| Revision as of 02:58, 3 July 2004 view sourceMustafaa (talk | contribs)14,180 edits actually - everything in this article was true, but a lot of it did not belong here. "Moor" is too vague an appellation to be the article where half of Spanish history is placed.← Previous edit | Revision as of 03:31, 3 July 2004 view source Mustafaa (talk | contribs)14,180 edits note on yet another vague usage of the termNext edit → | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| '''Moors''' is a |
'''Moors''' is a vague term often used in English to describe the medieval Muslim inhabitants of the ] and ]. Their culture is similarly often called "Moorish". | ||
| The name derives from the ancient ] tribe of the ] and their kingdom, ], which became a ] province after its last king ] willed it to ] in ]. Mauretania lay in present day ] and Western ]. The name of ''Mauri'' was applied by the Romans to all non-romanized natives of North Africa still ruled by their own chiefs, until the ] AD. | The name derives from the ancient ] tribe of the ] and their kingdom, ], which became a ] province after its last king ] willed it to ] in ]. Mauretania lay in present day ] and Western ]. The name of ''Mauri'' was applied by the Romans to all non-romanized natives of North Africa still ruled by their own chiefs, until the ] AD. | ||
| Line 6: | Line 6: | ||
| In Spanish usage, "Moro" (Moor) came to have an even broader usage, to mean "Muslims" in general (just as "Rumi", Roman, came to mean "Christian" in many Arabic dialects); thus the ]s of ] in the ], and the ]s of ]. | In Spanish usage, "Moro" (Moor) came to have an even broader usage, to mean "Muslims" in general (just as "Rumi", Roman, came to mean "Christian" in many Arabic dialects); thus the ]s of ] in the ], and the ]s of ]. | ||
| Until the early twentieth century, "Moor" was often used by Western geographers to refer to "mixed" ]-] North Africans, especially of the towns, as distinct from supposedly more pure-blooded Arabs and Berbers; thus the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica defines "Moor" as "the name which, as at present used, is loosely applied to any native of Morocco, but in its stricter sense only to the townsmen of mixed descent. In this sense it is also used of the Mahommedan townsmen in the other Barbary states." But even then, it recognized that "the term Moors has no real ethnological value." | |||
| See also: ], ], ] | See also: ], ], ] | ||
Revision as of 03:31, 3 July 2004
Moors is a vague term often used in English to describe the medieval Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb and al-Andalus. Their culture is similarly often called "Moorish".
The name derives from the ancient Berber tribe of the Mauri and their kingdom, Mauretania, which became a Roman province after its last king Bocchus II willed it to Octavian in 33 BCE. Mauretania lay in present day Morocco and Western Algeria. The name of Mauri was applied by the Romans to all non-romanized natives of North Africa still ruled by their own chiefs, until the 3rd century AD.
After the Maghreb came under Muslim rule, the term was transferred in European usage to refer to any non-Christian inhabitants of the area; and after North African Muslims conquered Spain, it came to refer equally to Muslims in Spain. Since North Africans were darker-skinned than Europeans (although not black), 'Moor' eventually came to be applied indiscriminately by English speakers to blacks, Muslims, Saracens, Persians, or Indians. Shakespeare's Othello was 'the Moor of Venice.' During the 17th century, Africans were sometimes distinguished from others as blackamoors.
In Spanish usage, "Moro" (Moor) came to have an even broader usage, to mean "Muslims" in general (just as "Rumi", Roman, came to mean "Christian" in many Arabic dialects); thus the Moros of Mindanao in the Philippines, and the Moriscos of Granada.
Until the early twentieth century, "Moor" was often used by Western geographers to refer to "mixed" Arab-Berber North Africans, especially of the towns, as distinct from supposedly more pure-blooded Arabs and Berbers; thus the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica defines "Moor" as "the name which, as at present used, is loosely applied to any native of Morocco, but in its stricter sense only to the townsmen of mixed descent. In this sense it is also used of the Mahommedan townsmen in the other Barbary states." But even then, it recognized that "the term Moors has no real ethnological value."
See also: Islamic architecture, Othello, the Moor of Venice, Blackamoor
Not to be confused with moor land.
Category: