Moors in Roman military service were stationed in Britain, France, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Romania, many of them rose to high rank. Lusius Quietus one of Rome's greatest generals was named by Roman Emperor Trajan (98-117 C.E.) as his successor. Quietus is described as a "man of Moorish race and considered the ablest soldier in the Roman army." By the end of the second century of the Christian Era more than one third of all of the members of the Roman Senate were born in Moorish lands and Moors were dominant in Rome's intellectual life. The Black Roman writer Publius Terentius Afer (190-159 B.C.E.). known as Terence penned the immortal words, "I am a man and nothing human is alien to me."
Martyrdom, Sainthood and Theology
The Moorish presence in early Rome includes saints, theologians and martyrs like Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine. Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullian was the first of the church writers to make Latin the language of Christianity. Tertullian was born into a wealthy Carthaginian family in 170 C.E. He wrote Greek and Latin fluently and was "well trained in the school of rhetoric where Apuleius (also a Moor), had been a pupil a generation before." Tertullian's wife was Christian, he himself a convert. A man of fiery temperament and evangelical spirit, Tertullian is said to have lived to an advanced age. In 197 C.E., during the reign of Septimius Severus, Tertullian's Apologia was published.
St.Cyprian is called the "greatest of the Bishops of Carthage", his reputation was such that the Churches of Gaul and Spain appealed to him as an arbiter. Like Tertullian before him, Cyprian was born of a prosperous family in Carthage in 200 C.E. He eventually held a chair in rhetoric at Carthage. After reading the works of Tertullian, he converted to Christianity. Following his conversion Cyprian distributed most of his fortune to the poor. As an orator he was such that only three years after becoming a Christian he was elected Bishop of Carthage. Sixty of Cyprian's letters have survived as testament to his great intellectual gifts. On September 14, 258 C.E., St. Cyprian, after paying his executioner twenty-five gold pieces and surrounded by a large crowd of Christians, was beheaded.
St. Augustine, born in 354 C.E. in Thagaste, North Africa, was the son of St. Monica and largely because of her desires he converted to Christianity in 386 C.E. In 395 C.E. he became Bishop of Hippo, North Africa. His teaching on free will, original sin and the operation of God's grace has been illuminated in numerous publications, particularly in his City of God, published in 397 C.E. St. Augustine died in August 430 C.E. during the Vandal siege of Hippo.
The Sable Faced Popes.
There were at least three black Popes at Rome. St. Victor I became the first known African Bishop of Rome in 189 C.E. and reigned until 199 C.E. Victor I, the first pope to write in Latin and the first Pope known to have had dealings with the imperial household, is described as "the most forceful of the 2nd-century Popes." Although nothing is known of the circumstances of his death he is venerated as a martyr, and his feast is kept on July the 28th. Today, in the history of the Roman Church he is remembered, not only for his ruling that Easter should be celebrated on Sunday, but he has also been named in the Canon of the Ambrosian Mass, and he is said by Saint Jerome to have been the first in Rome to celebrate the Holy Mysteries in Latin."
St. Miltiades, a black Priest, was elected the thirty second Pope after St. Peter in 311 C.E. Under Miltiades, after the issuance of an edict of tolerance signed by the Emperors Galerius, Licinius and Constantine, the great persecution of the Christians came to an end and they were allowed to practice their religion in peace. St. Miltiades is regarded as a Christian martyr and died in early January 314 C.E.
The third of the black Popes and the forty ninth Pope overall was St. Gelasius I. Born in Rome, governed from 492 to 496 C.E. He is described as "famous all over the world for his learning and holiness" and "more a servant than a sovereign." He died on November 19, 496 C.E. and like St. Victor I and St. Miltiades, St. Gelasius I was canonized. As a Saint, his Feast-day is held on the 21st of November.
ANCIENT ROME: THE SEVERAN DYNASTY
Alexander Severus and a bust of Septimius Severus, and statues of Septimius' two sons Geta and Caracalla, are depicted negroid. This dynasty, known to historians as the Severan Dynasty, began with Septimius Severus in 193 C.E. Septimius shared the throne for two years with Pesennius Niger. Could Pesennius Niger, another of Rome's outstanding military commanders, himself have been a Moor? His name certainly indicates that possibility. Records state that Septimius was born in Leptis Magna on the North African coast (modern day Libya) on April 11 in either 145 or 146 C.E. Septimius was not just born in North Africa, numerous paintings, busts and statues show him phenotypically negroid. A wood panel of Septimius Severus and his family, done around 200 C.E., show him copper colored (deep burnished brown).
Young Septimius, coming from a Romanized family, received an education rooted in Roman literature and quickly learned to speak Latin. After his formal education was completed he adopted an official career and became a civil magistrate. Later, he became a military commander, and this took him to Rome where he proved himself an able, popular and conscious military leader. Around 199 C.E., six years after becoming emperor, Septimius journeyed to Egypt. Around 203 C.E. Septimius had an arch constructed in the Imperial Forum. This monument is one of Italy's most important triumphal arches. He is even said to have built a marble tomb for Hannibal Barca early Rome's black Carthaginian nemesis. Because of his own North African origins, Septimius has been referred to as "Hannibal's revenge."
After a distinguished career characterized by administration reorganization, exploits on the battlefield and the intensification of Christian persecution, Septimius died conducting yet another military campaign, this one in York, Britain on February 4, 211 C.E. he was sixty five years old. His reign was seventeen years, eight months and three days and he was the last Roman emperor to die of natural causes for almost a hundred years.
Septimius Severus was succeeded in 211 C.E. by his sons Lucius Septimius Geta (211-212 C.E.) and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus aka Caracalla (211-217 C.E.). These brothers are said to have constantly plotted against one another and Caracalla finally had Geta murdered in 212 C.E. It was under Caracalla in 212 C.E. that Roman citizenship was granted to all freeborn inhabitants of the Empire. Caracalla was also responsible for refurbishing roads and the construction of a triumphal arch in Algeria, as well as enormous public baths. Caracalla was himself murdered by the military in 217 C.E.
Geta and Caracalla were followed by the Mauritanian born Marcus Opellius Macrinus (217-218 C.E.), the Praetorian Prefect and the first non senator to become emperor. Heliogabalus (218-222 C.E.), said to be either the son or nephew of Caracalla and a man of dubious character, followed Macrinus, and then came Severus Alexander (222-235 C.E.), who restored the Roman Coliseum to its ancient status and with whose thirteen year reign the era of Severan domination of Rome came to an end.
This line is known as the Severan Dynasty and the National Roman Museum busts, statues and sculptures of the representatives of this dynasty strongly testify to their identity. They are powerful images, the noses are missing on all of them save one of Septimius' son Caracalla.
Moors in Manhattan./Juan "Jan" Rodrigues.
Juan "Jan" Rodrigues, a free-man, born in Santo Domingo, was the first man of African descent to live in what would become New York City, spending the winter, without the support of anchored ship, at a Dutch fur trading post on Lower Manhattan that had been set up by Christiaan Hendricksen in 1613.
This small settlement, and others, along the North River were part of a private enterprise. It was not until 1621 that the Dutch Republic firmly established its claim to New Netherland and offered a patent for a trade monopoly in the region. In 1624, a group of settlers established a small colony on Governors Island. Together with a contingent of colonizers coming from the Netherlands that same year joined the traders established in the tiny 11 year old settlement of New Amsterdam.
In the early spring of 1613, fur trader Adriaan Block complained bitterly that a competitor, Thijs Volckenz Mossel, commander of the Jonge Tobias, had tried to “spoil the trade” by offering three times more for a beaver than Block did. In his report against Mossel, which he submitted to the Amsterdam Notary upon his return to Holland, Block topped off his list of accusations against Mossel with his outrage that crew man Rodrigues had become a permanent fixture in the Manhattan frontier, trading and living alone among the natives. When the said Mossel sailed away from the river with his ship, [Rodrigues] born in Santo Domingo, who had arrived there with the ship of said Mossel, stayed ashore at the same place. They had given [Rodrigues] eighty hatchets, some knives, a musket and a sword.
According to Block, Mossel denied that Rodrigues was working on his behalf. Rodrigues had taken it upon himself to gain friendship with the natives, set up a trading post, and live comfortably on Manhattan Island. [Mossel] declared that this Black Spaniard (Moor) [Rodrigues] had run away from the ship and gone ashore against his intent and will and that he had given him the said goods in payment of his wages and therefore had nothing more to do with him.
Block closed his report by writing that he knew of no other crew man who stayed behind but Rodrigues. This means that a native of Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic, was the first documented non Native American to remain on Manhattan without the support of a ship in the harbor. The natives, who preferred the goods and ironware sold by Rodrigues over their own, seem to have accepted him as the island’s first merchant.
By the autumn of 1613, three Dutch ships had arrived: De Tijer, captained by Block, the Fortuyn, captained by Hendrick Christiaensen, and the Nachtegaal, captained by Mossel. This time it was Christiaensen who wrote about Rodrigues. His log states that Rodrigues came aboard the Nachtegaal, presented himself as a freeman, and offered to work for Christiaensen trading furs. Despite the short, exciting narrative, the historical record leaves us with few details about the remainder of the life of Juan “Jan” Rodrigues. What does remain is an intriguing episode of early New York City history.
The real founder of New York City is Jan Rodrigues having established himself in Manhattan in late 1612 (being this the real year of settlement of the city by non natives). Nowadays a plaque stands in Riverside Park in recognition of Jan Rodrigues, whom history records as the first merchant and non Native American inhabitant of Manhattan.
From the Seaport New York’s History Magazine.March 3, 1753
In the winter of 1741 in New York City, three Moorish crew members of a captured Spanish ship were sold into bondage and protested their condition, swearing revenge. After several fires flared across town during March and April of 1742, hysterical residents feared that a slave revolt was imminent and suspected that the Spanish Negroes "Moors" were deeply concerned and active in the protest. The episode ended with the public executions of twenty-three people and the exile of seventy one others.
From Carologue a publication of the South Carolina Historical Society 93 Muslim Slaves, Abducted Moors, African Jews, Misnamed Turks by James Hagy.
Muslims from North Africa, appear in the records of South Carolina. In the South Carolina Council Journal, No. 21, Pt. 1, pp. 298-299. Two men by the name Abel Conder and Mahamut (Mahomet) petitioned the South Carolina royal authorities in Arabic for their freedom. They came from Asilah (Sali) on the Barbary Coast of Morroco. Their story is that they were in a battle in 1736, with the Portuguese when they lost the battle and was captured. An officer named Captain Henry Daubrib, asked them would they be willing to serve him for five years in Carolina. When they arrived in South Carolina they were transferred to Daniel LaRoche, who then enslaved them for fifteen years until 1753.
In 1786 two Muslim men appeared in Charleston, SC "dressed in the Moorish habit" and aroused a great deal of suspicion by their strange ways. An officer of the law attempted to question them and found they were Moors who did not speak English. They were taken to an interpreter who found out they came from Algeria and sailed to Virginia were they had been arrested. Then they traveled overland to South Carolina.
Zwarte Peiten or Black Pete.
