was an independent tribal Berber kingdom from about the 3rd century BC. It became a client state of the Roman empire in 33 BC, then a full Roman province after the death of its last king Ptolemy of Mauretania in AD 40.

Mauretania fell to the Vandal conquest in the 430s, but was reconquered by the Eastern Roman Empire in 533. There was a time of weak Byzantine rule when the territory was practically independent. The province was finally lost to the Arab Umayyad Caliphate Muslim conquest of the Maghreb around AD 698. In 743, the Berbers defeated the Umayyad Muslims in the Berber Revolt, regained full independence and founded many Muslim Berber kingdoms.

Mauri (Moorish) Kingdom

Mauretania existed as a tribal kingdom of the Mauri people (who gave their name to the wider term Moors) on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, from at least the 3rd century BC. The Mediterranean coast of Mauretania had commercial harbours for trade with Carthage since before the 4th century BC, but the interior was controlled by Berber tribes, who had established themselves in the region by the beginning of the Iron Age.