There is an interesting theory, developed by Richard Ford, nineteenth-century travel writer and historian, and supported by Arnold Toynbee, that both the Spaniards and the Berbers are Punic people. Ford finds partial proof in their mutual fondness for the chickpea, and he points out that the Punic love of chickpeas so pleased the Roman playwright Plautus (c. 200 BC) that he introduced a chickpea-eating character speaking Punic, which is comparable to Shakespeare's use of a toasted-cheese-eating Welshman speaking Welsh.

- Paula Wolfert, Good Food from Morocco.