Moors

The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages.

Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defined people. Europeans of the Middle Ages and the early modern period variously applied the name to Arabs, Berbers, and Muslim Europeans. The term has been used in a broader sense to refer to Muslims in general,Menocal, María Rosa (2002). ''Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain''. Little, Brown, & Co. , p. 241 especially those of Arab or Berber descent, whether living in al-Andalus or North Africa. The 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' observed that the term had "no real ethnological value." The word has racial connotations and it has fallen out of fashion among scholars since the mid-20th century.

The word is also used when denoting various other specific ethnic groups in western Africa and some parts of Asia. During the colonial era, the Portuguese introduced the names " Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors" in South Asia and Sri Lanka, now official ethnic designations on the island nation, and the Bengali Muslims were also called Moors. In the Philippines, the longstanding Muslim community, which predates the arrival of the Spanish, now self-identifies as the "Moro people", an exonym introduced by Spanish colonizers due to their Muslim faith.

Etymology

The etymology of the word "Moor" is uncertain, although it can be traced back to the Phoenician term ''Mahurin'', meaning "Westerners". From ''Mahurin'', the ancient Greeks derive ''Mauro'', from which Latin derives ''Mauri''. The word "Moor" is presumably of Phoenician origin. Some sources attribute a Hebrew origin to the word.

Historical usage

Antiquity

During the classical period, the Romans interacted with, and later conquered, parts of Mauretania, a state that covered modern northern Morocco, western Algeria, and the Spanish cities Ceuta and Melilla. The Berber tribes of the region were noted in the Classics as ''Mauri'', which was subsequently rendered as "Moors" in English and in related variations in other European languages. ''Mauri'' (Ancient Greek: Μαῦροι) is recorded as the native name by Strabo in the early 1st century. This appellation was also adopted into Latin, whereas the Greek name for the tribe was ''Maurusii'' (). The Moors were also mentioned by Tacitus as having revolted against the Roman Empire in 24 AD.

Medieval and early modern Europe

During the Latin Middle Ages, ''Mauri'' was used to refer to Berbers and Arabs in the coastal regions of Northwest Africa. The 16th century scholar Leo Africanus (c. 1494–1554) identified the Moors (''Mauri'') as the native Berber inhabitants of the former Roman Africa Province ( Roman Africans).

As it was Muslim Berbers and Arabs who conquered the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa in 711, the word has been applied to the inhabitants of the peninsula under Muslim rule (known in this context as al-Andalus). The term could also be applied to the Muslims of Sicily, who began to arrive there during the Aghlabid conquest of the 9th century. The word passed into Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian as ''Moros'' or other cognates. The Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula, was conquered by the Spanish in 1492, resulting in all remaining Muslims in this area to pass under Christian rule. These Muslims and their descendants were thereafter known as ''Moriscos'' ('Moorish' or 'Moor-like') up until their final expulsion from Spain in 1609.

The word was more commonly also a racial term for dark-skinned or black people, which is the meaning with which it also passed into English as early as the 14th century. In medieval European literature, the term often denotes Muslim foes of Christian Europe in a derogatory manner. During the Renaissance and the early modern period, it became associated with more romanticized depictions, even when Muslims were otherwise depicted negatively. In works of this period, the "Moor" may appear as a courageous warrior, a sexually overt personality, or other stereotypes. Examples of such characters are found in the Spanish '' Poem of the Cid'' and in Shakespeare's ''Othello.''

Since the early modern period, "Moors" or "Moorish" has also been used by western historians and scholars to refer to the history and heterogeneous people of Islamic North Africa and al-Andalus. Since the mid-20th century, however, this usage has declined, though it sometimes persists to denote related topics, such as "Moorish" architecture. The word otherwise retains some racial connotations.

'White Moors' and 'Black Moors'

The existence of both 'white Moors' and 'black Moors' is attested in historical literature from the late Middle Ages onwards. These terms are still used in modern-day Mauritania, where the Moorish population is divided into the socially dominant 'white Moors' of Berber and Arab origin (also known '' Beidanes''), and 'black Moors' (also known as '' Haratines'') who are former slaves''.''

In the 1453 chronicle ''The Discovery and Conquest of Guinea'' the Portuguese chronicler Gomes Eannes de Azurara writes: "Dinis Diaz, leaving Portugal with his company, never lowered sail till he had passed the land of the Moors and arrived in the land of the blacks, that is called Guinea." The 'land of the blacks' here refers to the regions south of the Sahara known as ''bilād as-sūdān'' in Medieval Arabic texts. De Azurara also notes the existence of 'blacks' among the Moors, stating that "these blacks were Moors like the others, though their slaves, in accordance with ancient custom". In ''The First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge'' (1542) the English author Andrew Borde writes that "Barbary is a great country, and plentiful of fruit, wine and corn. The inhabitants be called the Moors; there be white Moors and black Moors; they be infidels and unchristened." Borde includes a poem about "a black Moor born in Barbary" who will be "a good diligent slave". In his ''Description of Africa'' (1550) The Andalusi author Leo Africanus - described as a Moor by the English translator John Pory (1600) - refers to the Berber populations of Barbary and Numidia as "white Africans", translated by Pory as "white or tawny Moors".

Modern meanings

Apart from its historic associations and context, ''Moor'' and ''Moorish'' designate a specific ethnic group speaking Hassaniya Arabic. They inhabit Mauritania and parts of Algeria, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Morocco, Niger, and Mali. In Niger and Mali, these peoples are also known as the Azawagh Arabs, after the Azawagh region of the Sahara.

