07-31-2006, 04:47 PM
In re Islam and cultural changes, it is true that Algeria and Morocco do preserve much of the pre Islamic language and culture; one might contrast this with the situation of Egypt; which had a very large non Arab population and a very deeply rooted and sophisticated culture when it was Byzantine; we can be quite sure the number of Arabs who moved into the country didn't outnumber the natives. Yet the survival of the pre-Arab culture is limited to a very marginalized group of Copts, and I think the language survives primarily as a liturgical one.
Felix Wang