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Moors
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The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim (and earlier non-Muslim) people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most of what is now Spain and Portugal. Moors are not distinct or self-defined people, but the appellation was applied by medieval and early modern Europeans primarily to Berbers, but also Arabs, and Muslim Iberians[1] and West Africans. from Mali and Niger who had been absorbed into the Almoravid dynasty.[2] As early as 1911, mainstream scholars observed that "The term 'Moors' has no real ethnological value."[3]
In the Spanish language, the term for Moors is Moro; in Portuguese the word is mouro. There seems to have been some confusion about the relationship of the word moro/mouro to the word moreno (which means brown), both from Greek maúros, i.e. black. However, the two words have different etymological roots.[4][5]
The Andalusian Moors of the late Medieval era inhabited the Iberian Peninsula after the Moorish conquests of the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates, and the final Umayyad conquest of Hispania.[citation needed]The Moors' rule stretched at times as far as modern-day Mauritania, West African countries, and the Senegal River. Earlier, the Classical Romans interacted (and later conquered) parts of Mauretania, a state which covered northern portions of modern Morocco and much of north western and central Algeria during the classical period. The people of the region were noted in Classical literature as the Mauri.
The term Mauri, or variations thereof, was later used by European traders and explorers of the 16th to 18th centuries to designate ethnic Berber and Arab groups speaking the Hassaniya Arabic dialect.[citation needed] Today such groups inhabit Mauritania and parts of Algeria, western Sahara, Morocco, Niger and Mali and to those in India.[6] and Sri Lanka. Mauri was the genesis of the name of the ancient kingdom of Mauretania, which gave its name to the modern Islamic Republic of Mauritania. In the Philippines, some residents use a variation of the term to designate some Muslim populations, the Moros.
Speakers of European languages have historically designated a number of ethnic groups "Moors". In modern Iberia, the term continues to be associated with those of Moroccan ethnicity living in Europe. Some consider it pejorative and racist. Moor is sometimes used in a wider context to describe any person from North Africa. The Spanish use the term and think of it as neutral in local sayings such as "no hay moros en la costa"[citation needed] (literally, "There are no Moors on the coast", meaning "the coast is clear").
Etymology
In Latin, the word maurus (plural mauri) means coming from Mauretania, a Roman province on the north western fringe of Africa. In the Medieval Romance languages (such as Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian), the root appeared in such forms as mouro, moro, moir, and mor. Derivatives are found in today's versions of the languages. Through nominalization, the root has always referred to various things. Moreno, from the Latin root, can mean "tanned" in Spain and Portugal. In Cuba and other Spanish-speaking countries, as in Portuguese speaking Brazil, it can mean "black person" or a "mulatto"[citation needed]. Also in Spanish, morapio is a humorous name for "wine", specially that which has not been "baptized" or mixed with water, i.e., pure unadulterated wine. By extension, Moor was also used to refer generally to dark skinned persons as far back as the time of William Shakespeare, such as in his play Othello the Moor.
In Spanish usage, moro ("Moor") came to have an even broader usage, applied to moros of Mindanao in the Philippines, and the moriscos of Granada. Moro is also used to describe all things dark, as in "Moor", "moreno", etc.. According to some, it is the basis of such European surnames as Moore,[citation needed] Mauro, Moura, and so on.[citation needed] The Milanese Duke Ludovico Il Moro was so-called because of his dark complexion.
"Mouro" may also refer to an enchanted moura, in Portugal and Spain, the word deriving from a Celtic root *MRVOS, (Gaulish: marvos), meaning dead or supernatural being,[7] who comb their long blond hair with a golden comb.[8][9] From this celtic root the name moor is also given to unbaptised children meaning not Christian.[10][11] In Basque, Mairu means moor[12] and also refers to a mythical people. In Northern Portugal, moura also means "stone".[citation needed]
History
Overview
Although the Moors came to be associated with Muslims, the name Moor pre-dates Islam. It derives from the small Numidian Kingdom of Maure of the 3rd century BCE in what is now northern central and western part of Algeria and a part of northern Morocco.[13] The name came to be applied to people of the entire region. "They were called Maurisi by the Greeks," wrote Strabo, "and Mauri by the Romans."[14] During that age, the Maure or Moors were trading partners of Carthage, the independent city state founded by Phoenicians. During the second Punic war between Carthage and Rome, two Moorish Numidian kings took different sides, Syphax with Carthage, Masinissa with the Romans, decisively so at Zama. Thereafter, the Moors entered into treaties with Rome. Under King Jugurtha collateral violence against merchants brought war. Juba, a later king, was a friend of Rome. Eventually, the region was incorporated into the Roman Empire as the provinces of Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana; the area around Carthage already being the province of Africa. Roman rule was beneficial and effective enough so that these provinces became fully integrated into the empire.
During the Christian era, two prominent Berber churchmen were Tertullian and St. Augustine. After the fall of Rome, the Germanic kingdom of the Vandals ruled much of the area. A century later they were displaced by Byzantine incursions.[citation needed]
Neither Vandal nor Byzantine exercised an effective rule, the interior being under Moorish Berber control.[15] For over 50 years, the Berbers resisted Arab armies from the east. Especially memorable was that led by Kahina the Berber prophetess of the Awras, during 690–701. Yet by the 92nd lunar year after the Hijra, the Arab Muslims had prevailed across North Africa.[16]