The authoritative dictionary of the Spanish language does not list any derogatory meaning for the word ''moro'', a term generally referring to people of Maghrebian origin in particular or Muslims in general. Some authors have pointed out that in modern colloquial Spanish use of the term ''moro'' is derogatory for Moroccans in particular.

In the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, many modern Filipinos call the large, local Muslim minority concentrated in Mindanao and other southern islands ''Moros''. The word is a catch-all term, as ''Moro'' may come from several distinct ethno-linguistic groups such as the Maranao people. The term was introduced by Spanish colonisers, and has since been appropriated by Filipino Muslims as an endonym, with many self-identifying as members of the ''Bangsamoro'' "Moro Nation".

'' Moreno'' can mean "dark-skinned" in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and the Philippines. Also in Spanish, ''morapio'' is a humorous name for "wine", especially that which has not been "baptized" or mixed with water, i.e., pure unadulterated wine. Among Spanish speakers, ''moro'' came to have a broader meaning, applied to both Filipino Moros from Mindanao, and the moriscos of Granada. ''Moro'' refers to all things dark, as in "Moor", ''moreno'', etc. It was also used as a nickname; for instance, the Milanese Duke Ludovico Sforza was called ''Il Moro'' because of his dark complexion.

In Portugal, ''mouro'' (feminine,'' moura'') may refer to supernatural beings known as enchanted ''moura'', where "Moor" implies "alien" and "non-Christian". These beings were siren-like fairies with golden or reddish hair and a fair face. They were believed to have magical properties. From this root, the name moor is applied to unbaptized children, meaning not Christian. In Basque, '' mairu'' means moor and also refers to a mythical people.

Muslims located in South Asia were distinguished by the Portuguese historians into two groups: Mouros da Terra ("Moors of the Land") and the Mouros da Arabia/Mouros de Meca ("Moors from Arabia/Mecca" or "Paradesi Muslims").Subrahmanyam, Sanjay."The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India 1500-1650" Cambridge University Press, (2002) The Mouros da Terra were either descendants of any native convert (mostly from any of the former lower or untouchable castes) to Islam or descendants of a marriage alliance between a Middle Eastern individual and an Indian woman.

Within the context of Portuguese colonization, in Sri Lanka (Portuguese Ceylon), Muslims of Arab origin are called ''Ceylon Moors'', not to be confused with "Indian Moors" of Sri Lanka (see Sri Lankan Moors). Sri Lankan Moors (a combination of "Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors") make up 12% of the population. The Ceylon Moors (unlike the Indian Moors) are descendants of Arab traders who settled there in the mid-6th century. When the Portuguese arrived in the early 16th century, they labelled all the Muslims in the island as Moors as they saw some of them resembling the Moors in North Africa. The Sri Lankan government continues to identify the Muslims in Sri Lanka as "Sri Lankan Moors", sub-categorised into "Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors".

The Goan Muslims—a minority community who follow Islam in the western Indian coastal state of Goa—are commonly referred as ''Moir'' () by Goan Catholics and Hindus. ''Moir'' is derived from the Portuguese word ''mouro'' ("Moor").

In heraldry

Moors—or more frequently their heads, often crowned—appear with some frequency in medieval European heraldry, though less so since the Middle Ages. The term ascribed to them in Anglo-Norman ''blazon'' (the language of English heraldry) is ''maure'', though they are also sometimes called ''moore'', ''blackmoor'', '' blackamoor'' or ''negro''. Maures appear in European heraldry from at least as early as the 13th century, and some have been attested as early as the 11th century in Italy, where they have persisted in the local heraldry and vexillology well into modern times in Corsica and Sardinia.

Armigers bearing moors or moors' heads may have adopted them for any of several reasons, to include symbolizing military victories in the Crusades, as a pun on the bearer's name in the canting arms of Morese, Negri, Saraceni, etc., or in the case of Frederick II, possibly to demonstrate the reach of his empire. The arms of Pope Benedict XVI feature a moor's head, crowned and collared red, in reference to the arms of Freising, Germany. In the case of Corsica and Sardinia, the blindfolded moors' heads in the four quarters have long been said to represent the four Moorish emirs who were defeated by Peter I of Aragon and Pamplona in the 11th century, the four moors' heads around a cross having been adopted to the arms of Aragon around 1281–1387, and Corsica and Sardinia having come under the dominion of the king of Aragon in 1297. In Corsica, the blindfolds were lifted to the brow in the 18th century as a way of expressing the island's newfound independence.

The use of Moors (and particularly their heads) as a heraldic symbol has been deprecated in modern North America. For example, the College of Arms of the Society for Creative Anachronism urges applicants to use them delicately to avoid causing offence.

See also

* Saracen
* Mohammedan
* Turk (term for Muslims)
* Böszörmény
* Genetic history of the Iberian Peninsula
* Genetic studies on Moroccans
* Orientalism
* Ricote (''Don Quixote'')

Notes

*...''Hindu Kristao Moir sogle bhau''- Hindus, Christians and Muslims are all brothers...

References

External links

The "Moors" of West Africa and the Beginnings of the Portuguese Slave Trade
Published from Pomona Faculty Publications and Research from Claremont Colleges


a PBS article.
* Sean Cavazos-Kottke
Othello's Predecessors: Moors in Renaissance Popular Literature
(outline). Folger Shakespeare Library, 1998.

{{Authority control

Exonyms
Al-Andalus
Arab people
Arabs in Portugal
Arabs in Spain
Berbers
Berbers in Portugal
Berbers in Spain