“In consideration of the Greek and Roman acquaintance with the Negroid type as revealed by the literary evidence, and in view of the use of the word Ethiopian, it is reasonable to assume that a given passage refers to a Negroid type in the following instances: (2) whenever a consideration of the evidence indicates that Afer, Indus, or Maurus is the equivalent of Aethiops; (4) whenever an individual is designated as belonging to one of the several Ethiopian tribes such as Blemmyes, Megabari, Troglodytes, Nubae, et cetera.”
Source: Afer, Indian, and Aethiops are Equivalents of Maurus
Philostratus claimed that “The Indians are the wisest of mankind. The Ethiopians are a colony of them”. Source: Philostratus Vit. Apol. II:33f.
Source: Edmund Dene Morel, pages 141–142
“Black” in the study titled Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500–1677 is thus “Negro,” “Ethiopian,” “Egyptian,” “moor”/“blackamoor,” “barbaree”/“barbaryen,” and “Indian” (including orthographic variations thereof for all of them). The study’s use of the word also includes geographic names by themselves, such as Guyana or Guinea, where for the early modern English they function openly or implicitly as regional identifers of people of color. Anthony Gerard Barthelemy in Black Face, Maligned Race (pp. 1–17), Michael Neill in “‘Mulattoes,’ ‘Blacks,’ and ‘Indian Moors’” (pp. 273–77), and Margo Hendricks in “Surveying Race” (pp. 15–20) all offer useful demonstrations of the propriety of adhering to a taxonomic looseness in tracing sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English constructions of colored people. At the same time, hidden in the vast archives of parish churches within London and without, all through the Tudor and Stuart reigns, are voluminous cryptic citations of “nigro,” “neger,” “neygar,” “blackamore,” “blackamoor,” “moor,” “barbaree,” “barbaryen,” “Ethiopian,” and “Indian.” The discussions of the records are organized in five chapters dealing with records of black people in early sixteenth-century Britain, in Elizabethan London, in seventeenth-century London, and elsewhere in England, with the last two chapters examining records of black people in the English provinces, and East Indians and other people of color in London and in the countryside.”
Source: Black Lives in the English Archives, 1500–1677 Imprints of the Invisible IMTIAZ HABIB
The color of the Indians of the California missions seen by La Peyrouse (Voyage, ii. 197, 212,) “Very nearly approaches that of the Negroes whose hair is not woolly; and in another place, the “colour of these Indians which is that of negroes.” Langsdorf, who visited San Francisco on the coast of California, confirms the observations of La Peyrouse; for he says, (Voyage, 440,) The Indians there, “are of a very dark complexion, approaching to Black; they have large projecting lips, and broad flat, Negro like noses indeed many of their features, as well as their physiognomy, and almost their colour, bear a strong resemblance to the negroes: their hair, however, is long and strait.”
“In another part of America, if reliance can be placed upon the correctness of the relation, a race of blacks were seen at so early a period of our history, that it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that they were aboriginal. Peter Martyr, {2>d Decade, ^j«^e 97,) in describing the journey of Balboa across the Isthmus of Darien, A. D. 1511, gives the following history: “There is a region not above two days’ journey from Quarequa, in which they found only blackamoors; and those exceeding fierce and cruel. “^ The circumstance of finding them there, he attempted to explain, by the conjecture that they were Ethiopians, who had crossed the Atlantic to I’ob the country, and that after having been shipwrecked, they had been compelled by the natives to take refuge in the mountains. But all this is pure guesswork, which we shall not attempt to disprove, for it is not more plausible than the supposition that they were aboriginal.”
