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.