Tag: Britain

Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period By Boyd Dawkins

“In Scotland the small dark Highlander, and in Ireland the black Celts to the west of the Shannon, still preserve the Iberian characteristics in more or less purity, crossed with Celtic, Danish, Norse, and English blood ). From this outline of evidence of history and ethnology it will be seen that the Iberic tribes occupied an important position in Europe in ancient times, and are still amply represented in the present population. When we consider the many invasions of strangers, and the oscillations to and fro of different peoples, it is impossible not to realize the strange persistence of the race.” (p. 331)

“The Iberic Element in the present Populations of Spain. The physical characters of the races defined in the preceding pages are still possessed by the present inhabitants of Spain, France, and Britain. The Iberic element in the population of Spain has mainly contributed to the long headedness of the modern Spaniard, although the character may be partially derived from Gothic and Moorish invaders. The Basques on the north-west, protected from attack by their inaccessible country, have preserved the race-characters, as might be expected, in their greatest purity. With regard to the rest of the peninsula, sufficiently accurate observations have not yet been made to justify any conclusions as to the exact areas now occupied by the descendants of Iberian aborigines and Celtic invaders.”

“The problem is rendered almost hopeless from the great changes which must have resulted from the conquest of the Goths and Moors, for if the former contributed their fair or “xanthocroic” characters to the modern Spaniard, it is no less certain that the latter have equally handed down to him their dark complexions and lithe active forms. I do not know that any important physical difference has been observed between the Moor and the Iberian; and it is very probably that the two are closely allied together, and connected with the Berbers of northern Africa, considered by Professor Busk to belong to the same stock as the Iberians.”

Source: Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period By Boyd Dawkins

15th Century Moorish-English Relations

Laamiri contends that for Rogers, the first official contact between Great Britain and The Empire of Morocco goes back to 1213 when King John of England dispatched an Embassy to sultan Mohamed Ennassir, Morocco’s fourth Almohad ruler (1199-1213), asking for an alliance against France and support against his enemies within Britain with the promise that he would embrace Islam. The details of this embassy, according to Rogers, were recorded by Mathew Paris and later published and kept at Saint Alban Abbey. Rogers made of this mission the subject of the whole first chapter of his History and gave many details of the encounter between Ennassir and King John’s two envoys [Thomas Hardington and Mathew Fitz-Nicholas] to the court of Morocco. The first Moroccan Ambassador to London, Kaid Jaudar ben Abdallah, was sent by Mohamed Ech-Cheikh to King Charles I with a message of peace and friendship in 1637. It appears Abdallah left a good impression in London.See P. G. Rogers, A History of Anglo-Moroccan Relations to 1900, pp.1-5. Citing Moroccan British Relations A Survey by Mohammed Laamiri

“The King published an account of him shortly after his reception describing him (Abdallah) as having “an innate inclination to anything that is noble”, and also as “courteous, bountiful (sic), charitable, valiant, “and for “humanity, morality and generosity hee (sic) is a most accomplish’d gentleman” [quoted by Rogers op.cit; pp34-35] In 1661, the King of Portugal gave Tangier to King Charles II of England as part of a marriage dowry. On 29 January 1662, 3000 English soldiers arrived in Tangier Bay under the Earl of Peterborough; British-Moroccan relations lived a period of tensions during the English occupation of Tangier from 1662 to 1684. When Moulay Ismail became Sultan, Tangier had been a British colony for 10 years and the Moroccan-British relations were already marred by the thorny question of British captives in Morocco. This period knew a dynamic and sometimes tense diplomatic activity between the two countries. Moroccan forces under Moulay Ismail made life so difficult for the garrison that the English decided to abandon Tangier in 1684.” Citing Moroccan British Relations A Survey by Mohammed Laamiri

“Kaid Mohamed ben Haddu Ottur [El-Attar], Moulay Ismail’s famous emissary and Morocco’s second ambassador to England arrived to London in December 1681 and was received by King Charles II on 11 January 1682. Ben Haddu impressed Londoners by his exotic dress and his horsemanship; this event was immortalized by a famous painting of the Moroccan Ambassador on his horse in Hyde Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller. In fact, the first publication in a European language fully devoted to Morocco was Leo Africanus’ Description of Africa published in Latin in 1526 and translated into English in 1600 See Leo Africanus, A geographical historie of Africa… Translated From Latin by John Pory, London, Georg Bishop, 1600. The text became a classic and the main reference for British travelers to Morocco for the following three centuries.” Source: Moroccan British Relations A Survey by Mohammed Laamiri