The Dutch tradition of "Sinterklaas" is interesting. Sinter Klaas,(Santa Claus)in the middle of November (who is from Spain), comes into the different ports, or places where boats are docked. He arrives with a boat full of presents for all the children of Holland. Children and their parents go to the ports to meet Sinter Klaas. He brings his white horse with him, and his partner, "Zwarte Peiten or Black Pete". After Sinter Klaas arrives, there is a big parade that goes through the town. Black Pete is Sinter Klaas's helper, he is a Moor also from Spain and wears traditional Moorish clothing. Besides helping Sinter Klaas deliver the presents, he keeps records of all the presents that are going to be given to each child, and he keeps a record of how each boy and girl in Holland have behaved through the year. Black Pete keeps track of all of this in a big book.
The "Barbary Wars" (Philadelphia)
Either as the result of invasions in Eastern Europe or fleets of Barbary corsairs from North Africa journeying northwards into the Atlantic, attacks and enslavement were a frequent fear of communities, as well as ship crews and would be colonists to the New World. Between 1609 & 1616 alone, some 466 British vessels and their passengers were captured on the high seas and enslaved in the North African 'Barbary States' of Morocco, Tripoli (today's Libya), Algiers & Tunisia, creating a demand for what is referred to as 'White Gold,' or European slaves.
Not until the Presidencies of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams & James Madison, would the threat to American ships and shipping finally be dealt with and resolved, during the 'Barbary Wars' of the early 19th century. Prior to these events, literally thousands of individuals would rot, starve, die or experience years of servitude in North Africa, such as the crew of the Philadelphia ship, Dauphin, taken captive west of Lisbon, on the 30th of July, 1785.
The master of the Dauphin, Richard O'Brien (1758-1824), would be in bondage to the Muslims for some ten years, after which he would return as Consul-General to Algiers. An outbreak of the bubonic plague alone, would bring about the demise of 200 Caucasian slaves, from January to May of 1787, including crew members of the Dauphin. O'Brien's correspondence and journal written while a captive in North Africa, is both informative and essential in understanding those trying times in American history. He would eventually return to Philadelphia, serve in the state legislature and die in Pennsylvania in 1824.
While a prisoner in Algiers, O'Brien wrote the following entry in his journal, for February 19, 1790:
"Picture to yourself your Brother Citizens or Unfortunate Countrymen in the Algerian State Prisons or Damned Castile, and starved 2/3rd's and Naked. ..The Chains on their Legs, and under the Lash...Beat in such a Manner as to shock humanity...No Prospects of ever being Redeemed or Restored to their native land and never to see their wives and families...Viewing and considering of their approaching Exit, where 6 of their Dear Country men are buried with thousands of other Christian Slaves of all nations...Once a Citizen of the United States of America, but at present the Most Miserable Slave in Algiers."
O'Brien's, Remarks & Observations in Algiers: 1799
Just a few days prior to the seizure of the Dauphin, the Boston ship, "the Maria", was also taken by Algierian pirates off the Cape of St.Vincent on July 25, 1785. On board this vessel was James Leander Cathcart (1767-1843), who would be enslaved in Algiers for eleven years, but would eventually become a clerk for the Dey, an important Islamic official, by which he was enabled to serve as a mediator along with Colonel David Humphreys, America's Minister to Portugal, thus creating the Treaty of Algiers in 1796, which would temporarily halt hostilities between the United States and that Moorish nation. After being freed, James L. Cathcart would come to Philadelphia in 1796, along with twelve survivors of the crew of the Maria. He would marry Philadelphia resident, Jane B. Woodside in 1798, while their daughter, J. B. Newkirk, would write an account of her father's captivity entitled, The Captives, Eleven Years a Prisoner in Algiers.
On June 5, 1798, the Philadelphia brig Mary, with its cargo and crew were captured by Algierian pirates, causing Richard O'Brien to write from Algiers and "forewarn all citizens of the United States of the danger they run in rescuing their liberty, vessels, and property..." (The Philadelphia True American & Commercial Advertiser, January 18, 1799).
Present day Bainbridge Street in Philadelphia, is named after Commodore William Bainbridge (1774-1833), who ran aground the brig Philadelphia off Tripoli in 1803, after which he and his crew were held captive for 19 months. Long after his captivity he would die in Philadelphia of pneumonia, and was buried in Christ Church within the city limits. Eventually the famed naval hero and officer, Stephen Decatur (1779-1820), would also be intregally involved in the Tripolitian War with the Barbary Pirates and is buried in St. Peter's churchyard in Philadelphia.
The Barbary States of Tripoli, Algiers, Morocco, and Tunisia would cease their hostilities with the United States temporarily, with the assault on the Tripolitian city of Derna, taken by U.S. marines in 1805, since appeasement, ransom, tribute, and diplomacy had failed to stop the conflict. Not till 1815, during the Presidency of James Madison, would the 'Barbary Pirates' and their 'acts of terror' against Americans finally come to end. But this did not transpire until some estimated one million Europeans and citizens of the United States, would endure abuse, incarceration, enslavement and death within North Africa. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has a large collection of both primary and secondary correspondence, publications, as well as graphic materials, pertaining to the 'Barbary Wars' against the West on the high seas.
"White Gold" (Enslaved Europeans).
Moorish pirates abducted and enslaved more than 1 million Europeans between 1530 and 1780 in a series of raids which depopulated coastal towns from Sicily to Cornwall. Thousands of white slaves were seized every year to work as galley slaves, labourers and concubines for Moorish overlords in what is today Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya. Scholars have long known of the slave raids on Europe. But American historian Robert Davis has calculated that the total number captured was far higher than previously recognised. His book, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800, concluded that 1 million to 1.25 million ended up in bondage. Prof Davis's unorthodox methodology split historians over whether his estimates were plausible but they welcomed any attempt to fill a gap in the little known story of Moors of the Barbary Coast subjugating Europeans.
By collating different sources of information from Europe over three centuries, the University of Ohio professor has painted a picture of a continent at the mercy of pirates from the Barbary Coast, known as corsairs, who sailed in lateen rigged xebecs and oared galleys. Villages and towns on the coast of Italy, Spain, Portugal and France were hardest hit but the raiders also seized people in Britain, Ireland and Iceland. According to one account they even captured 130 American seamen from ships that they boarded in the Atlantic and Mediterranean between 1785 and 1793.
In the absence of detailed written records such as customs forms Prof Davis decided to extrapolate from the best records available indicating how many slaves were at a particular location at a single time and calculate how many new slaves were needed to replace those who died, escaped or were freed. To keep the slave population stable, around one quarter had to be replaced each year, which for the period 1580 to 1680 meant around 8,500 new slaves per annum, totalling 850,000. The same methodology would suggest 475,000 were abducted in the previous and following centuries. "Most accounts only look at slavery in one place, or only for a short period of time. But when you take a broader, longer view, the massive scope of this slavery and its powerful impact become clear."
Prof Davis conceded his methodology was not ideal but Ian Blanchard, professor of economic history at the University of Edinburgh and an authority on trade in North Africa, said yesterday that the numbers appeared to add up. "We are talking about statistics which are not real, all the figures are estimates. But I don't find that absolute figure of 1 million at all surprising. It makes total sense."
David Earle, author of The Corsairs of Malta and Barbary and The Pirate Wars, said that Prof Davis may have erred in extrapolating from 1580-1680 because that was the most intense slaving period: Dr.Earle also cautioned that the picture was clouded by the fact the Corsairs also seized Caucasians from eastern Europe. According to one estimate, 7,000 English people were abducted between 1622-1644, many of them ship crews and passengers.The corsairs also landed on unguarded beaches, often at night, to snatch the unwary. Almost all the inhabitants of the village of Baltimore, in Ireland, were captured in 1631, and there were other raids in Devon and Cornwall.
Reverend Devereux Spratt recorded being captured by "Algerines" while crossing the Irish sea from Cork to England in April 1641 and in 1661 Samuel Pepys wrote about two men, Captain Mootham and Mr Dawes, who were also abducted. One of the richest treasure wrecks found off the coast of Devon was a 16th-century Barbary ship en route to catch English slaves.
"One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature, that only blacks have been slaves is not true,". White slavery has been minimised and ignored because academics prefer to treat Europeans as evil colonialists rather than as victims. European slaves were put to work in quarries, building sites and galleys and endured malnutrition, disease and maltreatment. Ruling Pashas, entitled to an eighth of all captured slaves, housed them in overcrowded baths known as baños and used them for public works such as building harbours and cutting trees. They were given loaves of black bread and water. The Pasha's female captives were more likely to be regarded as hostages to be bargained for ransom but many worked as attendants in the palace harem while awaiting payment and freedom, which in some cases never came. Some slaves bought by private individuals were well treated and became companions, others were overworked and beaten. The most unlucky ended up stuck and forgotten out in the desert, in some sleepy town such as Suez, or in the Sultan's galleys, where some slaves rowed for decades without ever setting foot on shore.
Hannibal Barca "Enemy of Rome" (Depicted on an ancient coin with corn-row style braided hair and phenotypically negroid facial features).
Carthage Before Hannibal Carthage, one of the most famous cities of antiquity, was founded on the north coast of Africa by the Phoenicians of Tyre (sur) in 814 B.C. The foundation of Carthage was closely followed by the establishment of other Phoenician cities in the west Mediterranean over which Carthage gradually gained control. From then on, Carthaginian power expanded into Spain, Sicily and numerous other places in the northern Mediterranean. This brought them into direct conflict with the empires in Rome and Greece. At the start of the 3rd cen~ury B.C.. Carthage was supreme in the western Mediterranean, enjoying the security of sea power and trading with her stations in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain as well as with the shores of Africa. Rome was painfully struggling to obtain the mastery of central and southern Italy, where she had absorbed the power and culture of the Etruscans and gradually forged a fed- eration of small states. It must havc already become clear that there was not going to be room in the Mediterranean for both Rome and Carthage. The clash came over Sicily in the First Punic War (264-241 B.C), at the end of which Carthage lost Sicily. sea-power, and security. The Roman victorv in Sicily induced Rome to cross the narrow straits to Africa and attack Carthage directly. Fortunately for Carthage, a strong and honest man appeared in the person of Hamilcar Barca, a commander who had evacuated his forces undefeated from Sicily in the best tradition of Dunkirk. Hamilcar was able to put down a mutiny in the Carthagian army and restore order to it. The political situation at that time had a strangely modern flavour. Rome pursued a policy of cold war during which annexed Sardinia and Corsica, increased the reparations which Carthage was obliged to pay, and declared the Roman sphere of interest in Spain to extend from the North down to the river Ebro. In Carthage, a peace treaty was in power, commercially minded, ready to play the quisling. Hamilcar Barca, on the other hand, had popular support and the command of the armed forces. With these he proceeded to develop the Carthaginian hold on Spain, os- tensibly to enable Carthage to pay repatriation to Rome, but in fact, because he saw in Spain a source of manpower and supplies and a base from which to attack Rome. With his son-in-law Hasdrubal and his four sons Hannibal, Hasdrubal, Hanno, and Mago, the 'lion's brood' as he cafled them. Hamilcar barca soon succeeded in turning southern Spain into a sort of empire where new Carthage or Carthagena was founded. In 228 B.C. he fell in battle and was succeeded by hasdrubal his son-in- law who, in his turn was murdered seven years later in 221 B.C.
The Rise of Hannibal.
