(Redirected from
Moorish)
The Moors were the medieval Muslim inhabitants of al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula including the present day Spain and Portugal) and the Maghreb, whose culture is often called "Moorish". A usual misconception is to relate them to the inhabitants of modern day Mauritania to which they are only related by an historic, and therefore ambiguous, name.
Moorish Empire
In AD 711, the Moors invaded Visigoth Christian Spain. Under their African leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar on April 30 and brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. They attempted to move northeast across the Pyrenees Mountains toward France, but were defeated by the Frankish Christian Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732. The Moors ruled in North Africa, Spain and Portugal (except for small areas in the northwest and largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees) for seven hundred years.
The Moorish state suffered civil conflict in the 750s. The country 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, Portugal and Castile became Christian again in the next several centuries. In 1212 a coalition of Christian kings under the leadership of Alfonso VIII of Castile drove the Muslims from Central Spain. The Moorish Kingdom of Granada thrived for three more centuries. This kingdom is known in modern times for such architectural gems as the Alhambra. On January 2, 1492, Boabdil, the leader of the last Muslim stronghold in Granada, surrendered to armies of a recently-united Christian Spain. The remaining Muslims were forced to leave Spain or convert to Christianity. These descendants of the Muslims were named moriscos. They were an important part of the peasantry in some territories, like Aragon, Valencia, and 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 inhabitants at the time. Most of the expelled moriscos went to Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, influencing cultural development there; others became corsairs; a significant number from Andalusia passed themselves off as Gypsies who were entering the country at that time. This mix of cultures gave birth to Flamenco music (Arabic: Fellah Mengu, peasant without land)[1].
Present-day Moors
In modern usage, Moor or Moorish (Italian and Spanish: moro, French: maure, Portuguese: mouro) is sometimes used to designate people whose native tongue is the Hassaniya dialect of Arabic. The Hassaniya speaking Arabo-Berbers or "Moors" live mainly in Western Sahara and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, from which the latter country derives its name.
Ethnically, European scholars without merit have tried to divide the Moors into three groups: Arab Moors, European (white) Moors and African (black) Moors. Arab Moors invaded North Africa during 640 C.E. European Moors (Arabic: البيضان, transliterated: al-bīḍānī) are nomads of Arabo-Berber origin with relatively fair skin colour. This represented the smallest group within the Moorish population. According to the British Museum, Oxford University and Egyptologist scholar Stanley Lane-Poole, author of "Moors in Spain" Poole proves African Moors were of Berber and Ethiopic origin (Arabic: السودان) and corrects the previously wrong notion that they were the descendents of slaves of the European Moors who then adopted the customs and language of their former masters. Moors were all one class and culture. Although 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. (see also memetic engineering) This has been proven by J.A Rogers book "Nature Knows No Color Lines". Further Dr. Yosef A.A. ben-Jochannan author of "Africa: Mother of Western Civilization" goes on to prove this group is from Ethiopic origins who migrated to northwest and northeast regions of Africa, and the only thing Arabic about the Moors was the fact that they were Moslem. This happened after adopting Islam upon the Arab invasion of North Africa during the year 640 C.E. Moors did not and currently do not identify themselves with black or white neither does other islamic groups seen elsewhere. In adition the Moors themselves were responsible for much of the slave trade including selling others into slavery including Europeans, Africans and others. According to some reports slavery is still practiced in parts of Mauritania and elsewhere.
See also
External links