Certainly, there were periods of tension but there were much of the time long periods of mutual respect, friendship, alliances, and cooperation. Despite occasional disagreements and misunderstandings, mutual interests and alliances against their common enemies brought the two countries to close cooperation and the signing of many peace and trade treaties. Throughout the shared history between Morocco and Britain, many peace treaties were signed and British ambassadors encouraged the Moroccan Makhzen to make deep reforms to its old territory administration and trade policies especially by opening its frontiers to European commercial exchange and by the modernizing of its governance methods. (Ambassadors Kirby Green and Charles Ewan Smith worked hard to that effect.)

Source: Moroccan British Relations A Survey by Mohammed Laamiri

1199 1213 1662 1684 Britain England English Moorish Moors Morocco tangier Treaties

Islam in Britain, 1558-1685

The “Turks ad Moors” of North Africa and the rest of the Ottoman dominions were spreading alarm in England, Wales and elsewhere in the British Isles, especially among fisherman, sailors, traders ad the Levant Company’s representatives in Parliament. From Minehead to Dartmouth, from Bristol to Portsmouth, and from Thames where a Turkish ship was captured in 1517 to Severn into which the Turks penetrated in September 1624 and to the Isle of Lundy, their impact was felt. The news about the Turks incursions, wrote Sir Nicholas Slaning to Sir Francis Vane in September 1635, “terrifies the country.”

There was so much concern about the Turkish attacks and about the fate of English captives that in December 1640, a Committee for Algiers was appointed by Parliament whose main takes was to oversee the ransoming of English captives. Members of the Committee included a cross-section of English military, ecclesiastical and parliamentary authority: there was the Lord Admiral of the Fleet, the Bishops of London, Winchester and Rochester, and Members of Parliament chiefly (but not exclusively) from coastal arrest both in the west as well as the east of the realm.

In 1641, “An Act of reliefe of the Captives take by Turkish Moorish and other Pirates” was passed (16 Car I. c. 24), and in the next few years, further measures were take by Parliament: “Ordinance for Collection to be made for relief of Captives in Algiers” (April 25, 1643): “An Ordinance for the raising of Moneys for the Redemption of distressed Captives” (January 28, 1645): and on November 12, 1646, “An Ordinance for the Continuing of the Argier Duty, for the Releasing of distressed Captives, taken by Turkish, Moorish, and other Pirates, was this Day read the First and Second time.

Throughout the 1640s, the House of Commons had to address the problem of captives and their ransoms. Even foreign refugees were given permission to collect money in England for the redemption of their kin from Muslim slavery. To many Britons, the Muslims posed a danger to all of Christendom, from Greece to England and from “Muscovy” to Ireland. During the Commonwealth and the Restoration periods, the English navy became powerful enough to force peace treaties on the Barbary Corsairs.

Still, captives continued to be taken by the Muslims: in February 1662, 300 slaves in Algiers petitioned the King for help, and three years later, the wives and families of eighty catives there petitioned him, in 1668, a patent authorized a “collection to be made in all churches and chapels for two years, for redemption of English subjects, captives in miserable slavery in Algiers, Sally, and other parts of the Turkish dominions……..

Indeed, Edward Kellet insisted in 1628 that many Englishmen converted to Islam after yielding to Muslim “allurements, rather than to their violence,” to the “baites and allurements of immunitie present, and prosperity promised,” to “their alluring Promises.” Christians, agreed Paul Rycaut, turned to Islam because of its attractions: “the imaginary honour ad privilege of a Turk” directed an “abundance of Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and all Nations” to Islam. Others converted to Islam because the preferred it to their own religion. Many a Christian, wrote the author of The Policy, “is by his own choice and voluntaire motion….circumcised” and this, he noted, happened “often”. A century later, Joseph Pitts confirmed that such conversion was still taking place” “Many there are that do so turn [to Islam] out of Choice, without any Terror or Severity shewn them. Both Pitts and other writers used “voluntary” to described Christian conversion to Islam: Blount referred to the “voluntary Renegadoes” and so to did John Rawlins and Barhtolomeus Georgievits.