The army thereupon unanimously chose Hannibal to be their general in spite of his youth, "because of the shrewdness and courage which he had shown in their service." Hannibal was then 26 years old. This strange man, whose name means "Joy of Baal", had accompanied his father on his campaign in Spain. at the tender age of nine. Hamilcar Barca had agreed to take him on his campaign on one condition, that before the sacrifice which he was then making to the gods, Hannibal should swear eternal enmity to Rome. No man ever kept a promise more faithfully. Hannibal's first military success was in Saguntum, which precipitated the Second Punic War. It is quite clear that Hannibal carried out a carefully prepared plan which he had inherited from his father. His object was nothing less than the destruction of the power of Rome before Rome destroyed Carthage, and Rome's most vulnerable spot was in Italy itself where the Roman federation of states was still loose and the Celtic tribes of Gauls in the North were in revolt. But since Carthage had lost command of the sea to Rome, how was Hannibal to get to Italy with his troops? The Romans never imagined for one moment that he could or would make thejourney of 1500 miles overland from Spain, across the Pyrenees, the south of France, and the Alps; but that was exactly what Hannibal had decided to do. Having decided on his strat-egy and selected his theatre of operations? Hannibal followed two principles which have grown no less important since his day: the seizure of the initiative, and the maintenance of the element of surprise. 218 B. C. may seem a long time ago. but the manner in which Hannibal set about his task is identical with that which a competent commander would follow today. Hannibal first secured his bases at Carthage and Carthagena. Next he collected detailed information about the countries and peoples through which he proposed to pass. For this purpose he sent for messengers (liaison-officers) from the Gaulish tribes and asked for detailed accounts of the terrain and the fertility of the country at the foot of the Alps, in the midst of the Alps, and in the plain of the river Po. Today, this aspect of Hannibal's planning would come under the heading of logistics. He also wanted to know the number of the inhabitants of the various populations, their capacity for war, and particularly whether their enmity against the Romans was main- tained. This would be called political intelligence. He was particularly anx-ious to win over the Gauls on both sides of the Alps as he would only be able to operate in Italy against the Romans if the Gauls cooperated with him. He therefore planned a campaign of psychological warfare, to raise and maintain the morale of his supporters and to undermine the en-emy's will and power to resist. The operations began in great secrecy in the spring of 218 B.C. after Hannibal delivered a morale boosting speech to his troops. Moved by the emotions of indignation and lust for conquest, his men then leapt to their feet and shouted their readiness to follow Hannibal. He praised them for their valour and fixed the date of D-day, which was about the end of May. In this episode Hannibal's actions were paralleled two thousand years later by another young general of about his age, like him about to cross the Alps, and again like Hannibal, to make his initial reputation thereby: Napoleon Bonaparte. From Carthagena Hannibal marched his army to the Ebro and then to Ampurias, through the Pyrenees and along the shore of the Mediterranean through the South of France, fighting much of the way. As far as the Rhone, there is little doubt about the route which Hannibal's army followed: but from the Rhone over the Alps into Italy, Hannibal's route has been a bone of contention for two thousand years.
Crossing of the Alps.
Hannibal left Spain for Italy in the spring of 218 B.C. with about 35,000 seasoned troops. His force included a squadron of Elephants. The Romans planned to intercept him near Massilia (Marseille) and, after dealing with him, to invade Spain. Publius Cornelius Scipio was in charge of this operation, while Tiberius Sempronius led another army in Sicily, destined for Africa. However, Scipio had to sent his legions to deal with a Gallic revolt, and by the time he reached Massilia by sea, he learned that he had missed Hannibal by only a few days. Thereupon, Scipio returned to northern Italy and awaited Hannibal's arrival. In the meantime, Scipio had sent his brother Gnaue to Spain with an army to cut Hannibal off from his brother Hasdrubal. It appears that Hannibal crossed the Alps somewhere between the Little St Bernard and Montgenevre passes. He did not begin to cross until early fall, which meant that he encountered winter- like conditions in the Alpine region. His force suffered greatly from the elements and the hostility of local tribesmen. He lost most of his elephants, and by the time he reached northern Italy, his army was reduced to about 26,000 men, 6,000 of whom were Cavalry. However, the number was quickly raised to about 40,000 by the addition of Gauls.
Invasion of Italy.
In the first engagement with Roman troops, Hannibal's cavalry won a minor victory over Scipio's forces near the Ticinus River. This was followed by a decisive victory at the Trebia River in December 218 B.C. over Roman legions led by Scipio and Sempronius, who was recalled from Sicily when Hannibal invaded Italy. Hannibal's superior numbers in cavalry and his ski in the combined use of cavalry and infantry were key factors in his success at the Trebia, as in later victories. Hannibal had a decided ad-vantage in northern Italy. where the Gauls were friendly to his causc and where his cavalry could operate in the broad plains. The Romans therefore decided to withdraw to central Italy and await Hannibal who began to cross the Apennines in the spring of 217. The mountains again proved costly both to his army and personally to Hannibal, who lost the sight of one eye from an infection. The Roman consuls for 217, Gaius Flaminius and Servilius Geminus, had stationed themselves at Arretium and Ariminum to guard both possible routs, west and east, by which Hannibal might cross the Apennines. Hannibal selected Flaminius' western routs, but the consul refused to give battle alone. Allowing Hannibal to pass, Flaminius followed, harassing the Carthaginian army and hoping to meet Geminus farther south, where they wouldjointly give battle. However, Hannibal ambushed Flaminius in a narrow pass near Lake Trasimene and destroyed almost his entire army of 25.000. At Rome, Quintius Fabius Maximus was elected dictator by the centuriate assembly. Rather than join battle with Hannibal, who had marched south into Apulia, he decided on a policy of caution and harassment that would keep Hannibal moving and gradually wear him down. Hannibal moved from Apulia into Campania, followed and watched by Fabius, who finally bottled him up in an area unfavourable to cavalry and decided to give battle. At night, however, Hannibal sent oxen toward Fabius' army with burning sticks tied to their horns; while the Romans investigated what they considered an attack, he escaped with his army to ADulia, where he wintered.
The Battle of Cannae.
When Fabuis' tenure as dictator expired, the consuls for 216, Lueius Paullus and Gaius Varro, took charge of the war against Hannibal. On learning that Hannibal had captured the Roman depot at Cannae, in Apulia, the consuls deeided to give battle, and Hannibal now faced two formidable armies. However, at Cannae he again seleeted ground favourable to his taectics and strong cavalry. while the Romans reliedon their superior num-bers and their fighting skill. Hamlibal's plan called for his cavalry, positioned on the flanks of a creseent shaped line, to defeat the Roman horsemen quickly and to attack the Roman infantry from the rear as it pressed upon a weakened centre of Spaniards and Gauls: his superior African troops, at the crucial moment. were to press from the flanks and complete the encirclement. The plan succccded and the Romans suffered 25.000 dead and l0,000 captured.
Hannibal's Political Strategy
The ancient were fond of debating why Hannibal did not immediately march on Rome following his victory at Cannae, but clearly he could not have taken the city having taken part in numerous battles across Italy. His main objective was not the total de-struction of Rome but a settlement that would free Carthage from Roman intervention. Hannibal had hoped that his victories would bring about the wholesale defection of Italian cities from the Roman confederacy. However, the only major defection from Rome was Capua. When it was obvious to Hannibal that he could not effectively surround Rome with a ring of hostile ltalian states, he broadened the conflict to draw off Roman's manpower and to spread its resources thin. In 215 he made an alliance with Philip V of Macedon; doubtless he did not want Philip to invade Italy but merely to drain Roman strength by waging war in Greece. The alliance came to naught because Hamlibal could not supply Philip with a navy and because Rome checked Philip with its own navy and Aetolian allies (first Macedonian War, 214-205). Hannibal also brought Syracuse into the war against Rome. Hiero, ruler of Syracuse and long an ally of Rome, died in 215. His grandson, Hieronymous took control of the city and made an alliance with Hannibal. Hieronymous was soon killed in a revolt, but Punic agents gained control of Syracuse. However, Roman control of Sicily was generally restored by 211, when Syracuse fell.
First Reverses Following the defeat at Cannae, the Romans resorted back to Fabius' tactics of harassing Hannibal while avoiding formal engagements. This seemed to have rendered Hannibal's tactical skill and superior cavalry ineffective. Consequently, the Romans were able to retake Capua although their resources were heavily stretched by Hannibal 's international diplomacy. However, the real blow to Hannibal came from without. In 209, the Romans took Carthagena and forced Hasdrubal out of Spain. This cut his main supply route off. When Romans discovered that Hasdrubal had crossed the Alps to link up with Hannibal they left a small force to watch Hannibal and marched quickly with their main force to the Metaurus River, where they defeated Hasdrubal. Hannibal learned of the defeat when Hasdrubal's head was thrown into his camp. Hannibal knew that he was without hope of reinforcement. For the rest of the Italian campaign he was generally restricted to Bruttium. Hannibal had no supporting navy and appeared indifferent to that Roman naval supremacy which in the first place was able to cut off reinforcements and in the second to bring about unimpeded the invasion of Carthage. Although his tactics in the field, as attested even by Scipio, were brilliants, and he himself by his personal appearances and quick marches up and down Italy dazzled the Ro-mans and complicated their strategy, he was at a decided disadvantage as regards reinforcements and provisions. In 204, the Italian general Scipio landed in Carthage and was so successful that the following year Carthage sued for peace, terms were agreed upon, and Hannibal was recalled. The sight of Hannibal reinforced the Carthaginian will to resist, however, and hostilities were renewed. The two armies met at Zama in 202, in a battle that decided the outcome of the war. This time Hannibal met his match; he was outnumbered by a superior cavalry and was let down by the commercially minded rulers of Carthage. Hannibal, his army destroyed, escaped. Peace was made the next year. Rome severely restricted the Carthaginian navy and demanded a heavy indemnity. Carthage was forbidden to make war outside its African domain, and could fight within Africa only with Roman permission. Since failure to accept the peace terms would have meant the destruction of Carthage, Hannibal worked for their acceptance and retired to private life in 200. In 196 Hannibal attacked the position, power, and corruption of the aristocrats so vigorously that they told the Romans he was scheming with Antiochus III of Syria and planning another war with Rome. A Roman investigation commission was sent to Carthage on a pretext, but Hannibal knew it was aimed at him, and he eventually made his way to Antiochus. The charge that Hannibal had plotted with Antiochus is unsup-ported, but after he became a member of the Syrian court he certainly ad-vised the King to attack the Romans. After Antiochus defeat, Hannibal went to Prussia in 183 B.C., but the Romans, by what means it is unknown, put themselves in a position to demand his surrender. Unable this time to escape arrest, Hannibal took his own life rather than suffer further humiliation.
Fraternally Yours,
Rei Prorsum (S.O.S)
Societas Orbis et Sceptrum
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Moors (part two) The Light Bearers.
St.Benedict the Moor:
Saint Benedict the Moor is a saint of the Catholic Church. He was born at Fradella, a village of the Diocese of Messina in Sicily in 1526; he died April 4, 1589. Because of Benedict's religious piety and owing to his strict virtues he was made superior of the monastery of Santa Maria de Jesus at Palermo. He devoted his life to caring for the sick and needy. He became known as "The Holy Negro." He was sought by persons from every class on matters of religion and other human concerns. He died at the age of 63; as a consequence of his God filled life, a vigorous cult developed immediately after his death. His veneration became especially popular in Italy, Spain, and South America. The city of Palermo chose him as its patron saint. He was pronounced Blessed in 1743 by Pope Benedict XVII and was canonized in 1807 by Pope Pius VII."
