Moors are not a single, distinct orself-defined people.[3][1] Europeans of the Middle Ages and theearly modern period variously applied the name toArabs,Berbers,Muslim Europeans, andblack peoples.[4][1] The term has been used in a broad sense to refer to Muslims in general,[5] especially those of Arab or Berber descent, whether living in al-Andalus or North Africa.[6] Related terms such as English "Blackamoor" were also used to refer to black Africans generally in the early modern period.[7] The 1911Encyclopædia Britannica observed that the term "Moors" had "no realethnological value."[8] The word has racial connotations and it has fallen out of fashion among scholars since the mid-20th century.[1][9]
The word is also used when denoting various other specific ethnic groups in western Africa and some parts of Asia. During the colonial era, thePortuguese introduced the names "Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors" in South Asia andSri Lanka, now official ethnic designations on the island nation, and theBengali Muslims were also called Moors.[10] 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.[citation needed] In modern-day Mauritania, the terms "Black moors" and "white Moors" are used to refer to theHaratin andBeidane peoples, respectively.[11]
Etymology
The etymology of the word "Moor" is uncertain, although it can be traced back to thePhoenician termMahurin, meaning "Westerners".[12][13] FromMahurin, theancient Greeks deriveMauro, from whichLatin derivesMauri.[14] The word "Moor" is presumably of Phoenician origin.[15] Some sources attribute aHebrew origin to the word.[16]
During the classical period, theRomans interacted with, and later conquered, parts ofMauretania, a state that covered modern northernMorocco, westernAlgeria, and the Spanish citiesCeuta andMelilla.[17] TheBerber tribes of the region were noted in theClassics asMauri, which was subsequently rendered as "Moors" in English and in related variations in other European languages.[18]Mauri (Ancient Greek: Μαῦροι) is recorded as the native name byStrabo in the early 1st century. This appellation was also adopted into Latin, whereas the Greek name for the tribe wasMaurusii (Ancient Greek:Μαυρούσιοι).[19] The Moors were also mentioned byTacitus as having revolted against theRoman Empire in 24AD.[20]
Illustration of Muslim musician (left) alongside a Christian musician (right) in a codice of the 13th-centuryCantigas de Santa Maria
During the LatinMiddle Ages,Mauri was used to refer to Berbers and Arabs in the coastal regions of Northwest Africa.[1] The 16th century scholarLeo Africanus (c. 1494–1554) identified the Moors (Mauri) as the native Berber inhabitants of the formerRomanAfrica Province (Roman Africans).[21]
As it was Muslim Berbers and Arabs whoconquered 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 asal-Andalus).[1][22] The term could also be applied to theMuslims of Sicily, who began to arrive there during theAghlabid conquest of the 9th century.[23][24] The word passed into Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian asMoros or othercognates.[1] TheEmirate of Granada, the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula, wasconquered 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 asMoriscos ('Moorish' or 'Moor-like') up until their finalexpulsion from Spain in 1609.[1]
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.[1] Inmedieval European literature, the term often denotes Muslim foes of Christian Europe in a derogatory manner. During theRenaissance and theearly 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 SpanishPoem of the Cid and in Shakespeare'sOthello.[1]
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.[1]
"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.[7] Late medieval Portuguese sources often referred to "Arabian" and "Turkish" Moors asmouros brancos ('white moors'), to North African Berbers asmouras da terra ('moors of the land'), and to sub-Saharan Africans asmouros negros ('black moors').[7]: 40 During the early modern period, the term "Blackamoor" was used in English to describe black Africans, alongside other racial terms.[7]
In the 1453 chronicleThe Discovery and Conquest of Guinea the Portuguese chroniclerGomes 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 calledGuinea."[25] The 'land of the blacks' here refers to the regions south of the Sahara known asbilād as-sūdān in Medieval Arabic texts.[26] 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".[27][28] InThe First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge (1542) the English authorAndrew 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".[29] In hisDescription of Africa (1550) TheAndalusi authorLeo Africanus - described as a Moor by the English translatorJohn Pory (1600) - refers to the Berber populations ofBarbary andNumidia as "white Africans", translated by Pory as "white or tawny Moors".[30]
The terms "white Moor" and "Black moor" are also used in modern-dayMauritania, where the Moorish population is divided into the socially dominant 'white Moors' of Berber and Arab origin (also knownBeidanes), and 'black Moors' (also known asHaratines) who are former slaves.[31][32][33][34]
The Haratines are almost exclusively of black origin, but are closely associated with the Moorish population in terms of language and culture. In the words of Samuel Cotton: “[they] have lost virtually every aspect of their African origins except their skin color.” Their Moorish culture and their language are the result of generations of enslavement by the Moors. They are also referred to as “black Moors” to differentiate them from the “white Moors” who enslaved them, and from black Mauritanians who have not been enslaved by the Moors.[35]
Moreno can mean "dark-skinned" in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and the Philippines. Among Spanish speakers,moro came to have a broader meaning, applied to both Filipino Moros from Mindanao, and themoriscos ofGranada.Moro refers to all things dark, as in "Moor",moreno, etc. It was also used as a nickname; for instance, theMilanese DukeLudovico Sforza was calledIl Moro because of his dark complexion.[44]
In Portugal,mouro (feminine, moura) may refer to supernatural beings known asenchantedmoura, 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.[45] From this root, the name moor is applied to unbaptized children, meaning not Christian.[46][47] InBasque,mairu means moor and also refers to a mythical people.[48]
Muslims located inSouth 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").[49][50] 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.[citation needed]
Within the context ofPortuguese colonization, inSri Lanka (Portuguese Ceylon), Muslims of Arab origin are calledCeylon Moors, not to be confused with "Indian Moors" of Sri Lanka (seeSri 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".[51]
Coat of arms ofAragon with Moors' heads.Arms of the wealthy Bristol merchant and shipperWilliam II Canynges (d.1474), as depicted on his canopied tomb inSt Mary Redcliffe Church, showing thecouped heads of three Moors wreathed at the temples
Moors—or more frequently their heads, often crowned—appear with some frequency in medieval Europeanheraldry, though less so since the Middle Ages. The term ascribed to them inAnglo-Normanblazon (the language ofEnglish heraldry) ismaure, though they are also sometimes calledmoore,blackmoor,blackamoor ornegro.[52]Maures appear in European heraldry from at least as early as the 13th century,[53] and some have been attested as early as the 11th century inItaly,[53] where they have persisted in the localheraldry andvexillology well into modern times inCorsica andSardinia.
