a geographic term referring to the part of North Africa west of Egypt. It is the shortened form of the Arabic term that the conquering Muslims applied to all of North Africa west of Egypt: Bilad-al-Maghreb (meaning “Lands of Sunset”). The Maghreb as a province of the Islamic empire was known as “Ifriqiyah.” The Maghreb today constitutes Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara. (Note: the geographical opposite of Maghreb is Mashreq, which refers to Egypt and other Arab countries in the East: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, etc.)