In a series of documentaries produced by The History Channel called The History of Christianity, it is acknowledged that some Catholic priests traveled to Spain to receive theological tutelage—in Catholicism—from Moorish scholars. Protestantism rose to prominence after the Moors showed and proved to Catholic priests that their popes were spreading false Christian teachings such as the selling of indulgences. The popes and their underlings were actually telling the public that they could commit any sin they wanted and still make it to heaven as long as they paid for their spot.
Under Moorish protection, Jewish intellectuals and occultists were allowed to study subjects that were forbidden by the catholic church. The Jewish Kaballah, a spiritual system based on the ancient Khemetic Paut Neteru (The Tree of God), was conceived under these favorable conditions in 13th century Spain.
In her book Isis Unveiled Vol. 2, 19th century occultist Helena P. Blavatsky says that the Moors were “profoundly versed” in the esoteric spiritual sciences. “Nowhere, during the Middle Ages, were the arts of magic and sorcery more practiced by the clergy than in Spain and Portugal,” says the purported Russian mystic. “The Moors were profoundly versed in the occult sciences, and at Toledo, Seville, and Salamanca, were once upon a time, the great schools of magic.” With this in mind, it would not be a leap of the imagination to propose that the Moors were the true authors of the Kaballah in its present orientation.
The fact that the Jews were kicked out of Spain in the same year that the Moors were is by no means a coincidence. The church was working towards complete political and economic control of Europe so that it could consolidate its forces to plunder the earth and steal the wealth of indigenous people. The Moors presented the church with its greatest challenge in achieving that goal. Not only did they have an expansive intelligentsia, but a military presence that could challenge the Holy Roman Empire. The Knights Templar were put to death because they were working as spies on behalf of the Moors. In the eyes of the pope, this was tantamount to serving the devil.
When the Moors invaded Spain they did not bring any women with them, so there was a great deal of race-mixing under their rule. Many Spaniards and Italians particularly Sicilians have Moorish blood coursing through their veins. The same holds true for many of Europe’s royal families. Many of their coats-of-arms depict Moorish men and Women of high esteem. Maybe this is why those royal families are referred to as the Black Nobility?
Accounts of the Moorish presence in early Europe include England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia, among others. The history and legends of Scotland confirm the existence of "purely Black people." We see one of them in the person of Kenneth the Niger. During the tenth century Kenneth the Niger ruled over three provinces in the Scottish Highlands.
"King Kenneth of the Picts" 997a.d. to 1004a.d.
Niger Val Dub
The Moors were dominant in Scotland in the 10th century. One of them, was known as King Kenneth, sometimes as Niger or Dubh, a surname which means 'the black man.' It is a historical fact that Niger Val Dubh lived and reigned over certain black divisions in scotland - and that a race known as 'the sons of the blacks' succeeded him in history.
Kenneth III of Scotland was king of Scotland from 997 to 1005. He was the son of King Dubh, fourth cousin of the previous king Constantine III, and first cousin of his successor Malcolm II.
Kenneth was the last king of Scotland to succeed to the throne through the system of tanistry, whereby the succession was shared between two family lines and the dying king named the person from the other family line who was to succeed him. The system was much discredited as it ensured the two royal families of Scotland were in a constant state of war with each other.
Kenneth and his son Giric were both killed in battle at Monzievaird, Tayside in 1005. It was his first cousin Malcolm, succeeding him at the battle, who abolished the tanistry system by killing all of Kenneth's male descendants.
However Kenneth had a granddaughter, Gruoch, via his daughter Boite, whose first husband was Gillacomgain. They had a son called Lulach. She then married King Macbeth I of Scotland (becoming Lady Macbeth). On the death of Macbeth her son via her first marriage, Kenneth III's great grandson, succeeded to the throne, to become King Lulach of Scotland.
The historical and literary traditions of Wales reflect similar beliefs. According to Gwyn Jones (perhaps the world's leading authority on the subject), to the Welsh chroniclers, "The Danes coming in by way of England and the Norwegians by way of Ireland were pretty well all black: Black Gentiles, Black Norsemen, Black Host."
There is also strong reason to suggest a Moorish presence in ancient Ireland. We have, for example, the legends of the mysterious "African sea-rovers, the Fomorians, who had a stronghold on Torrey Island, off the Northwest Coast. "The Fomorians, shrouded deep in mist, came to be regarded as the sinister forces in Irish mythology.(*note the name: Fo-mor-ians)
A prominent Viking of the eleventh century was Thorhall, who was aboard the ship that carried the early Vikings to the shores of North America. Thorhall was a huntsman in summer, and in winter the steward of Eric the Red. He was,(as described) a large man, and strong, black, and like a giant, silent, and foul-mouthed in his speech, and always egged on Eric to the worst; he was a bad Christian."
Another Viking, more notable than Thorhall, was Earl Thorfinn, "the most distinguished of all the earls in the Islands. Thorfinn ruled over nine earldoms in Scotland and Ireland, and died at the age of seventy-five. His widow married the king of Scotland. Thorfinn was described as "one of the largest men in point of stature, and ugly, sharp featured, and somewhat tawny, and the most martial looking man"... It has been related that he was the foremost of all his men.
Black Murray.
Black Morrow, also known as Black Murray, is the name given to a bandit whom according to tradition was killed by a MacLellan near Kirkcudbright in Galloway, Scotland. There are several different versions of the story, in which the slain bandit is variously described as a Gypsy, a Moor, or even Irish. The stories may be explanations for the Moor's head that appears on the crest that appears on the Arms of Lord Kirkcudbright, and in consequence the modern crest badge used by Clan MacLellan. The blazon for which is a naked arm supporting on the point of a sword, a moor's head.
According to one tradition he and his followers occupied Clan MacLellan lands. He was killed by Sir William MacLelllan when discovered in a drunken sleep, allowing the MacLellans to regain control of their land. Another version states that a £50 reward was offered for his capture or death and that MacLellan bought the land with the reward. In an elaborate version of the story MacLellan deliberately replaced spring-water in a well with spirits in order to get Black Morrow drunk. The location of the spring in woodland is now known as Black Morrow Wood.
The name "Black Morrow" is assumed to derive from the term "Blackamoor" referring to the Moors of North Africa and Spain. As the date of the incident is not specified in the earliest surviving accounts it is not possible to know whether this implies that Black Morrow was an actual Moor or whether the name was intended to refer to his swarthy skin or barbarous reputation, perhaps analogous to "Black Douglas". Some accounts refer to him as "Irish" and others as a "gypsy".
Some writers in the 19th century attempted to use the story as evidence of native racial diversity in Britain. David MacRitchie argued that Black Morrow was probably a gypsy, but claimed that the gypsies were not immigrants but ancient Britons from a primeval dark-skinned race.
"BLACK".
As this surname is common throughout the British Isles, Scottish ancestry should not be presumed without additional evidence. Furthermore, as Black appears in many inextricably confused forms (Blacke, Blackie, Blaik, and Blake, etc.), the current spelling is often no guide to the proper pronunciation past or present, for in early Scots Latin charters the name even appears as "Niger". In the Highlands, Black is synonymous with the patronymics Macilduy, Macildowie, or MacGilledow, all of which derive from the Gaelic "Mac Gille dhuibh" (son of the black lad), and it is these Blacks who have been particularly associated with the Lamonts, MacGregors, and MacLeans. When the Lamonts and MacGregors became "broken" clans, both were forced to conceal their identity and many chose the names Black and Macilduy. The novelist, William Black, traced his descent from a branch of Clan Lamont who were driven from their home-lands under a leader called the "Black Priest". The exiles settled in Carnwath, Lanarkshire, and were later noted covenanters. Another lineage of Blacks were descended from the Blacks of Garvie, in Glendaruel, Argyll, where the head of this family was known as "Mac-'Ille-Dhuibh-mor-na-Garbha". The Macleans of Duart claim as septs only those Blacks/Macilduys who lived on the island of Gometra off the coast of Mull, from where many later moved to the Isle of Lismore. Members of the old family of Black of Wateridgemuir, Logie-Buchan, have been Burgesses of Aberdeen for almost 500 years. Amongst those whose scholarship has enhanced the study of the Scottish heritage we must include George Fraser Black, whose monumental work "The Surnames of Scotland" (pub.1946) has become the standard reference. Born in Stirlingshire, George later emigrated to the United States where he took a post as a librarian in the New York Public Library. His catalogue of Scottish works held therein may also be considered a masterpiece in librarianship. Clan affiliation will be determined by evidence of one's ancestral genealogical or geographical associations. There is no Black Tartan but because of the strong connections with the Lamont Clan the Lamont Tartan is recommended.
Afro-Asiatic grammatical traits found in Celtic tongues.
When the Celts landed in Ireland 2,500 years ago, they may have been met by a population of North Africans, scientists now believe, writes Jan Battles.
Linguists say a study of Irish and other Celtic languages has produced possible evidence that when the Celts invaded Ireland and Britain there were already Afro-Asiatic speakers here. Celtic languages - Irish, Scots Gaelic and Welsh - incorporate grammatical traits found in Afro-Asiatic tongues that are otherwise unrelated, according to research published in Science magazine. Other Celtic languages that were spoken in continental Europe and have since died out did not have these grammatical quirks. Afro-Asiatic languages are currently spoken in countries across Northern Africa and the Near East. This points to the possibility that there was early contact between Celtic and North African populations in the British Isles.
Orin Gensler, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, said the similarities would be explained if, when Afro-Asiatic people learnt Celtic from the new immigrants, they "perpetuated aspects of their own grammar into the new language". Gensler has studied many grammatical features found in both Celtic and Afro-Asiatic languages. He found many of the shared features were rare in other languages. Linguists have discovered surprising differences between Celtic languages and related languages such as French, while seeing striking resemblances between Celtic and Afro-Asiatic languages that are spoken in countries including Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
Gensler examined features of the languages such as the order of words in a sentence. In Gaelic and Welsh the standard sentence structure is verbsubject-object, which is a rare sequence. This is also the case in many Afro-Asiatic languages. Celtic languages that used to be spoken in continental Europe had the verb in the final or middle position. Berniece Wuethrich, author of the Science article, said: "The only other non-linguistic evidence that could point towards this connection is in blood type, but it is not definitive. Irish and British people have different proportions of blood types to most Europeans. Where there are comparable proportions is in the Atlas mountains in Northern Africa, home of the Berber people." Berber is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language group.
While in general clues about the identity of prehistoric inhabitants are gleaned from archeological remains and DNA, linguists say that certain elements of a language can preserve information about ancient times. It is widely known that when the Celts invaded Ireland there were people already here. Man is first believed to have arrived on Irish shores about 9,000 years ago - the earliest-known archeological evidence for human habitation dates to 7,000BC.