“If I am not much mistaken, however, we shall be able to shew, that the relation of Peter Martyr, concerning the blackamoors, as he calls them, seen by Balboa, was substan- tially correct: for we learn from Stevenson, [Travels in South America, ii. 387,) the following singular facts, which we shall quote at length. “The natives of Esmeral- das, Rio Verde, and Atacames,” (Republic of Columbia,) ”
Source: Researches, philosophical and antiquarian, concerning the aboriginal history of America
PORTRAIT OF A MAN FROM STANISLAUS COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
The words Moor*, blackamoor, in the same sense, are much older in E.] I. n. ; pi. negroes (-groz). A black man: specifically, one of a race of men characterized by a black skin and hair of a woolly or crisp nature. Negroes are distinguished from the other races by various other peculiarities — such as the projection of the visage in advance of the forehead ; the prolongation of the upper and lower jaws ; the small facial angle ; the flatness of the forehead and of the hinder part of the head ; the short, broad, and flat nose ; and the thick projecting lips. The negro race is generally regarded as comprehending the native inhabitants of Sudan, Senegambia, and the region southward to the vicinity of the equator and the great lakes, and their descendants in America and elsewhere ; in a wider sense it is used to comprise also many other tribes further south, as the Zulus and Kafirs. The word negro is often loosely applied to other dark or black-skinned races, and to mixed breeds.As designating a “race,” it is sometimes written with a capital. Toward the south of this region Is the kingdom of Guinea, with Senegal, Iaiofo, Gambra, and many other regions of the blacke Moores called Ethiopians or Negros, all which are watered with the river Negro, called in olde tyme Niger R. Eden. See First Three English Books on America [(ed. ArberX p. 374. H. a. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of black men or negroes: as, negro blood; negro dances. It is often asked what Races are Negro, as the meaning of the term is not well defined. . . .The word is not a National appellation, but denotes a physical type, of which the tribes In North Guinea are the representatives. When these characteristics are not all present, the Race is not Negro, though black and woolly-haired. R. N. Oust, Mod. Langs, of Africa, p. 53.
“These translations( More, vide Moro, a blacke Moore; Morisca, a women Moore that is become a Christian; Morisco, a blacke Moore made or become a Christian; Morado color, murrey or iron colour, dark colour; Morel, brown duskish colour; a Moore, v. Moro; a Blacke moore, vide Arabe, Negro; Negrillo, a little blacke Moore, somewhat blacke; Negrito, idem; Negro, blacke Also, a blackMooreofEthiopia; Prieto, or negro, blacke, browne) reveal a great deal of flexibility, in that both moro and negro are equated with “blackmoore” while “blackmoore” is equated with “Arab” as well as morisco and negro, and prieto and negro are equated with “browne” as well as black. In 1617 Minsheu equated Latin maurus with “Niger, black” and in another place stated: “Moore or Neger = a Moore, or one of Mauritanie, a black Moore, ore Neger…vid. a Neger and Black Moore and Ethiopian”.
Source: Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red …By Jack D. Forbes
“Maurus” was synonymous with “Moor,” “negro,” and “Aethiops”. See John Etick’s A new English-Latin dictionary (1783).
“In 1878, his attention as directed to its former presence at the Belvidere Museum by a notice in Baron von Sacken’s descriptive catalog of the Imperial Ambras collection printed in Vienna in 1855, wherein, among rare objects from various parts of the world, it is mentioned as follows: “No. 3—A Mexican head-dress about 3 ft. in height composed of magnificent green feathers studded with small plates of gold. This specimen was termed in the inventory of 1596 ‘a Moorish hat.” Guided by this note, Herr von Hochstetter with the assistance of Dr. Ilg, the custodian of the Ambras collection, found the precious relic and rescued it from an obscure corner of a show-case where it hung, folded together, next to a medieval bishop’s mitre and surrounded by sundry curiosities from North America, China and Sunda Islands. On folio 472 of the ancient document, it is cataloged with other objects in feather-work contained in a chest (No. 9) and is described as a Moorish hat of beautiful, long, lustrous green and gold-hued feathers, bedecked above with white, red and blue feathers and gold rosettes and ornaments. In front, on the forehead, it has a beak of pure gold. The term Moorish, as here applied can scarcely be regarded as a deceptive one inasmuch as “Montezuma, the king of Temistitan and Mexico,” is subsequently designated as “a Moorish king” in this same inventory of 1596. (See p.9) It is interesting to note the gradual changes that occur in the wording of the subsequent periodical official registrations of this “Moorish hat.” In 1613 its description was faithfully reproduced. In 1621 the word “Indian” was substituted for “Moorish:” with this single alteration, the original text was transcribed in 1730. In 1788, however, a remarkable transformation was effected, the hat became “an apron” and the official record reads An Indian apron of long green feathers. It is garnished above with a narrow band of white feathers, followed by a broad one of green, then there is a narrow stripe of red and broad one of blue. The bands are studded with crescents or horseshoes, small circular plates and other than gold pieces. The old inventory designates this object as an Indian hat.” The Inventory of 1596 affords the corrobative proof of a previously existing method of labelling the articles in the Archducal Musuem by the reference (after its brief entry) to ” a slip of paper attached to it,” for further details concerning the history of an Indian axe ” that had belonged to a Moorish king. This weapon belonged to Montezuma II, king of Temistitan and Mexico. It was sent by the Spanish Captain Ferdinand Cortes to the Pope whence it came as a present to Archdule Ferdinand.”
