Moors

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Moors_Murderers

This article is about the people. For other usages, see moor.

The Moors were the medieval Muslim inhabitants of al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula including the present day Spain and Portugal) and the Maghreb and western Africa, whose culture is often called Moorish. In general, a Moor was an Islamic conqueror in Europe. The term derives from the Phoenician and Greek name Mauri, applied to the inhabitants of Mauretania (centered on modern-day Morocco, not Mauritania.) The Moors were mainly comprised of Arabs, Berbers, Ethiopians and a mixture of the three.

The term Moors is also used to refer to the main ethnic group inhabiting modern-day Mauritania, who - like the historic Moors - are of mixed Arab-Berber-Ethiopian origins.

Since the Arabs, Berbers and Ethiopians were darker-skinned than most Europeans, Maure or 'Moor' came to be applied indiscriminately by Europeans to Muslims, North Africans, Saracens, Persians, Indians, and even southern Filipinos (Moros). Shakespeare's Othello was 'the Moor of Venice.'

History

In 711, the Moors invaded Visigoth, Christian Hispania. Under their leader, an African Berber general named Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they brought most of Spain under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. They attempted to move northeast across the Pyrenees Mountains but were defeated by the Frank, Charles Martel, at the Battle of Tours in 732. The Moors ruled in the Iberian peninsula, except for areas in the northwest and the largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees, and in North Africa for several decades. The Moorish state suffered civil conflict in the 750s.

The country then broke up into a number of mostly Islamic fiefdoms, which were consolidated under the Caliphate of Cordoba. Christian states based in the north and west slowly extended their power over Spain. Galicia, León, Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia or Marca Hispanica, and eventually Castile became Christian in the next several centuries. This period is known for the tolerant acceptance of Christians, Muslims and Jews living in the same territories. The Caliphate of Córdoba collapsed in 1031 and the Islamic territory in Spain came to be ruled by North African Moors of the Almoravid Dynasty.

In 1212, a coalition of Christian kings under the leadership of Alfonso VIII of Castile drove the Muslims from Central Spain. However, the Moorish Kingdom of Granada thrived for three more centuries in the southern Iberian peninsula. This kingdom is known in modern time for architectural gems such as the Alhambra. On January 2, 1492, the leader of the last Muslim stronghold in Granada surrendered to armies of a recently united Christian Spain. The remaining Muslim were forced to leave Spain or convert to Christianity. These descendants of the Muslims were named moriscos. They were an important portion of the peasants in some territories, like Aragon, Valencia or Andalusia, until their systematic expulsion in the years from 1609 to 1614. Henri Lapeyre has estimated that this affected 300,000 out of a total of 8 million Spanish inhabitants at the time.See History of Al-Andalus

In the meantime, the tide of Islamic conquest had rolled not just westward to Spain, but also eastward, through India, the Malayan peninsula, and Indonesia up to Mindanao-—one of the major islands of an archipelago which the Spanish had reached during their voyages westward from the New World. By 1521, the ships of Magellan had themselves reached that island archipelago, which they named the Philippines, after Philip II of Spain. On Mindanao, the Spanish also named these kris-bearing people as Moros, or 'Moors'. See Reconquista.

Origins

In 46 BC, the Romans entered West Africa. Upon seeing the Africans, the Romans labeled them Maures. This term originates from the Greek adjective mauros. In Latin, maures or Moor described their dark skin. North, East and certain parts of West Africa were comprised of an admixture, most having dark skin but they varied according to anthropologists. However this was an attempt to separate these groups according to racial terms.

In 640, the Arabs sought to spread Islam to Africa and by 708, Islam had a hold on North Africa. Africans in large numbers accepted Arabic as the national language and converted to Islam. One of the most important and influential forces for the Moors came from Ethiopians. Along the voyage across Africa, other multicultural groups joined and converted to Islam and its ideas.

Tariq ibn-Ziyad, born of a Berber chief, rose to the rank of general in the Moorish army and led an invasion to Spain. On April 30, 711, Tarik and his forces landed on the Spanish coast with 7,000 troops. He immediately ordered the burning of the boats. This was done to assure his troops that there would either be victory or death. At the time of his arrival, this large army was comprised of some 500 Arabs and 6,500 native Ethiopians and Berbers.