("Whatever makes a kingdom great, whatever tends to refinement and civilization was found in Moorish Spain." --Stanley Lane-Poole)
The same degree of intellect and learning was brought by the Moorish conquerors of the Iberian peninsula to Portugal. Like Spain, that country was to be culturally influenced by the Moors. Its association with Africa dates as far back as the fourth and fifth centuries when North Africans arrived in southern Europe. But it was in 711 A.D. that they marched in as conquerors under the command of Tarik. To reinforce what has been said earlier these Moors, as the early writers chronicled, were "black or dark people, some being very black." After the invasion of 711 came other waves of Moors.It was this occupation of Portugal which accounts for the fact that even noble families had absorbed the blood of the Moor.
From that time onwards, racial mixing in Portugal, as in Spain, and elsewhere in Europe which came under the influence of Moors, took place on a large scale. That is why historians claim that "Portugal is in reality a Negroid land," and that when Napoleon explained that "Africa begins at the Pyrenees," he meant every word that he uttered. Even the world-famed shrine in Portugal, Fatima, where Catholic pilgrims from all over the world go in search of miracle cures for their afflictions, owes its origin to the Moors. The story goes that a Portuguese nobleman was so saddened by the death of his wife, a young Moorish beauty whom he had married after her conversion to the Christian faith, that he gave up his title and fortune and entered a monastery. His wife was buried on a high plateau called Sierra de Aire. It is from there that the name of Fatima is derived.
The Moors ruled and occupied Lisbon and the rest of the country until well into the twelfth century. They were finally defeated and driven out by the forces of King Alfonso Henriques, who was aided by English and Flemish crusaders. The scene of this battle was the Castelo de Sao Jorge or, in English, the Castle of St. George. Today, it still stands, overlooking the city of "Lashbuna"--as the Moors named Lisbon. The defeat of the Moors did not put an end to their influence on Portugal. The Moorish presence can be seen everywhere in Portugal; in the architecture of many of the buildings. They still retain their Moorish design--like the Praca De Toiros--the Bull Ring in Lisbon. A walk through Alfama--the oldest quarter in Lisbon, with its fifteenth century houses, narrow-winding streets--dates back to the time when it was the last settlement of the Moors. Fado singers abound in all corners and bistros of Afalma. Their songs and rhythms owe much to the influence of the Moorish musicians centuries ago.
The Kingdom of Morocco under the leadership of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdullah, known as King Mohammed III, was the first country in the world to recognise the United States of America as an independent nation in 1777. This historic act by the North African Muslim kingdom highlights the relationship then existing between America’s Masonic leaders and the Moors. Before exploring this strange connection further we need to understand the part played by the Moors in the transmission of knowledge to Europe.
Moor is the classical name in Europe of the Muslim people of North Africa. In Spain, where Muslims ruled for over five hundred years, Arabs are still called Moros. The term “Moor” came to be synonymous with “Muslim” in many contexts.
The Supreme Wisdom of the Moors, much of it derived from ancient Egypt, has come to be known as “Moorish Science”. The Moors provided the vital link between ancient and modern civilisation. The light of knowledge which illuminated the Moorish lands of Spain and Sicily was instrumental in dispelling the gloom of ignorance that enveloped mediaeval Europe.
“It was under the influence of Arabian and Moorish revival of culture,” writes Robert Briffault in The Making of Humanity, “and not in the 15th century, that the real renaissance took place. Spain and not Italy, was the cradle of the rebirth of Europe. After sinking lower and lower in barbarism, it had reached the darkest depths of ignorance and degradation when the cities of the Saracenic world Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova, Toledo, were growing centres of civilisation and intellectual activity. It was there that the new life arose which was to grow into a new phase of human evolution. From the time when the influence of their culture made itself felt, began the stirring of a new life.”
The Orientalist Stanley Lane-Poole acknowledged the great impact Moorish civilisation had on Europe when he wrote:
For nearly eight centuries under her Muslim rulers Spain set to all Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened state. Art, literature and science prospered as they then prospered nowhere else in Europe. Students flocked from France and Germany and England to drink from the fountains of learning which flowed only in the cities of the Moors. The surgeons and doctors of Andalusia were in the vanguard of science; women were encouraged to devote themselves to serious study, and a lady doctor was not unknown among the people of Cordova. The 19th century French writer on the esoteric sciences, Gerard Encausse, known as “Papus”, noted how “the Gnostic sects, the Arabs, Alchemists, Templars” form a chain transmitting ancient wisdom to the West. This explains why within the Ritual of Freemasonry there is the admission “we came from the East and proceeded to the West.”
Masonic author Bernard H. Springett says:
The plain fact that much of what we now look upon almost entirely as Freemasonry has been practised as part and parcel of the religions of the Middle East for many thousands of years, lies open for anyone who cares to stop and read, instead of running by. But it is frequently and scornfully rejected by the average Masonic student. So we find that just as Europe borrowed considerably from the learning of the Moors, European Freemasonry took its “secret wisdom” from the Muslim East. With the end of Moorish rule in Spain, the Europeans began to colonize Africa, Asia and the Americas. In time European Christians conquered Muslim territories and the great debt Western civilisation owed to the Moors was quickly forgotten. By the 18th century European Christians saw themselves as the predestined rulers of the world with a divine mission to “civilise” the heathen. Western historians conveniently ignored the immense contribution of the brilliant and energetic Moorish civilisation in delivering Europe from mediaeval barbarism. We can only conclude this is a result of the pride and presumption of Westerners, which prevent them from recognising the truth or importance of their debts to the East.
Light of the East, enlightening the West.
The founders of the American republic, as high degree Freemasons, were aware of the importance of Moorish wisdom and culture to the birth of Western civilisation. This may explain why Morocco was the first nation in history to recognise the United States, and what’s really behind the story of George Washington being presented with a Moorish flag. Some researchers believe this flag consisted of a red background with a green five-pointed star in the centre of it. The star or pentagram, which the Moors called the Seal of Sulaiyman and coloured green to honour Islam, also figures prominently in Masonic art and architecture. The layout of the city of Washington D.C. – designed by Freemasons – incorporates the pentagram.
When Freemasons travelling in the Moorish lands encountered Sufis, the mystics of Islam, they soon recognised a common bond. “Sufi-ism,” said Sir Richard Burton, was “the Eastern parent of Freemasonry.” John Porter Brown, an American diplomat in Turkey in the mid 1800s, was a Freemason who wrote sympathetically of the Sufi path. In The Darvishes, he admits finding it “rather strange that the Dervishes of the Bektashi Order consider themselves quite the same as the Freemasons, and are disposed to fraternize with them.” Brown commented how in Turkey Freemasonry had come to be generally regarded as “atheism of the most condemnable character.” A position not unlike the one held by Papus, the celebrated French occultist and Gnostic bishop, who tried to counter the Masonic lodges which, he believed, were in the service of British imperialism and the international financial syndicates. Papus also viewed Freemasonry as a diabolical perversion of the ancient secret tradition and atheistic at heart.
When Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) set out in search of hidden wisdom it was to the Moorish land of Egypt that she journeyed. Blavatsky claimed to be a disciple of the Masters Morya and Koot Hoomi. The researcher K. Paul Johnson convincingly shows her tales of the “Masters” to be modelled on real people, many genuine occult adepts. Prominent among them Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, a Sufi scholar, tireless political intriguer, and the leader of radical movements throughout the Muslim world, whose travels enigmatically paralleled those of Madame Blavatsky for more than thirty years. Best remembered for co-founding the Theosophical Society and helping to popularise Buddhism and Hinduism in the West, Blavatsky also proudly wrote of “living with the whirling dervishes, with the Druze of Mount Lebanon, with the Bedouin Arabs and the marabouts of Damascus.”
Madame Blavatsky’s “Masters” are very close to the Sufi tradition of Khwajagan (Persian: “Masters”). Ernest Scott states “the Khwajagan teachers are entirely corporeal and literal, having been physically located in the Hindu Kush area since the 10th century. The Hindu Kush range is in Afghanistan: geographically, it forms the Western extreme of the Himalayas.” Scott quotes from a paper by a Turkish writer who describes how members of the Khwajagan intervene from time to time in human affairs. They do this, not as leaders or teachers of mankind, but unobtrusively by introducing certain ideas and techniques. This intervention works in such a way as to rectify deviations from the predestined course of human history. This inner circle, it is claimed, concentrates its activities in those areas and at those times when the situation is critical for mankind.”
Certainly Madame Blavatsky’s teacher Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, who was raised in Afghanistan, fits the description of a Master Adept. His life is described as a mysterious odyssey that led through lands as far apart as India and America. Received by heads of state in Cairo and Istanbul, he moved in both underground radical circles and the highest centres of power in European and Oriental capitals.
The idea of living ‘spiritual guides’ or masters is central to Sufism. In the words of Sir John Glubb Pasha: “Sufism cannot be defined in words, nor can it be comprehended by the human intellect. It can only be imperceptibly ‘caught’ or imbibed by association with a Sufi master.” The Sufi master is revered by his disciples for being in contact with a level of higher consciousness, his mission on Earth directed by higher powers. Studying the lives of some of the greatest Sufi masters we often find them to be wandering holy men (& women) whose actions are usually misunderstood by orthodox believers. The shrines of Sufi masters are centres of trance dancing, exorcism, and miraculous healings. Sufi masters are also renowned for communicating with their followers through dreams. There are numerous stories of Sufi saints appearing in a disciple’s dreams and using telepathy to direct followers to undertake a special mission.
The Occidental Star (Noble Drew Ali).
A few years after Madame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875, the Master Adept Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani turned up in America around 1882. Two Americans of African descent, who are rumoured to have studied under al-Afghani, were the parents of the man who would one day establish Moorish Science in the United States.
Noble Drew Ali (born Timothy Drew) early in the 20th century took a job as a merchant seaman and found himself in Egypt. According to one legend, Noble Drew Ali made a pilgrimage to North Africa where he studied with Moorish scholars and received a mandate from the king of Morocco to instruct Americans of African descent in Islam. His association with the ruler of Morocco is significant when we recall the historic relationship between this Moorish country and the early United States.
At the Pyramid of Cheops his followers believe he received initiation and took the Muslim name Sharif [Noble] Abdul Ali; in America he would be known as Noble Drew Ali. On his return to the United States in 1913 he had a dream in which he was ordered to found a movement “to uplift fallen humanity by returning the nationality, divine creed and culture to persons of Moorish descent in the Western Hemisphere.” He organised the Moorish Science Temple along lines similar to Masonic lodges, with local temple branches and “Adept Chambers” teaching the esoteric wisdom derived from the secret circle of Eastern Sages, the Master Adepts of Moorish Science.
Noble Drew Ali is said to have made a historic visit to Washington, D.C. in order to reclaim the Moorish flag and obtain official recognition to call his people to their true faith, “Al Islam”. The U.S. president, believing that African Americans would not embrace Islam, gave Noble Drew Ali full authority to teach Moorish Science in America.
By the end of the 1920s, membership in the Moorish Science Temple had grown substantially. With increasing numbers of African Americans rallying behind Noble Drew Ali the Moorish movement soon came under the scrutiny of the FBI. In 1929 several Moors, including Noble Drew Ali, where detained for questioning by the Chicago police. Released from custody, Noble Drew Ali fell ill and never recovered. Many Moors suspected his death the result of a severe police beating.
