Moors From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Depiction of Muslims in Iberia. Taken from the Tale of Bayad and Riyad The Moors were the medieval Muslim inhabitants of Morocco, western Algeria, Western Sahara, Mauritania, the Iberian Peninsula, Septimania, Sicily and Malta.[citation needed] The Moors called their Iberian territory Al-Andalus, an area comprising Gibraltar, most of Spain and Portugal, and part of France. There was also a Moorish presence in present-day southern Italy after they occupied Mazara in 827[1] until their last settlement of Lucera was destroyed in 1300. The religious difference of the Moorish Muslims led to a centuries-long conflict with the Christian kingdoms of Europe called the Reconquista. The Fall of Granada in 1492 saw the end of the Muslim rule in Iberia. Depiction of three Moorish knights found on Alhambras Ladies Tower Castillian ambassadors attempting to convince Almohad king Abu Hafs Umar al-Murtada to join their alliance (contemporary depiction from The Cantigas de Santa Maria) The term Moors has also been used in Europe in a broader sense to refer to Muslims, especially those of Arab or African descent, whether living in Spain or North Africa. During the colonial years the Dutch introduced the name Moor, in Sri Lanka. The Bengali Muslims were called Moor. [2] Moors are not a distinct or self-defined people. Medieval and early modern Europeans applied the name to the Berbers, North African Arabs, Muslim Iberians[3] and West Africans from Mali and Niger who had been absorbed into the Almoravid dynasty.[4] The Moors of al-Andalus of the late Medieval after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the early 8th century were initially Arabs and Berbers but later came to include people of mix heritage, and Iberian Christian converts to Islam, known by the Arabs as Muwalladun or Muladi.[5] The maximum extent of Berber-Arab rule stretched as far as modern-day France and much of southern Europe, Mauritania, West African countries, and the Senegal River. Earlier, the Classical Romans interacted with (and later conquered) parts of Mauretania, a state that covered northern portions of modern Morocco and much of north western and central Algeria during the classical period. The people of the region were noted in Classical literature as the Mauri. Today such groups inhabit Mauritania and parts of Algeria, Western Sahara, Morocco, Niger and Mali.[6] In the languages of Europe, a number of associated ethnic groups have been historically designated as Moors. In modern Iberian Peninsula, Moor is sometimes colloquially applied to any person from North Africa, but some people consider this usage of the term pejorative, whether in the Spanish version moro, or in the Portuguese version mouro.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 18:54:37 +0000
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