“The strongest evidence of African presence in America before Columbus comes from the pen of Columbus himself. In 1920, a renowned American historian and linguist, Leo Weiner of Harvard University, in his book, Africa and the discovery of America, explained how Columbus noted in his journal that Native Americans had confirmed that “black skinned people had come from the south-east in boats, trading in gold-tipped spears.”
“One of the first documented instances of Africans sailing and settling in the Americas were black Egyptians led by King Ramses III, during the 19th dynasty in 1292 BC. In fact, in 445 BC, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote of the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs’ great seafaring and navigational skills. Further concrete evidence, noted by Dr. Imhotep and largely ignored by Euro-centric archaeologists, includes “Egyptian artifacts found across North America from the Algonquin writings on the East Coast to the artifacts and Egyptian place names in the Grand Canyon.”
“In 1311 AD, another major wave of African exploration to the New World was led by King Abubakari II, the ruler of the fourteenth century Mali Empire, which was larger than the Holy Roman Empire. The king sent out 200 ships of men, and 200 ships of trade material, crops, animals, cloth and crucially African knowledge of astronomy, religion and the arts.”
Source: Before Columbus: How Africans Brought Civilization to America
“On 1he 3d of February 1845, he introduced his resolutions, and spoke in explanation of them; and, on the subject of the boundary, said: “The stupendous deserts between the Nueces and the Bravo rivers are the natural boundaries between the Anglo Saxon and the Mauritanian races. There ends of the valley of the west. There Mexico begins. Thence, beyond the Bravo, begins the Moorish people, and their Indian associates, to whom Mexico properly belongs; who should not cross that vast desert if they could, as we, on our side, too ought to stop there, because interminable conflicts must ensure our going south, or their coming north, of that gigantic boundary.
Source: Speech of Mr. Geo. Ashmun on the Mexican War By George Ashmun
- “We reached a very large island called Sumatra, where pepper grows in considerable quantities. . . . The Chief is a Moor but speaking a different language.”-<-> Santo Stefano, in India in the X Vth Cent.
- “Adì 28 zugno vene in Venetia insieme co Sier Alvixe de Boni un sclav moro el qual portorono i spagnoli da la insula spagniola.” — in Museo Civicoat Venice. Here the term Moor is applied to a native of Hispaniola!Source: Moor Also Applied To Natives of Hispaniola [Haiti and Dominican Republic]
“The several Nations that now offers Brazile, besides its native inhabitants, are Portuguese, English, Hollanders, Germans, and French, which the Brazilians by a general Name call Ajuru-juba; otherwise they call all Strangers Caraiba or Pero. But the commixing of several Nations proceeds the fifth fort, for one that is born of European Parents in Brazile is called Mozombo; of an European Father and Brazilian Mother, Mameluc; of an European Father and a Moor, Mulatto; of a Brasilian and Moor, Curiboca, or Cabocles, of two Negro’s, Criolo.”
Source: AMERICA: LATEST, MOST ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW WORLD ORIGINALS
“This usage outlasted Shakespeare by at least two generations. In a brief narrative of the encounters between the early colonist of New England and the native “Indians,” I find it stated that “…..these unfortunate gentlemen were intercepted by 700 Moors, with whom they fought for the space of four hours, till not only they two, but Capt. Sharp and fifty-one Christians more lay dead upon the place.” And again that “at Woodcock[s[, ten miles from Seconch, on the 16th May, was a little skrimage betwixt the Moors and Christians, wherein there was of the later three slain and two wounded, and only twoIndians kild.” (“News from New-England, 1676, reprinted at Boston and Albany, U.S., 1850 and 1865.)”
