A scholarly king, navigators, surviving words and letters carved in stone: in a richly documented video, Mohamed Doumir traces the connections between the Canary Islands and the Numidia of Juba II, highlighting their Algerian dimension.
At the heart of his account are Juba II and the expedition whose discoveries were recorded by Pliny the Elder. Even the name Canaria is associated with the island’s large dogs. Doumir also draws on Leonardo Torriani, an engineer in the service of the king of Spain in the sixteenth century, who credits Juba with settling the islands with Numidians.
To support this connection, he brings together several bodies of evidence. The linguistic comparisons of George Glas and Sabin Berthelot link Canarian words to Berber varieties spoken in Algeria, particularly Chaoui. The work of Renata Springer and Irma Mora sheds light on the relationships between Canarian inscriptions and the Numidian writing tradition. Genetics completes his argument, with a maternal lineage, H1cf, whose link to an Algerian sample he highlights.
The value of this work also lies in the way it shares knowledge: presenting documents, naming researchers and making accessible a history that many will discover for the first time. Doumir inspires viewers to read, compare and pursue the inquiry. This patient work of research and public education deserves recognition.
We invite our readers to take the time to watch this video. Twenty-three minutes to discover Mohamed Doumir’s thesis.
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