In the treaty between England and Tripoli in 1676, Sir John Narborough, who negotiated on behalf of King Charles II, included the following article: That no Subject of the King of Great Britain, & c. shall be permitted to turn Turk or Moor in the City and Kingdom of Tripoli, being inducted thereunto by any surprizal whatsoever, unless he voluntarily appear before the Dey or Governor with the English Consuls Druggerman three times in twenty four hours space, and every time declare his resolution to turn Turk or Moor. Conversion to Islam had been so easy that it was necessary for Narborough to make it hard on his compatriots.

Source: Islam in Britain, 1558-1685 Nabil Matar Cambridge University Press, Jan 7, 2008 – Religion

Britain Christianity English Islam Moors Turks

The First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge

Andrew Borde’s The First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge (1547) describes the customs and manners of various nations, from the English and their neighbors to the Moors, the Turks, the Egyptians, and the Jews. Borde was a doctor and the author of books on medicine and on astronomy, and it seems the Introduction of Knowledge (written 1542, published 1547) was intended to focus mainly on physic, but only the first book, on the peoples of Europe and the Mediterranean, saw the light. For each nation Borde provides a satirical description in verse and a few phrases in the local language. The first woodcut in the book shows an Englishman standing naked and holding tailor’s scissors, trying to decide which new fashion to follow: “I am an English man, and naked I stand here / Musing in my mind what raiment I shall wear. . . .” In the verses that follow England is praised for its power and wealth, while the people’s inconstancy is condemned: I do fear no man, all men feareth me; I overcome my adversaries by land and by sea; I had no peer, if to myself I were true;Because I am not so, divers times do I rue. Yet I lack nothing, I have all things at will; If I were wise, and would hold myself still, And meddle with no matters not to me pertaining, But ever to be true to God and my king. The Royal Collection Trust – art history early modern art medieval England 1700s bust of a Moor. (Picture to the Left)

The passage below describes the Moors. Although the English in the sixteenth century most often associated black with ugliness and evil, such associations could be challenged or surprisingly reversed, as in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 127 (NAEL 8, 1.1073), “In the old age black was not counted fair.” [The Moors Which Do Dwell in Barbary] I am a black Moor born in Barbary; Christian men for money oft doth me buy. “

“If I be unchristened, merchants do not care, They buy me in markets, be I never so bare. Yet will I be a good diligent slave, Although I do stand in stead of a knave. I do gather figs, and with some I wipe my tail: To be angry with me, what shall it avail? Barbary is a great country, and plentiful of fruit, wine, and corn. The inhabitors be called the Moors. There be white Moors and black Moors. They be infidels and unchristened. There be many Moors brought into Christendom, into great cities and towns, to be sold. And Christian men do buy them, and they will be diligent, and will do all manner of service. But they be set most commonly to vile things. They be called slaves. They do gather grapes and figs, and with some of the figs they will wipe their tail, and put them in the frail. >> note 2 They have great lips, and knotted hair, black and curled. Their skin is soft, and there is nothing white but their teeth and the white of the eye. When a merchant or any other man do buy them, they be not all of one price, for some be better cheap than some; they be sold after as they can work and do their business. When they do die, they be cast into the water, or on a dunghill, that dogs and pies >> note 3 and crows may eat them, except some of them that be christened: they be buried. They do keep much of Mohammed’s law, as the Turks do. They have now a great captain called Barbarossa >> note 4 which is a great warrior. They doth harm, divers times, to the Genoese, and to Provence and Languedoc, and other countries that do border on them, and for they will come over the straits, steal pigs, and geese, and other things. Whoso will speak any Moorish, >> note 5 English and Moorish doth follow.

One. two. three. four. five. six. seven.
Wada. attennin. talate. orba. camata. sette. saba.
eight. nine. ten. eleven. twelve. thirteen.
camene. tessa. asshera. habasshe. atanasshe. telatasshe.
fourteen. fifteen. sixteen. seventeen.
arbatasshe. camatasshe. setatasshe. sabatashe.
eighteen. nineteen. twenty. one and twenty, etc.
tematasshe. tyssatasshe. essherte. wahadaessherte, etc.

Good morrow.
Sabaskyr.
Give me some bread and milk and cheese.
Atteyne gobbis, leben, iuben.
Give me wine, water, flesh, fish, and eggs.
Atteyne nebet, moy, laghe, semek, beyet.
Much good do it you.
Sahagh.
You be welcome.
Marrehababack.
I thank you.
Erthar lake heracke.
Good night.
Mesalkyr.