Source: Moors Have Always Asserted Their Rights As A Distinct Nationality
“Lempriere gives several nations bearing names beginning with Mor: the Morei or Morienses in India, and the Moruni in that country also, and the Morini, a people of Belgic Gaul, on the shores of the British Ocean, are examples. The Mauri* of Mauritania are perhaps the most notable examples of a nation bearing this name, though in a slightly altered shape. The consideration of this word, and of the localization of races thus named, is not irrelevant at this point. For although it may not be easy to trace their route hither, and the date of their arrival, a branch of this family did inhabit Britain, and are not only known as Mauri and Moors, but also as Moravienses, Morienses (identical with the name of those in India), Murray0men, and people of Moray or Moravia. This name Moravia was given to two districts in Scotland, one of the most important in the north-central, and the other in the southern portion of the country. That the Picts, known to the Romans as Mauri, were finally divided into two sections inhabiting these localities, is a speaking fact which it is well to remember at this juncture. The smaller district in the south has been the name-father of a family distinguished in Scottish history, the Murrays of Philiphaugh in Selkirkshire, whose ancestor, Archibald de Moravia, was among those who subscribed fealty to Edward I. of England, in 1296. One of the estates of this clan bore the significant name of the Black Barony. Of course, the race of Archibald de Moravia many have been that of an intruding army, and not necessarily that of the Moravienses, as he was simply Archibald [lord] of Moravia. “Sir Charles a Murre” who fought at Chevy Chase, of the same clan, shows the name in its modern form or approximately.”
Source: Ancient and Modern Britons: A Retrospect, Volume 1 By David MacRitchie Page 50
Source: Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, from the Papers of …, Volume 2 By Thomas Jefferson
“1. Professor Barry Fell, retired lecturer from Harvard University and also a member of the American Academy of Science and Arts, the Royal Society, the Epigraphy Society and the Society of Scientific and Archeological Discoveries, is adamant about the arrival of Islam in America in the 650s,2 predicating this argument upon the Cufic calligraphy belonging to that era found in various diggings across America. If the words of Professor Fell have truth-value, then the Muslims had arrived in America during the era of Uthman, or at least that of Ali, the fourth caliph.” “Professor Fell again uses the results of various archeological diggings undertaken across many regions in the states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Indiana to assert the construction of Muslim schools during 700-800 CE. Writings, drawings, and charts inscribed on rocks discovered in the most remote and untainted terrains of Western America are relics bestowed by the elementary and intermediate systems of Muslim education at the time. These documents were written in the old Cufic letters of North African Arabic, covering subjects such as reading, writing, arithmetic, religion, history, geography, mathematics, astronomy, and navigation. The descendants of these settlers are thought to be the current native tribes of Iroquois, Algonquin, Anasazi, Hohokam, and Olmec.”
“7. Picture 8 shows a piece of rock discovered in a cave in the region of Corinto in El Salvador, bearing the inscription Malaka Haji mi Malaya; this has been identified as belonging to the thirteenth century, suggesting a possible arrival of Muslims in South America, perhaps coming from somewhere near Indonesia.”
“8. During his second voyage, Columbus was told by the natives of Espanola (Haiti) of black men who had appeared on the island before him and they showed him the lances that had been left there by these Africans to support their assertions. The tips of the lances were of a metal, an alloy of gold, which they called guanin, a word which is semantically remarkably similar to the Arabic word ghina, meaning richness. Columbus had in fact brought some of this guanin back to Spain, recording that it was composed of 56.25% gold, 18.75% silver and 25% copper, ratios that were prevalent in African Guinea as standards for the processing of metals.”
“9. On his third voyage to the New World, Columbus visited Trinidad, where the sailors noticed the symmetrically patterned cotton and colorful handkerchiefs of the natives. Afterward, Columbus realized that the handkerchiefs, which the natives called almayzar, were all much the same in color, style, and use as the headscarves and waist bands used in Guinea. The word almayzar is Arabic, and denotes a cover, tie, apron, or skirt, and is a component of the regional costumes of the Moors, Arabs and, Berbers of North Africa, who had conquered Spain in the eighth century. Columbus observed that the local women wore cotton garments and wrote in astonishment that they had learned of the concept namus, i.e. chastity. In much the same vein, Hernan Cortes, another Spanish explorer, later recorded that the clothing of local women consisted of long veils and skirts decorated with ornaments that were similar to those of the Moors. Ferdinand, Columbus’ son, was also quick to notice the resemblance between the cotton dresses of the natives and the ornamented shawls fashioned by Moorish women in Granada. The cradles used by the natives, furthermore, very closely resembled those of North Africa.”
