Moor, in English usage, a Moroccan or, formerly, a member of the Muslim population ofal-Andalus, nowSpain andPortugal. Of mixedArab, Spanish, and Amazigh (Berber) origins, theMoors created the IslamicAndalusian civilization and subsequently settled as refugees in theMaghreb (in the region ofNorth Africa) between the 11th and 17th centuries. By extension (corresponding to the Spanishmoro), the term occasionally denotes any Muslim in general, as in the case of the “Moors” ofSri Lanka or of thePhilippines. Today, the term Moor is used to designate the predominant Arab-Amazighethnic group inMauritania (which makes up more than two-thirds of the country’s population) and the small Arab-Amazigh minority inMali.

The word derives from theLatin term Maurus, first used by the Romans to denote an inhabitant of the Roman province ofMauretania,comprising the western portion of present-dayAlgeria and the northeastern portion of present-dayMorocco.

The term is of little use in describing the ethnic characteristics of any groups, ancient or modern. From theMiddle Ages to the 17th century, however, Europeans depicted Moors as being black, “swarthy,” or “tawny” in skin colour. (Othello, Shakespeare’s Moor of Venice, comes to mind in such a context.) Europeans designated Muslims of any other complexion as “white Moors,” despite the fact that the population in most parts of North Africa differs little in physical appearance from that of southern Europe (in Morocco, for example, red and blonde hair are relatively common).

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