Traditional Berber religion Traditional Berber religion The traditional Berber religion is the ancient and native set of beliefs and deities adhered to by the Berber autochthones of North Africa. Many ancient Berber beliefs were developed locally, whereas others were influenced over time through contact with other traditional African religions (such as the Ancient Egyptian religion), or borrowed during antiquity from the Punic religion, Judaism, Iberian mythology, and the Hellenistic religion. The most recent influence came from Islam and pre-Islamic Arab religion during the medieval period. Some of the ancient Berber beliefs still exist today subtly within the Berber popular culture and tradition. Syncretic
Judeo-Berber language remained, mainly in Israel; all are at least bilingual in Judeo-Arabic. Judeo-Berber is characterized by the following phonetic phenomena: Apart from its daily use, Judeo-Berber was used for orally explaining religious texts, and only occasionally written, using Hebrew characters; a manuscript Pesah Haggadah written in Judeo-Berber has been reprinted (Galand-Pernet et al. 1970.) A few prayers, like the Benedictions over the Torah, were recited in Berber. Taken from Galand-Pernet et al. 1970:121 (itself from a manuscript from Tinghir): Judeo-Berber language Judeo-Berber (, ) is any of several hybrid Berber varieties traditionally spoken as a second language in Jewish communities of