Following the inexplicable ‘death’ of Noble Drew Ali, the Moorish Science Temple continued and gave rise to unique Islamic groups among the African American community. Much of the known history of Moorish Science in North America is extremely complex and obscure.
By the 1950s some white American poets and jazz musicians came into contact with Moorish Science. The North African cities of Tangiers and Marrakech held a magic attraction for the leaders of America’s counterculture, with writers like William S. Burroughs spending years living in the Moorish lands. The Moorish Orthodox Church of America was formed by white Americans who held Moorish Science passports and had ties with certain “Wandering Bishops” of the Old Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
Joseph Matheny, the American author and media theorist, first encountered Moorish Science when he was researching time travel and quantum consciousness. In his book Ong’s Hat The Beginning, the Moorish Orthodox Church is called “one of the most secretive and mysterious religious organisations ever known to man” and:
a revolutionary and heretical sect of Islam that carries on an ancient tradition which sought to counterbalance the forces of orthodox Islam. Despite the controversial and dubious nature of the MOC, part of their tradition has been to serve as the torch bearers of freedom against the tyrannical and repressive aspects of the Earth’s patriarchal power structure as our planetary consciousness shifts to the Age of Aquarius and sets its site on unlimited freedom and the expression of life in all of its true wonder and beauty.
Years before the “War on Terror” and Bush’s invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, this writer attended a lecture organised by people associated with the Moorish Orthodox Church. The speaker, a Moorish Sheik returned from a long sojourn in the East, claimed Freemasonry is built on a twisting of the truth of Moorish Science. It is the secret power behind the West based on the Supreme Wisdom derived from esoteric Islam. The European colonisers usurped the knowledge of the Moors and created a nefarious system of control that blinds man to his true identity. Freemasonry was identified as a chief player in the world “Babylonian” system, the mastermind of the institutions of indoctrination that prevent the full knowledge of the True God to be known. Moorish Science is the effective counter to the Freemasonic imposters and a force for Truth, Love, Peace, Freedom and Justice. The Sheik also revealed how Afghanistan and Iraq figure in sacred geography and numerology, and mentioned a secret war between the Anglo-American and Asiatic powers.
"The Empire Strikes Back" (The secret war between occult brotherhoods).
Is there a struggle between occult brotherhoods to influence human destiny? Are the dramatic events taking place in the world, from the continuing strife in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, to the rivalry between the forces of Atlanticism (Britain and the USA) and Eurasia (Russia and China), just surface manifestations of a deeper conflict? Certainly the strange saga of Moorish Science and the Moorish Orthodox Church adds weight to the observation made by one of the 20th century’s most controversial mystics: There is a history behind our so-called history that you cannot even conceive of. History has a deeper base. The periphery that we know as history is not the reality. Behind our so called history continues another history, a deeper one about which we know nothing.
Fraternally Yours,
Rei Prorsum,(S.O.S)
Societas Orbis et Sceptrum.
Saint Benedict the Moor is a saint of the Catholic Church. He was born at Fradella, a village of the Diocese of Messina in Sicily in 1526; he died April 4, 1589. Because of Benedict's religious piety and owing to his strict virtues he was made superior of the monastery of Santa Maria de Jesus at Palermo. He devoted his life to caring for the sick and needy. He became known as "The Holy Negro." He was sought by persons from every class on matters of religion and other human concerns. He died at the age of 63; as a consequence of his God filled life, a vigorous cult developed immediately after his death. His veneration became especially popular in Italy, Spain, and South America. The city of Palermo chose him as its patron saint. He was pronounced Blessed in 1743 by Pope Benedict XVII and was canonized in 1807 by Pope Pius VII."
In a series of documentaries produced by The History Channel called The History of Christianity, it is acknowledged that some Catholic priests traveled to Spain to receive theological tutelage—in Catholicism—from Moorish scholars. Protestantism rose to prominence after the Moors showed and proved to Catholic priests that their popes were spreading false Christian teachings such as the selling of indulgences. The popes and their underlings were actually telling the public that they could commit any sin they wanted and still make it to heaven as long as they paid for their spot.
Under Moorish protection, Jewish intellectuals and occultists were allowed to study subjects that were forbidden by the catholic church. The Jewish Kaballah, a spiritual system based on the ancient Khemetic Paut Neteru (The Tree of God), was conceived under these favorable conditions in 13th century Spain.
In her book Isis Unveiled Vol. 2, 19th century occultist Helena P. Blavatsky says that the Moors were “profoundly versed” in the esoteric spiritual sciences. “Nowhere, during the Middle Ages, were the arts of magic and sorcery more practiced by the clergy than in Spain and Portugal,” says the purported Russian mystic. “The Moors were profoundly versed in the occult sciences, and at Toledo, Seville, and Salamanca, were once upon a time, the great schools of magic.” With this in mind, it would not be a leap of the imagination to propose that the Moors were the true authors of the Kaballah in its present orientation.
The fact that the Jews were kicked out of Spain in the same year that the Moors were is by no means a coincidence. The church was working towards complete political and economic control of Europe so that it could consolidate its forces to plunder the earth and steal the wealth of indigenous people. The Moors presented the church with its greatest challenge in achieving that goal. Not only did they have an expansive intelligentsia, but a military presence that could challenge the Holy Roman Empire. The Knights Templar were put to death because they were working as spies on behalf of the Moors. In the eyes of the pope, this was tantamount to serving the devil.
When the Moors invaded Spain they did not bring any women with them, so there was a great deal of race-mixing under their rule. Many Spaniards and Italians particularly Sicilians have Moorish blood coursing through their veins. The same holds true for many of Europe’s royal families. Many of their coats-of-arms depict Moorish men and Women of high esteem. Maybe this is why those royal families are referred to as the Black Nobility?
Accounts of the Moorish presence in early Europe include England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia, among others. The history and legends of Scotland confirm the existence of "purely Black people." We see one of them in the person of Kenneth the Niger. During the tenth century Kenneth the Niger ruled over three provinces in the Scottish Highlands.
"King Kenneth of the Picts" 997a.d. to 1004a.d.
Niger Val Dub
The Moors were dominant in Scotland in the 10th century. One of them, was known as King Kenneth, sometimes as Niger or Dubh, a surname which means 'the black man.' It is a historical fact that Niger Val Dubh lived and reigned over certain black divisions in scotland - and that a race known as 'the sons of the blacks' succeeded him in history.
Kenneth III of Scotland was king of Scotland from 997 to 1005. He was the son of King Dubh, fourth cousin of the previous king Constantine III, and first cousin of his successor Malcolm II.
Kenneth was the last king of Scotland to succeed to the throne through the system of tanistry, whereby the succession was shared between two family lines and the dying king named the person from the other family line who was to succeed him. The system was much discredited as it ensured the two royal families of Scotland were in a constant state of war with each other.
Kenneth and his son Giric were both killed in battle at Monzievaird, Tayside in 1005. It was his first cousin Malcolm, succeeding him at the battle, who abolished the tanistry system by killing all of Kenneth's male descendants.
However Kenneth had a granddaughter, Gruoch, via his daughter Boite, whose first husband was Gillacomgain. They had a son called Lulach. She then married King Macbeth I of Scotland (becoming Lady Macbeth). On the death of Macbeth her son via her first marriage, Kenneth III's great grandson, succeeded to the throne, to become King Lulach of Scotland.
The historical and literary traditions of Wales reflect similar beliefs. According to Gwyn Jones (perhaps the world's leading authority on the subject), to the Welsh chroniclers, "The Danes coming in by way of England and the Norwegians by way of Ireland were pretty well all black: Black Gentiles, Black Norsemen, Black Host."
There is also strong reason to suggest a Moorish presence in ancient Ireland. We have, for example, the legends of the mysterious "African sea-rovers, the Fomorians, who had a stronghold on Torrey Island, off the Northwest Coast. "The Fomorians, shrouded deep in mist, came to be regarded as the sinister forces in Irish mythology.(*note the name: Fo-mor-ians)
A prominent Viking of the eleventh century was Thorhall, who was aboard the ship that carried the early Vikings to the shores of North America. Thorhall was a huntsman in summer, and in winter the steward of Eric the Red. He was,(as described) a large man, and strong, black, and like a giant, silent, and foul-mouthed in his speech, and always egged on Eric to the worst; he was a bad Christian."
Another Viking, more notable than Thorhall, was Earl Thorfinn, "the most distinguished of all the earls in the Islands. Thorfinn ruled over nine earldoms in Scotland and Ireland, and died at the age of seventy-five. His widow married the king of Scotland. Thorfinn was described as "one of the largest men in point of stature, and ugly, sharp featured, and somewhat tawny, and the most martial looking man"... It has been related that he was the foremost of all his men.
Black Murray.
Black Morrow, also known as Black Murray, is the name given to a bandit whom according to tradition was killed by a MacLellan near Kirkcudbright in Galloway, Scotland. There are several different versions of the story, in which the slain bandit is variously described as a Gypsy, a Moor, or even Irish. The stories may be explanations for the Moor's head that appears on the crest that appears on the Arms of Lord Kirkcudbright, and in consequence the modern crest badge used by Clan MacLellan. The blazon for which is a naked arm supporting on the point of a sword, a moor's head.
According to one tradition he and his followers occupied Clan MacLellan lands. He was killed by Sir William MacLelllan when discovered in a drunken sleep, allowing the MacLellans to regain control of their land. Another version states that a £50 reward was offered for his capture or death and that MacLellan bought the land with the reward. In an elaborate version of the story MacLellan deliberately replaced spring-water in a well with spirits in order to get Black Morrow drunk. The location of the spring in woodland is now known as Black Morrow Wood.
The name "Black Morrow" is assumed to derive from the term "Blackamoor" referring to the Moors of North Africa and Spain. As the date of the incident is not specified in the earliest surviving accounts it is not possible to know whether this implies that Black Morrow was an actual Moor or whether the name was intended to refer to his swarthy skin or barbarous reputation, perhaps analogous to "Black Douglas". Some accounts refer to him as "Irish" and others as a "gypsy".
Some writers in the 19th century attempted to use the story as evidence of native racial diversity in Britain. David MacRitchie argued that Black Morrow was probably a gypsy, but claimed that the gypsies were not immigrants but ancient Britons from a primeval dark-skinned race.
"BLACK".
As this surname is common throughout the British Isles, Scottish ancestry should not be presumed without additional evidence. Furthermore, as Black appears in many inextricably confused forms (Blacke, Blackie, Blaik, and Blake, etc.), the current spelling is often no guide to the proper pronunciation past or present, for in early Scots Latin charters the name even appears as "Niger". In the Highlands, Black is synonymous with the patronymics Macilduy, Macildowie, or MacGilledow, all of which derive from the Gaelic "Mac Gille dhuibh" (son of the black lad), and it is these Blacks who have been particularly associated with the Lamonts, MacGregors, and MacLeans. When the Lamonts and MacGregors became "broken" clans, both were forced to conceal their identity and many chose the names Black and Macilduy. The novelist, William Black, traced his descent from a branch of Clan Lamont who were driven from their home-lands under a leader called the "Black Priest". The exiles settled in Carnwath, Lanarkshire, and were later noted covenanters. Another lineage of Blacks were descended from the Blacks of Garvie, in Glendaruel, Argyll, where the head of this family was known as "Mac-'Ille-Dhuibh-mor-na-Garbha". The Macleans of Duart claim as septs only those Blacks/Macilduys who lived on the island of Gometra off the coast of Mull, from where many later moved to the Isle of Lismore. Members of the old family of Black of Wateridgemuir, Logie-Buchan, have been Burgesses of Aberdeen for almost 500 years. Amongst those whose scholarship has enhanced the study of the Scottish heritage we must include George Fraser Black, whose monumental work "The Surnames of Scotland" (pub.1946) has become the standard reference. Born in Stirlingshire, George later emigrated to the United States where he took a post as a librarian in the New York Public Library. His catalogue of Scottish works held therein may also be considered a masterpiece in librarianship. Clan affiliation will be determined by evidence of one's ancestral genealogical or geographical associations. There is no Black Tartan but because of the strong connections with the Lamont Clan the Lamont Tartan is recommended.
