By the 7th century CE, Mauretania fell to Arabs from the modern-day Gulf states who invaded North Africa. The north of Africa was Islamized and with that came a different culture than the Christianity and local faiths the people had known. Al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyyah or, Kingdom of the West, was what the Arabs called the area that is now Morocco. Sometimes, they called it Al-Maghrib al-Aqṣá, meaning the The Farthest West, pointing to how far Morocco lies from Arabia. Indeed, English speakers came to say “Morocco” as a result of what the Spaniards called Marrakesh, Marruecos, from around the Middle Ages.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 06, 2020 21:33 UTC