Armigers bearing moors or moors' heads may have adopted them for any of several reasons, to include symbolizing military victories in theCrusades, as a pun on the bearer's name in thecanting arms of Morese, Negri, Saraceni, etc., or in the case ofFrederick II, possibly to demonstrate the reach of his empire.[53] Thearms of Pope Benedict XVI feature a moor's head, crowned and collared red, in reference to the arms ofFreising, Germany.[54] 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 byPeter 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.[55] In Corsica, the blindfolds were lifted to the brow in the 18th century as a way of expressing the island's newfound independence.[56]
The use of Moors (and particularly their heads) as a heraldic symbol has been deprecated in modernNorth America.[57] For example, the College of Arms of theSociety for Creative Anachronism urges applicants to use them delicately to avoid causing offence.[58]
^ ...Hindu KristaoMoir sogle bhau- Hindus, Christians and Muslims are all brothers...[59]
References
^abcdefghijkAssouline, David (2009)."Moors". In Esposito, John L. (ed.).The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195305135. Archived fromthe original on 20 May 2018.
^Menocal, María Rosa (2002).Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. Little, Brown, & Co.ISBN0-316-16871-8, p. 241
^John Randall Baker (1974).Race.Oxford University Press. p. 226.ISBN9780192129543. Retrieved12 March 2014.In one sense the word 'Moor' means Mohammedan Berbers and Arabs of North-western Africa, with some Syrians, who conquered most of Spain in the 8th century and dominated the country for hundreds of years.
^Vernoit, Stephen (2017)."Islamic Art in the West: Categories of Collecting". In Flood, Finbarr Barry; Necipoğlu, Gülru (eds.).A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture. Wiley Blackwell. p. 1173.ISBN978-1-119-06857-0.Some terms such as "Saracenic," "Mohammedan," and "Moorish" are no longer fashionable.
^οἰκοῦσι δ᾽ ἐνταῦθα Μαυρούσιοι μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων λεγόμενοι, Μαῦροι δ᾽ ὑπὸ τῶν Ῥωμαίων καὶ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων "Here dwell a people called by the Greeks Maurusii, and by the Romans and the natives Mauri" Strabo,Geographica 17.3.2.Lewis and Short,Latin Dictionary, 1879s.v. "Mauri"
^Cornelius Tacitus, Arthur Murphy, The Historical Annals of Cornelius Tacitus: With Supplements, Volume 1 (D. Neall, 1829 )p114.
^Martone, Eric, ed. (2008)."Moors".Encyclopedia of Blacks in European History and Culture. Vol. 2. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 355.ISBN978-0-313-34449-7.
^Martone, Eric, ed. (2008)."Moors".Encyclopedia of Blacks in European History and Culture. Vol. 2. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 355.ISBN978-0-313-34449-7.
^For an introduction to the culture of the Azawagh Arabs, see Rebecca Popenoe,Feeding Desire — Fatness, Beauty and Sexuality among a Saharan People. Routledge, London (2003)ISBN0-415-28096-6
^In his 15 July 2005 blog article"Is that a Moor's head?", Mathew N. Schmalz refers to a discussion on the American Heraldry Society's website where at least one participant described the moor's head as a "potentially explosive image".
^"Part IX: Offensive Armory".Rules for Submissions of the College of Arms of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. 2 April 2008. Retrieved23 January 2012.
^Furtado, A. D. (1981).Goa, yesterday, to-day, tomorrow: an approach to various socio-economic and political issues in Goan life & re-interpretation of historical facts. Furtado's Enterprises. pp. 254 pages(page xviii).
External links
Look upMoor orMoorish in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