Afro-Asiatic grammatical traits found in Celtic tongues.
When the Celts landed in Ireland 2,500 years ago, they may have been met by a population of North Africans, scientists now believe, writes Jan Battles.
Linguists say a study of Irish and other Celtic languages has produced possible evidence that when the Celts invaded Ireland and Britain there were already Afro-Asiatic speakers here. Celtic languages - Irish, Scots Gaelic and Welsh - incorporate grammatical traits found in Afro-Asiatic tongues that are otherwise unrelated, according to research published in Science magazine. Other Celtic languages that were spoken in continental Europe and have since died out did not have these grammatical quirks. Afro-Asiatic languages are currently spoken in countries across Northern Africa and the Near East. This points to the possibility that there was early contact between Celtic and North African populations in the British Isles.
Orin Gensler, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, said the similarities would be explained if, when Afro-Asiatic people learnt Celtic from the new immigrants, they "perpetuated aspects of their own grammar into the new language". Gensler has studied many grammatical features found in both Celtic and Afro-Asiatic languages. He found many of the shared features were rare in other languages. Linguists have discovered surprising differences between Celtic languages and related languages such as French, while seeing striking resemblances between Celtic and Afro-Asiatic languages that are spoken in countries including Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
Gensler examined features of the languages such as the order of words in a sentence. In Gaelic and Welsh the standard sentence structure is verbsubject-object, which is a rare sequence. This is also the case in many Afro-Asiatic languages. Celtic languages that used to be spoken in continental Europe had the verb in the final or middle position. Berniece Wuethrich, author of the Science article, said: "The only other non-linguistic evidence that could point towards this connection is in blood type, but it is not definitive. Irish and British people have different proportions of blood types to most Europeans. Where there are comparable proportions is in the Atlas mountains in Northern Africa, home of the Berber people." Berber is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language group.
While in general clues about the identity of prehistoric inhabitants are gleaned from archeological remains and DNA, linguists say that certain elements of a language can preserve information about ancient times. It is widely known that when the Celts invaded Ireland there were people already here. Man is first believed to have arrived on Irish shores about 9,000 years ago - the earliest-known archeological evidence for human habitation dates to 7,000BC.
("Whatever makes a kingdom great, whatever tends to refinement and civilization was found in Moorish Spain." --Stanley Lane-Poole)
The same degree of intellect and learning was brought by the Moorish conquerors of the Iberian peninsula to Portugal. Like Spain, that country was to be culturally influenced by the Moors. Its association with Africa dates as far back as the fourth and fifth centuries when North Africans arrived in southern Europe. But it was in 711 A.D. that they marched in as conquerors under the command of Tarik. To reinforce what has been said earlier these Moors, as the early writers chronicled, were "black or dark people, some being very black." After the invasion of 711 came other waves of Moors.It was this occupation of Portugal which accounts for the fact that even noble families had absorbed the blood of the Moor.
From that time onwards, racial mixing in Portugal, as in Spain, and elsewhere in Europe which came under the influence of Moors, took place on a large scale. That is why historians claim that "Portugal is in reality a Negroid land," and that when Napoleon explained that "Africa begins at the Pyrenees," he meant every word that he uttered. Even the world-famed shrine in Portugal, Fatima, where Catholic pilgrims from all over the world go in search of miracle cures for their afflictions, owes its origin to the Moors. The story goes that a Portuguese nobleman was so saddened by the death of his wife, a young Moorish beauty whom he had married after her conversion to the Christian faith, that he gave up his title and fortune and entered a monastery. His wife was buried on a high plateau called Sierra de Aire. It is from there that the name of Fatima is derived.
The Moors ruled and occupied Lisbon and the rest of the country until well into the twelfth century. They were finally defeated and driven out by the forces of King Alfonso Henriques, who was aided by English and Flemish crusaders. The scene of this battle was the Castelo de Sao Jorge or, in English, the Castle of St. George. Today, it still stands, overlooking the city of "Lashbuna"--as the Moors named Lisbon. The defeat of the Moors did not put an end to their influence on Portugal. The Moorish presence can be seen everywhere in Portugal; in the architecture of many of the buildings. They still retain their Moorish design--like the Praca De Toiros--the Bull Ring in Lisbon. A walk through Alfama--the oldest quarter in Lisbon, with its fifteenth century houses, narrow-winding streets--dates back to the time when it was the last settlement of the Moors. Fado singers abound in all corners and bistros of Afalma. Their songs and rhythms owe much to the influence of the Moorish musicians centuries ago.
The Kingdom of Morocco under the leadership of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdullah, known as King Mohammed III, was the first country in the world to recognise the United States of America as an independent nation in 1777. This historic act by the North African Muslim kingdom highlights the relationship then existing between America’s Masonic leaders and the Moors. Before exploring this strange connection further we need to understand the part played by the Moors in the transmission of knowledge to Europe.
Moor is the classical name in Europe of the Muslim people of North Africa. In Spain, where Muslims ruled for over five hundred years, Arabs are still called Moros. The term “Moor” came to be synonymous with “Muslim” in many contexts.
The Supreme Wisdom of the Moors, much of it derived from ancient Egypt, has come to be known as “Moorish Science”. The Moors provided the vital link between ancient and modern civilisation. The light of knowledge which illuminated the Moorish lands of Spain and Sicily was instrumental in dispelling the gloom of ignorance that enveloped mediaeval Europe.
“It was under the influence of Arabian and Moorish revival of culture,” writes Robert Briffault in The Making of Humanity, “and not in the 15th century, that the real renaissance took place. Spain and not Italy, was the cradle of the rebirth of Europe. After sinking lower and lower in barbarism, it had reached the darkest depths of ignorance and degradation when the cities of the Saracenic world Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova, Toledo, were growing centres of civilisation and intellectual activity. It was there that the new life arose which was to grow into a new phase of human evolution. From the time when the influence of their culture made itself felt, began the stirring of a new life.”
The Orientalist Stanley Lane-Poole acknowledged the great impact Moorish civilisation had on Europe when he wrote:
For nearly eight centuries under her Muslim rulers Spain set to all Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened state. Art, literature and science prospered as they then prospered nowhere else in Europe. Students flocked from France and Germany and England to drink from the fountains of learning which flowed only in the cities of the Moors. The surgeons and doctors of Andalusia were in the vanguard of science; women were encouraged to devote themselves to serious study, and a lady doctor was not unknown among the people of Cordova. The 19th century French writer on the esoteric sciences, Gerard Encausse, known as “Papus”, noted how “the Gnostic sects, the Arabs, Alchemists, Templars” form a chain transmitting ancient wisdom to the West. This explains why within the Ritual of Freemasonry there is the admission “we came from the East and proceeded to the West.”
Masonic author Bernard H. Springett says:
The plain fact that much of what we now look upon almost entirely as Freemasonry has been practised as part and parcel of the religions of the Middle East for many thousands of years, lies open for anyone who cares to stop and read, instead of running by. But it is frequently and scornfully rejected by the average Masonic student. So we find that just as Europe borrowed considerably from the learning of the Moors, European Freemasonry took its “secret wisdom” from the Muslim East. With the end of Moorish rule in Spain, the Europeans began to colonize Africa, Asia and the Americas. In time European Christians conquered Muslim territories and the great debt Western civilisation owed to the Moors was quickly forgotten. By the 18th century European Christians saw themselves as the predestined rulers of the world with a divine mission to “civilise” the heathen. Western historians conveniently ignored the immense contribution of the brilliant and energetic Moorish civilisation in delivering Europe from mediaeval barbarism. We can only conclude this is a result of the pride and presumption of Westerners, which prevent them from recognising the truth or importance of their debts to the East.
Light of the East, enlightening the West.
The founders of the American republic, as high degree Freemasons, were aware of the importance of Moorish wisdom and culture to the birth of Western civilisation. This may explain why Morocco was the first nation in history to recognise the United States, and what’s really behind the story of George Washington being presented with a Moorish flag. Some researchers believe this flag consisted of a red background with a green five-pointed star in the centre of it. The star or pentagram, which the Moors called the Seal of Sulaiyman and coloured green to honour Islam, also figures prominently in Masonic art and architecture. The layout of the city of Washington D.C. – designed by Freemasons – incorporates the pentagram.
When Freemasons travelling in the Moorish lands encountered Sufis, the mystics of Islam, they soon recognised a common bond. “Sufi-ism,” said Sir Richard Burton, was “the Eastern parent of Freemasonry.” John Porter Brown, an American diplomat in Turkey in the mid 1800s, was a Freemason who wrote sympathetically of the Sufi path. In The Darvishes, he admits finding it “rather strange that the Dervishes of the Bektashi Order consider themselves quite the same as the Freemasons, and are disposed to fraternize with them.” Brown commented how in Turkey Freemasonry had come to be generally regarded as “atheism of the most condemnable character.” A position not unlike the one held by Papus, the celebrated French occultist and Gnostic bishop, who tried to counter the Masonic lodges which, he believed, were in the service of British imperialism and the international financial syndicates. Papus also viewed Freemasonry as a diabolical perversion of the ancient secret tradition and atheistic at heart.
When Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) set out in search of hidden wisdom it was to the Moorish land of Egypt that she journeyed. Blavatsky claimed to be a disciple of the Masters Morya and Koot Hoomi. The researcher K. Paul Johnson convincingly shows her tales of the “Masters” to be modelled on real people, many genuine occult adepts. Prominent among them Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, a Sufi scholar, tireless political intriguer, and the leader of radical movements throughout the Muslim world, whose travels enigmatically paralleled those of Madame Blavatsky for more than thirty years. Best remembered for co-founding the Theosophical Society and helping to popularise Buddhism and Hinduism in the West, Blavatsky also proudly wrote of “living with the whirling dervishes, with the Druze of Mount Lebanon, with the Bedouin Arabs and the marabouts of Damascus.”
Madame Blavatsky’s “Masters” are very close to the Sufi tradition of Khwajagan (Persian: “Masters”). Ernest Scott states “the Khwajagan teachers are entirely corporeal and literal, having been physically located in the Hindu Kush area since the 10th century. The Hindu Kush range is in Afghanistan: geographically, it forms the Western extreme of the Himalayas.” Scott quotes from a paper by a Turkish writer who describes how members of the Khwajagan intervene from time to time in human affairs. They do this, not as leaders or teachers of mankind, but unobtrusively by introducing certain ideas and techniques. This intervention works in such a way as to rectify deviations from the predestined course of human history. This inner circle, it is claimed, concentrates its activities in those areas and at those times when the situation is critical for mankind.”