“10. Columbus recorded on 21 October 1492 that he had noticed a mosque on top of a mountain while sailing around Cibara on the northeast coast of Cuba. Relics of mosques carrying Qur’anic inscriptions on their minarets have been found in Cuba, Mexico, Texas, and Nevada since these times.”
“11. Leo Weiner, a well-known Harvard historian and linguist, stated in his book The Discovery of Africa and America, written in 1920, that Columbus was aware of the existence of Mandinka, an ethnic group of West Africa, in the New World. The same book also affirms that Columbus was aware that West African Muslims were living across North America, including the south, middle regions and Canada, as well as in the Caribbean, and that they had marital and commercial ties with the native tribes of Iroque and Algonquin.”
“12. A preponderance of the voyages embarked upon by Columbus and other Spanish and Portuguese explorers toward the other side of the Atlantic were undertaken only in the light of the geographical and navigational knowledge prepared by Muslims. Al-Masudi’s (871-957 CE) work Muruj’uz-Zahab, for instance, was written with this sort of data compiled by Muslim traders from across Africa and Asia. Two of Columbus’ captains on the first voyage, in actual fact, were Muslims: Martin Alonso Pinzon was in charge of the Pinta, while his brother Vicente Yanez Pinzon was the designated captain of Nina; both were from the Moroccan Marinid dynasty, descendants of Sultan Abu Zayan Muhammad III (r. 1362-1366). Formerly well-to-do ship riggers, they assisted Columbus in organizing his voyage of exploration, preparing the Santa Maria, the flagship, and covering all its expenses.”
“13. Christopher Columbus has recorded the custom of nose piercing, which used to be and still popular in the Middle Eastern and Arab countries, as being prevalent in some islands across the Atlantic also mentions the writing of letters in Arabic.”
“14. In the account of sixteenth century missionaries in America, the local copper mines, found particularly in Virginia, Tennessee, and Wisconsin were not operated by the natives, but instead by people from the Middle East, towards whom the natives nurtured a profound sympathy.”
“15. A sum of 565 names, 484 in America and 81 in Canada, of villages, towns, cities, mountains, lakes, rivers and etcetera, are etymologically Arabic, designated by locals long before the arrival of Columbus. Many of these names are in fact the same as names of Islamic places; Mecca in Indiana, Medina in Idaho, Medina in New York, Medina and Hazen in North Dakota, Medina in Ohio, Medina in Tennessee, Medina in Texas, Medina and Arva in Ontario, Mahomet in Illinois and Mona in Utah, are just a few noticeable names at the outset. A closer analysis of the names of native tribes will immediately reveal their Arabic etymological ancestry; Anasazi, Apache, Arawak, Arikana, Chavin, Cherokee, Cree, Hohokam, Hupa, Hopi, Makkah, Mohician, Mohawk, Nazca, Zulu, and Zuni are only a few.”
“Arabic words prevalent among natives prior to the arrival of Europeans The pervasiveness of many Islamic words across the continent prior to European influx is verified by the following terms discovered in the regions currently known as New England and Nova Scotia, in America and Canada respectively. Fell pointed to some words as example of Arabic influence on Native Americans. All of the words listed below are derived from the Arabic language. However, time had eroded their original meanings, and most are not used in Arabic today.”
“The last Muslim stronghold in Spain, Granada, fell just before the Spanish Inquisition was established in 1492. Non-Christians were forced to either convert to Catholicism to save themselves from the tyranny of the Inquisition or were exiled from the country. Documents exist which prove the existence of immigrant Muslims in Spanish America before 1550. In 1539 an edict from Spanish King Charles V was put into practice which forbade the immigration of Muslims to settlements in the West. This edict was later expanded to expel all Muslims from overseas Spanish colonies in 1543. The existence of Muslims in overseas islands and regions was known along with the fact that the Spanish king issued such an edict. Again, in many Islamic sources, it is noted that Muslims living in Spain and North Africa made overseas voyages during the Andalusia period. Scientific research on this subject will bring out many documents into the daylight, documents which have escaped the notice of both Muslims in America and those throughout the world, which will perhaps serve, in the future if not immediately, as a starting point for a re-evaluation of the history of America.”