Other Moors in history

Gildo was a Moorish chieftain who instigated a rebellion against the Roman Empire in 398.
Lusius Quietus was a Roman general and governor of Iudaea in 117. Originally a Moorish prince, his military ability won him the favor of Trajan, who even designated him as his successor. During the emperor's Parthian campaign, the numerous Jewish inhabitants of Babylonia revolted and were relentlessly suppressed by Quietus, who was rewarded by being appointed governor of Judea. Restlessness in Palestine caused Trajan to send his favorite, as a legate of consular rank, to Judea, where he continued his sanguinary course.
Saint Benedict the Moor (1526–1589) Benedict was born of African parents who were slaves on an estate near Messina, Sicily. Though of the lowest social rank, they are typically perceived as noble in heart and mind. As a baby, Benedict was freed by his master and, as a young boy, he showed such a devout and gentle disposition that he was called the "Holy Moor". While working in the fields one day, some neighbors taunted him on account of his race and parentage. His meek demeanor greatly impressed a Franciscan hermit who was passing by and who uttered the prophetic words: "You ridicule a poor Negro now; before long you will hear great things of him." Wishing to join these hermits, Benedict sold his meager belongings and gave the proceeds to the poor and then entered the community. After the death of the superior, Benedict was chosen his successor, though greatly against his will. When Pope Pius IV ordered all hermits to disband or join some Order, Benedict became a Friar Minor of the Observance at Palermo, and was made a cook. He was happy in this work since it enabled him to perform many little acts of kindness toward the others. His brethren were greatly edified by the saintly cook, especially when they saw angels at times helping him in his work. The Chapter of 1578 made him guardian, or superior, of the friary, though he protested that he was not a priest and, in fact, could neither read nor write. He was a model superior, however, and won the esteem and obedience as well as the love of his subjects. As superior, he gave free rein to his love for the poor, and no matter how openhanded he was, the food never seemed to give out. After serving as superior, he was made novice master, and to this difficult post he brought gifts that were evidently infused: he was able to instruct with an amazing knowledge of theology and to read the hearts of others. At his request, he was relieved of his office and again made cook, but he was no longer an obscure Brother, for thousands flocked to the friary, seeking cures or alms or counsel and help. He died after a brief illness, having foretold the hour of his death. His veneration has spread throughout the world, and the Negroes of North America have chosen him their patron. A Saint A Day by Berchman's Bittle, O. F. M. Cap. published by The Bruce Publishing Company, ©1958
St. Maurice, the Knight of the Holy Lance, is regarded as the greatest patron saint of the Holy Roman Empire. Rumored to be a Roman commander of Egyptian descent, Maurice is said to have gained sainthood after refusing to have his legion massacre a Christian uprising. Honored as early as 460, St. Maurice has had numerous artworks and structures—even a castle—dedicated to him. The existence of nearly three hundred major images of St. Maurice have been catalogued, and even today his veneration is seen within numerous cathedrals in eastern Germany.
Sir Morien and Sir Palamedes of of Arthurian fame. Sir Gawain, whose life was saved on the battlefield by Sir Morien, is stated to have "harkened, and smiled at the knight's speech." It is noted that Morien was the fashion of his land. "Morien, who was dark of face and limb," was a great warrior, and it is said that: "His blows were so mighty; did a spear fly towards him, to harm him, it troubled him no whit, but he smote it in twain as if it were a reed; naught might endure before him." Sir Morien personified all of the finest virtues of the knights of the European Middle Ages. The English ethnologist and antiquarian scholar Gerald Massey writing in 1881 in his massive two-volume text, A Book of the Beginnings

Present-day Moors

In modern usage, Moor or Moorish (Italian and Spanish: moro, French: maure, Portuguese: mouro) is used to designate people whose native tongue is the Hassaniya dialect of Arabic. These Moors live mainly in Western Sahara (where they are known as Sahrawis) and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, from which the latter country derives its name.

Historically, European scholars have divided the Moors into two groups: African, and European-Arab Moors. Arabs invaded North Africa during 640 and (Arabic: البيضان, transliterated: al-bīḍānī) are nomads of Arabo-Berber origin. This represented the smallest group within the Moorish population. Moors were all one class and culture. The Muslims in Sri Lanka trace their ancestry to these Arabic Moors . Although darker skinned African Moors made up the majority of this group, race and ethnic division did not exist amongst Moors and there was no distinction in regards to race. Stanley Lane-Poole.

Quotes

“Silius Italicus, and early writer around the beginning of the Christian era, describes the Maures as "Nigra" or black … Procopius, a 6th century Byzantine historian, says the Moors (Maurusioi) were a people composed of a number of "black-skinned" tribes who had gained domination over all of North Africa after the period of the Vandals' ascendancy in Africa.” From Golden Age of the Moor

"All the Moorish soldiers were dressed with silk and black wool that had been forcibly acquired … their black faces were like pitch and the most handsome of them was like (black as) a cooking pan." -Spoken by Spanish monarch Alfonso X in the 13th century.

Moorish Spain excelled in city planning; the sophistication of their cities was astonishing. According to one historian, Cordova "had 471 mosques and 300 public baths … the number of houses of the great and noble were 63,000 and 200,077 of the common people. There were … upwards of 80,000 shops. Water from the mountain was distributed through every corner and quarter of the city by means of leaden pipes into basins of different shapes, made of the purest gold, the finest silver, or plated brass as well into vast lakes, curios tanks, amazing reservoirs and fountains of Grecian marble." The houses of Cordova were air conditioned in the summer by "ingeniously arranged draughts of fresh air drawn from the garden over beds of flowers, chosen for their perfume, warmed in winter by hot air conveyed through pipes bedded in the walls." This list of impressive works appears endless; it includes lamp posts that lit their streets at night to grand palaces, such as the one called Azzahra with its 15,000 doors.Ivan Van Sertima, The Golden Age of the Moor (Journal of African Civilizations, Vol 11, Fall 1991), Transaction Publishers, 1991, ISBN 1560005815

References

Bibliography

Turkey (1888) - Stanley Lane-Poole
The Barbary Cosairs (1890) - Stanley Lane-Poole
The History of the Moors in Spain - "Stanley Lane-Poole"
Rape of Paradise - Dr. Jan Carew
Nature Knows no Color Line - J.A. Rogers
The Golden Age of the Moor - Ivan Van Sertima

External links

History of the Maghreb | History of Spain

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