Certainly Madame Blavatsky’s teacher Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, who was raised in Afghanistan, fits the description of a Master Adept. His life is described as a mysterious odyssey that led through lands as far apart as India and America. Received by heads of state in Cairo and Istanbul, he moved in both underground radical circles and the highest centres of power in European and Oriental capitals.
The idea of living ‘spiritual guides’ or masters is central to Sufism. In the words of Sir John Glubb Pasha: “Sufism cannot be defined in words, nor can it be comprehended by the human intellect. It can only be imperceptibly ‘caught’ or imbibed by association with a Sufi master.” The Sufi master is revered by his disciples for being in contact with a level of higher consciousness, his mission on Earth directed by higher powers. Studying the lives of some of the greatest Sufi masters we often find them to be wandering holy men (& women) whose actions are usually misunderstood by orthodox believers. The shrines of Sufi masters are centres of trance dancing, exorcism, and miraculous healings. Sufi masters are also renowned for communicating with their followers through dreams. There are numerous stories of Sufi saints appearing in a disciple’s dreams and using telepathy to direct followers to undertake a special mission.
The Occidental Star (Noble Drew Ali).
A few years after Madame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875, the Master Adept Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani turned up in America around 1882. Two Americans of African descent, who are rumoured to have studied under al-Afghani, were the parents of the man who would one day establish Moorish Science in the United States.
Noble Drew Ali (born Timothy Drew) early in the 20th century took a job as a merchant seaman and found himself in Egypt. According to one legend, Noble Drew Ali made a pilgrimage to North Africa where he studied with Moorish scholars and received a mandate from the king of Morocco to instruct Americans of African descent in Islam. His association with the ruler of Morocco is significant when we recall the historic relationship between this Moorish country and the early United States.
At the Pyramid of Cheops his followers believe he received initiation and took the Muslim name Sharif [Noble] Abdul Ali; in America he would be known as Noble Drew Ali. On his return to the United States in 1913 he had a dream in which he was ordered to found a movement “to uplift fallen humanity by returning the nationality, divine creed and culture to persons of Moorish descent in the Western Hemisphere.” He organised the Moorish Science Temple along lines similar to Masonic lodges, with local temple branches and “Adept Chambers” teaching the esoteric wisdom derived from the secret circle of Eastern Sages, the Master Adepts of Moorish Science.
Noble Drew Ali is said to have made a historic visit to Washington, D.C. in order to reclaim the Moorish flag and obtain official recognition to call his people to their true faith, “Al Islam”. The U.S. president, believing that African Americans would not embrace Islam, gave Noble Drew Ali full authority to teach Moorish Science in America.
By the end of the 1920s, membership in the Moorish Science Temple had grown substantially. With increasing numbers of African Americans rallying behind Noble Drew Ali the Moorish movement soon came under the scrutiny of the FBI. In 1929 several Moors, including Noble Drew Ali, where detained for questioning by the Chicago police. Released from custody, Noble Drew Ali fell ill and never recovered. Many Moors suspected his death the result of a severe police beating.
Following the inexplicable ‘death’ of Noble Drew Ali, the Moorish Science Temple continued and gave rise to unique Islamic groups among the African American community. Much of the known history of Moorish Science in North America is extremely complex and obscure.
By the 1950s some white American poets and jazz musicians came into contact with Moorish Science. The North African cities of Tangiers and Marrakech held a magic attraction for the leaders of America’s counterculture, with writers like William S. Burroughs spending years living in the Moorish lands. The Moorish Orthodox Church of America was formed by white Americans who held Moorish Science passports and had ties with certain “Wandering Bishops” of the Old Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
Joseph Matheny, the American author and media theorist, first encountered Moorish Science when he was researching time travel and quantum consciousness. In his book Ong’s Hat The Beginning, the Moorish Orthodox Church is called “one of the most secretive and mysterious religious organisations ever known to man” and:
a revolutionary and heretical sect of Islam that carries on an ancient tradition which sought to counterbalance the forces of orthodox Islam. Despite the controversial and dubious nature of the MOC, part of their tradition has been to serve as the torch bearers of freedom against the tyrannical and repressive aspects of the Earth’s patriarchal power structure as our planetary consciousness shifts to the Age of Aquarius and sets its site on unlimited freedom and the expression of life in all of its true wonder and beauty.
Years before the “War on Terror” and Bush’s invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, this writer attended a lecture organised by people associated with the Moorish Orthodox Church. The speaker, a Moorish Sheik returned from a long sojourn in the East, claimed Freemasonry is built on a twisting of the truth of Moorish Science. It is the secret power behind the West based on the Supreme Wisdom derived from esoteric Islam. The European colonisers usurped the knowledge of the Moors and created a nefarious system of control that blinds man to his true identity. Freemasonry was identified as a chief player in the world “Babylonian” system, the mastermind of the institutions of indoctrination that prevent the full knowledge of the True God to be known. Moorish Science is the effective counter to the Freemasonic imposters and a force for Truth, Love, Peace, Freedom and Justice. The Sheik also revealed how Afghanistan and Iraq figure in sacred geography and numerology, and mentioned a secret war between the Anglo-American and Asiatic powers.
"The Empire Strikes Back" (The secret war between occult brotherhoods).
Is there a struggle between occult brotherhoods to influence human destiny? Are the dramatic events taking place in the world, from the continuing strife in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, to the rivalry between the forces of Atlanticism (Britain and the USA) and Eurasia (Russia and China), just surface manifestations of a deeper conflict? Certainly the strange saga of Moorish Science and the Moorish Orthodox Church adds weight to the observation made by one of the 20th century’s most controversial mystics: There is a history behind our so-called history that you cannot even conceive of. History has a deeper base. The periphery that we know as history is not the reality. Behind our so called history continues another history, a deeper one about which we know nothing.
Fraternally Yours,
Rei Prorsum,(S.O.S)
Societas Orbis et Sceptrum.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Moors (part one) early history and origin
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. 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." 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.
Neither Vandal nor Byzantine exercised an effective rule, the interior being under Moorish Berber control. 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.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 Puerto Rico and other Spanish-speaking countries, as in Portuguese speaking Brazil, it can mean "black person" or a "mulatto". 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 the moriscos of Granada. Moro is also used to describe all things dark, as in "Moor", "moreno", etc.. It has been the bases of such European surnames as Moore, Mauro, Moura, and so on.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 celtic root *MRVOS, (gaulish: marvos), meaning dead or supernatural being from this celtic root the name moor is also given to unbaptised children meaning not christian. In Basque, Mairu means moor and and also refers to a mythical people. In Northern Portugal, moura also means "stone".
From the earliest period known to history, Morocco has been inhabited by the Berbers (whence the name Barbary). These people were known to the Romans as Numidae, but to the Phoenicians as Mahurin (Westerners); from the Phoenician name the Greeks, and, after them, Latin writers, made Mauri, whence the English Moors. These Moors, Numidians, or Berbers, were subjugated by the Romans, then by the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Visigoths, and, lastly, the Arabs, whose political and religious conquest began in 681. Arabs and Berbers together crossed over into Spain, and thence into France, where their progress was stopped at Poitiers (732) by Charles Martel. Not until 1492, when Granada fell, were the Christians of the Iberian Peninsula definitively rid of the Moors on European soil, and able to carry the war against them into Africa.
It would not be inaccurate to say that the Moors helped reintroduce Europe to civilization. But just who were the Moors of antiquity anyway? As early as the Middle Ages, and as early as the seventeenth century, "The Moors were," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "commonly supposed to be mostly black or very swarthy, and hence the word is often used for negro." Dr. Chancellor Williams stated that "The original Moors, like the original Egyptians, were Black."
At the beginning of the eighth century Moorish soldiers crossed over from Africa into Spain, Portugal, and France, where their swift victories became the substance of legends. To the Christians of early Europe there was no question regarding the ethnicity of the Moors, and numerous sources support the view that the Moors were a black-skinned people. Morien, for example, is the adventure of a heroic Moorish knight supposed to have lived during the days of King Arthur. Morien is described as "all black: his head, his body, and his hands were all black." In the French epic known as the Song of Roland the Moors are described as "blacker than ink."
William Shakespeare used the word Moor as a synonym for Black. Christopher Marlowe used Black and Moor interchangeably. Arab writers further buttress the Black identity of the Moors. The powerful Moorish emperor Yusuf ben-Tachfin is described by an Arab chronicler as "a brown man with wooly hair."
Fraternally Yours,
Rei Prorsum,(S.O.S)
Societas Orbis et Sceptrum.
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.
Neither Vandal nor Byzantine exercised an effective rule, the interior being under Moorish Berber control. 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.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 Puerto Rico and other Spanish-speaking countries, as in Portuguese speaking Brazil, it can mean "black person" or a "mulatto". 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 the moriscos of Granada. Moro is also used to describe all things dark, as in "Moor", "moreno", etc.. It has been the bases of such European surnames as Moore, Mauro, Moura, and so on.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 celtic root *MRVOS, (gaulish: marvos), meaning dead or supernatural being from this celtic root the name moor is also given to unbaptised children meaning not christian. In Basque, Mairu means moor and and also refers to a mythical people. In Northern Portugal, moura also means "stone".
From the earliest period known to history, Morocco has been inhabited by the Berbers (whence the name Barbary). These people were known to the Romans as Numidae, but to the Phoenicians as Mahurin (Westerners); from the Phoenician name the Greeks, and, after them, Latin writers, made Mauri, whence the English Moors. These Moors, Numidians, or Berbers, were subjugated by the Romans, then by the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Visigoths, and, lastly, the Arabs, whose political and religious conquest began in 681. Arabs and Berbers together crossed over into Spain, and thence into France, where their progress was stopped at Poitiers (732) by Charles Martel. Not until 1492, when Granada fell, were the Christians of the Iberian Peninsula definitively rid of the Moors on European soil, and able to carry the war against them into Africa.
It would not be inaccurate to say that the Moors helped reintroduce Europe to civilization. But just who were the Moors of antiquity anyway? As early as the Middle Ages, and as early as the seventeenth century, "The Moors were," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "commonly supposed to be mostly black or very swarthy, and hence the word is often used for negro." Dr. Chancellor Williams stated that "The original Moors, like the original Egyptians, were Black."
At the beginning of the eighth century Moorish soldiers crossed over from Africa into Spain, Portugal, and France, where their swift victories became the substance of legends. To the Christians of early Europe there was no question regarding the ethnicity of the Moors, and numerous sources support the view that the Moors were a black-skinned people. Morien, for example, is the adventure of a heroic Moorish knight supposed to have lived during the days of King Arthur. Morien is described as "all black: his head, his body, and his hands were all black." In the French epic known as the Song of Roland the Moors are described as "blacker than ink."
William Shakespeare used the word Moor as a synonym for Black. Christopher Marlowe used Black and Moor interchangeably. Arab writers further buttress the Black identity of the Moors. The powerful Moorish emperor Yusuf ben-Tachfin is described by an Arab chronicler as "a brown man with wooly hair."
Fraternally Yours,
Rei Prorsum,(S.O.S)
Societas Orbis et Sceptrum.
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