Read Moor: The First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge

African Black Blackamoors Britain England Great Moorish Moors Moroccan

Moorish Origin Of The Red, Black And Green Pan Afro-American Liberation Flag

As you view this Blog and the Source to the Black Power Flag aka RBG Flag, notice it was piggy backed from the BRG Flags of the Mahdi of the eastern Sudan, Africa. Yes, sir I say “eastern” because the Sudan also extended to West Africa where a majority of African Americans have ancestry. From the Negroes proper of the Sudan have descended most American Negroes, according to the U.S. Immigration Commission Dictionary of Races or Peoples Right now in response to the parading of LGTB community Flag many African Americans in response have posted up the Black, Red and Green Flag as a symbol representing Black Liberation and the call to Freedom liberty and justice. Ultimately un-aware that it derives from the Sudanese Moors.

Before Garvey and Pan Africanism The Red Black and Green Flew in Islamic Sudan, by the Mahdi G.W. Stevens in his With Kitchener to Khartoum refers to a few Mahdist flags. At the battle of Omdurman, he mentions the “black banner of the Kahlifa’s brother” and the “blue and white banners of his son”. Khalifa Abduallah el Taashi was successor to the Mahdi. War artist H.C. Seppings Wright (who was at the battle of Ombdurman, I think) has done a painting of the aftermath of the massacre in which the dead Mahdists are still holding upright the Kahlifa’s black flag. T.F. Mills, 06 Aug 1996 I have a copy of a letter dated 11 September 1952 from the Sudan Government Civil Secretary’s Office, Public Relations Branch to Dr Ottried Neubecker with a drawing of the Mahdists’ flag hoisted over the party headquarters.

The standard version of the flag is a horizontal black-red-green tricolour with a white crescent (pointing upward) and spear overall in the center. Another version had the crescent and spear in the black stripe at the fly. Mark Sensen, 06 Aug 1996 “Le Quotidien du Pharmacien”, 20 February 2006, has a report entitled “Dans le nord du Soudan – Sur les traces des pharaons noirs” (In the north of Sudan – On the steps of the black pharaohs”. The report ends with a quote from a traveler from the XIIIth century (therefore long after the pharaohs!)

Not many African Americans know that because they are mostly educated by Christians or Pan Africanist who withold the history of their Islamic Heritage. For example, most have never heard of Pan Africanism’s Father Edward Blyden and wrongly assume that Marcus Garvey is the father of Pan Africanism, this is no mistake and its by design because many Pan Afriacnist know that the father of Pan Africanism was a Muslim, that’s right Edward Blyden converted to Islam after coming up with Pan Africanism and he found Islam to be better for the African American and African people in general.

Yes that’s right American Black Man and Woman the Black Red and Green flag you inherited originates not with Garvey, Pan Africanism originates not with Garvey, much respect to Garvey for his works, but the Flag bearing the Black, Red and Green originates with the Moors, first flow in the battles led by Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah (Arabic: محمد أحمد ابن عبد الله) (August 12, 1844 – June 22, 1885) was a leader of the Samaniyya order in Sudan who, on June 29, 1881, proclaimed himself the Mahdi (or Madhi), the messianic redeemer of the Islamic faith. More broadly, the Mahdiyya, as Muhammad Ahmad’s movement was called, was influenced by earlier Mahdist movements in West Africa. From his announcement of the Mahdiyya in June 1881 until the fall of Khartoum in January 1885, Muhammad Ahmad led asuccessful military campaign against the Turco-Egyptian government of the Sudan (known as the Turkiyah).

During this period, many of the theological and political doctrines of the Mahdiyya were established and promulgated among the growing ranks of the Mahdi’s supporters, the Ansars. A siege by the Mahdist forces started on 18 March 1884. The British had decided to abandon the Sudan, but it was clear that Gordon had other plans, and the public increasingly called for a relief expedition. It was not until August that the government decided to take steps to relieve Gordon, and only by November was the British relief force, called the Nile Expedition, or, more popularly, the Khartoum Relief Expedition or Gordon Relief Expedition (a title that Gordon strongly deprecated), under the command of Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, ready.

A siege by the Mahdist forces started on 18 March 1884. The British had decided to abandon the Sudan, but it was clear that Gordon had other plans, and the public increasingly called for a relief expedition. It was not until August that the government decided to take steps to relieve Gordon, and only by November was the British relief force, called the Nile Expedition, or, more popularly, the Khartoum Relief Expedition or Gordon Relief Expedition (a title that Gordon strongly deprecated), under the command of Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, ready.

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