Maghrebi Arabs (Arabic: العرب المغاربة, romanized: al-‘Arab al-Maghāriba) or North African Arabs (Arabic: عرب شمال أفريقيا, romanized: ‘Arab Shamāl Ifrīqiyā) are the inhabitants of the Maghreb region of North Africa whose ethnic identity is Arab, whose native language is Arabic and trace their ancestry to the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. This ethnic identity is a product of the centuries-long Arab migration to the Maghreb since the 7th century, which changed the demographic scope of the Maghreb and was a major factor in the ethnic, linguistic and cultural Arabization of the Maghreb region. The descendants of the original Arab settlers who continue to speak Arabic as a first language currently form the single largest population group in North Africa.

Arab migration first started in 647 with the Arab conquest of the Maghreb under the Rashidun Caliphate, when Abdallah ibn Sa'd led the invasion with 20,000 soldiers from Medina in the Arabian Peninsula. The invasion swiftly took over Tripolitania and then defeated a much larger Byzantine army at the Battle of Sufetula in the same year, forcing the new Byzantine Exarch of Africa to pay tribute.

Increasing Arab migration towards the end of the 7th century finally overcame Berber and Byzantine resistance, gradually converting the Berbers to Islam and incorporating the entire Maghreb into the Umayyad Caliphate. Throughout the period of conquest, Arab migrants settled in all parts of the Maghreb, coming as peaceful newcomers and were welcomed everywhere. Large Arab settlements were established in many areas. A considerable portion of the Arab settlers belonged to the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim. Arabians arrived in the Maghreb in large numbers after an expedition by the Banu Muzaina tribe to the Maghreb under the leadership of Zayd ibn Haritha al-Kalbi in the 7th–8th century. The Arab Muslim conquerors had a much more durable impact on the culture of the Maghreb than did the region's conquerors before and after them, and by the 11th century, the Berbers had become Islamized and Arabized.

During the Umayyad conquest, 40,000 Arab troops from Egypt were brought in. The Umayyads controlled the vast territory of the Maghreb through a military force of 50,000 Arabian soldiers who originally served in Egypt. These became a hereditary ruling class primarily made up of the conquerors and their descendants with very few outsiders. Land grants were given to these soldiers, creating a landed Arab aristocracy with extensive landholdings, cultivated in many cases by slaves from sub-Saharan Africa. An example of these were the Fihrids, descendants of Uqba ibn Nafi, who occupied a privileged position in Ifriqiyan and Andalusi society. There were other powerful Arab settlers who briefly appeared in the sources, especially those of Qurayshi ancestry. Arab settlers mostly settled in cities, such as Kairouan, until the migration of the nomadic Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in the 11th century. The Umayyad Caliphate was aware of the importance of the importance of the spread and settlement of Arabs in the Maghreb. Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik swore that he would send a large army and added "I will not leave a single Berber compound without pitching beside it a tent of a tribesman from Qays or Tamim". During this time, the majority of Maghrebi Arabs were Qahtanites from South Arabia.

During the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, there was a great influx of Khurasani Arabs from Iraq to the Maghreb. These were mostly North Arabian tribes, among them was the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim. This shifted the tribal balance of Ifriqiya in favor of the North Arabian Adnanite tribes who became the majority, to the detriment of the formerly more numerous South Arabian Qahtanite tribes.

During the rule of the Aghlabid dynasty (founded in 800), Arab migration to increased in numbers due to the anti-Kharijite wars. The number of Arab migrants of Ifriqiya concentrated in the army and the cities, mainly Kairouan, has been estimated at 100,000. Most of the Arab migrants came from Syria and Iraq, which from the start supplied numerous migrants to the Maghreb. The organization of the Aghlabid army was largely based on the Arab tribes who settled in Ifriqiya in the late seventh and eighth centuries. These troops were called the jund, descendants of Arab tribesmen who participated in the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb. In 789, descendant of Ali ibn Abi Talib, Idris ibn Abdallah, fled from the Hejaz and arrived in Tangier after the failed revolt against the Abbasids in the Battle of Fakhkh. He founded the Idrisid dynasty, which established control over modern-day Morocco and western Algeria. The Idrisid dynasty played an important role in the early Islamization of the area, and contributed to an increase in Arab migration and Arabization in major urban centers of the western Maghreb. Several Shia Arabs rapidly flocked to Fez, Arabizing the region. Fez experienced large waves of Arab migration, including one which involved 800 Arabs from Al-Andalus in 818 and one which involved 2,000 Arab families from Ifriqiya in 824.

These Arab political entities, in addition to the Salihids and Fatimids, were influential in encouraging Arabization by attracting Arab migrants and by promoting Arab culture. In addition, disturbances and political unrest in the Mashriq compelled the Arabs to migrate to the Maghreb in search of security and stability. By this time, there were several Arab tribes in the Maghreb, including Azd, Lakhm, Judham, Ghassan, Mudar, Rabi'a, Qahtan, Banu Adi, Quda'a, Banu Hashim, Banu Asad and Banu Tamim.

The 11th century witnessed the most significant wave of Arab migration, surpassing all previous movements. This event unfolded when the Zirid dynasty of Ifriqiya proclaimed its independence from the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. In retribution against the Zirids, the Fatimids dispatched large Bedouin Arab tribes, mainly the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym, to defeat the Zirids and settle in the Maghreb. These tribes followed a nomadic lifestyle and were originally from the Hejaz and Najd.