“In this connection on account of the Jews of Waregla, given by Mr. Tristram in his recently published travels in the Sahara, is deserving mention. Waregla is an oasis in the desert, about north lat. 32 degrees, inhabited by a race believed by Mr. Tristam to be deeply stained with negro blood. The Jews have been settled there for ages.”
“They afford,” says he, “an interesting example of the effect of climate, which, in the course of generations, seems to have produced the dark colouring pigment. They were almost as black as negroes, much darker than their brethren of the M’zab and Wed R’hir; yet there was not the slightest trace of the negro features: all the lineaments were as distinctively Jewish as in any clothes-dealer in Houndsditch.”
“They were as dark as the black Jews of Abyssinia, whom I have seen in Jerusalem, but the hair, without being woolly, was grizzled and matteed. The Jews of Ghardaia, in the Wed M’zab, are also stated to be very dark, dark as Hindoos, but “with features intensely Jewish. On the other hand, Mr. Tristram found in and near Tuggurt a sept of Mussulmans, who never intermarry with the others, and who are very fair, with strongly marked Jewish features.”
“They are called Mahadjeriah and are said to be of the earliest date of settlement, who submitted to the Koran several centuries ago. Mr. Ginsberg (Jewish Intelligence, No. 308), who also met with these Hebrew Moslems, says that the characteristic signs of the Jewish face are very recognizable; and that in spite of the influence of climate, the Jew retains his white complexion, and forms a striking contrast to the native Arabs, and even Moors. “
“Those that remained in North Africa retained their black complexion although they had mixed with the incoming foreign peoples losing their Negroid features in some cases. Of course, it’s been interpreted as the other way around when in fact early Arab observers said they had become mixed with other non-African groups and were great proselytizers.”
Moor, 1) Muslim of North Africa. Although often assumed to be a black race, in fact, the Moors were of Berber and Arab descent, mixed with considerable Negroid and Iberian blood. The word probably derives from Mauri, L. by way of Gr. for ‘dark men.’ Their native lands constituted parts of Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania. One theory is that the name originally derives from Berber Amazigh, ‘freemen,’ referring to their nomadic existence, and in Greek times came to mean anyone with dark skin. By the Middle Ages the term came to be applied to any Muslims (similarly, all Europeans were called Franks in the Mohammadean world). Since Moors were thought of as being dark skinned, the word was also used generally to apply to blacks, although light-skinned Moors were well known. The word ‘blackamoor’ was also common, which implies a distinction from lighter-skinned Moors.
In any case, attitudes to race were much different then because there had been so little direct contact between the population of England and the ‘exotic races. There was also no long history of the disgusting racist theories which still burden the modern world. There were celebrity Moors in London, but the overall awareness would be of a faraway people, who to a greater or lesser degree were allied with the enemies of Christendom. After their early history (see Mauritania), the Moors were overrun by the Arabs in the 7th c., who replaced their religion and language and formed a dynamic culture. In the 8th c. the Moors defeated the Visigoths and conquered Spain.
Their attempt to move north into France was turned back by Charles Martel in 732, though they conquered Sicily in 827. Gradually the Christian reconquest drove them back until the only Moorish stronghold in Spain, Granada, fell in 1492.“The Iberian Moors, who had considerably intermarried, returned to Africa where they were known as Andalusians, and scattered over the enormous range of the Moors, from the Mediterranean to the Senegal river, and from the Atlantic to Timbuktu.”
“Ever since the Andalusians had turned on alMutawakkil, however, al-Mansur had held them in suspicious respect, even going so far as to have a spy monitor them at the Battle of Wadi al-Makazin. After having their leader, al-Dughali, disposed of he retained substantial Andalusian troops, but drew his senior commanders from the ranks of the renegados, who commanded what was essentially a standing professional army of twenty-six thousand troops, with another twenty-five thousand scattered throughout the country. Smith, Ahmad al-Mansur, 52. This of course changed over time. By 1602, according to Weston F. Cook, something resembling a standing national army consisted of some fifty thousand men under al-Mansur’s direct command stationed around Marrakech. Discrete units made up of Turks, Algerians, and Andalusians remained, with commanders drawn from their ranks and well as from those of renegados. Most of the cavalry were Moroccans organized by region or as jaysh tribes. By the end of his reign al-Mansur had also introduced black Sudanese slaves to the army. Cook, The Hundred Years War, 261.”
There is “no reason” to believe that the people who called themselves “Mauri” assumed their native name from foreigners (“Europeans, Romans nor Greeks“) as many “Black American” or “African American” laymen have proposed, and whom I find to largely rely on the common reference to the “Greek” and “Roman” languages. “After all, North Africa, then called Mauretania, and Spain both had been provinces of the Roman Empire, and, as such they had traded with one another for centuries.” Source: (p. 38) The Knights Templar of the Middle East The Hidden History of the Islamic Origins of Freemasonry by HRF Prince Michael of Albany and Walid Amine Salhab.
Ancient Mauritania Spans from North Africa to the Coast of Guinea in Nigeria
Moor: [Maurus, Latin.] A negro; a black-a-moor. “I shall answer that better than you can the getting up of the negro’s belly; the moor is with child by you. Shakespeare.” As late as 1398 we find the following reference to the ‘Moors’: “Also the nacyn (nation) of Maurys (Moors) theyr blacke colour comyth of the inner partes.”
“The Heads of a Moor, or Blackamoor, and a Saracen, are wreathed about the temples with a fillet of twisted silk, the Tincture or Tinctures of which must be mentioned. ”
Map By Girolamo Ruscelli Mauritania Nuova Tavola [North Africa and West Africa] Girolamo Ruscelli Place/Date: Venice / 1562Mohr Name Meaning
“North German: topographic name for someone who lived in a fen, Middle Low German mor. German and Dutch: nickname for a man of swarthy complexion, from Middle High German mor, Middle Dutch mo(e)r ‘Moor’. German: from a short form of an old personal name, Morhart (see Morath).”
“English: variant spelling of Moores. Dutch: nickname for a man of swarthy complexion or ethnic name for a North African, from moor ‘Moor’ (see Moore 2). Dutch: patronymic from a short form of the Latin personal name Mauritius (see Morris 1).”
“During Germany’s colonial expansion, the street served as a place for parades by African delegates, such as representatives from the Brandenburg colony Grossfriedrichsburg, now a part of Ghana. To this day, the street is called Mohrenstrabe and is even the name for one subway station, Ulrich van der Heyden, “Die Mohrenstrasse,” in Kolonialmetropole Berlin: Eine Spurensuche ed.”
“The word ‘Moor’ is a loose term that was used in Medieval and Renaissance England to refer to the ‘Moors’, ‘blackmoors’, ‘Negroes’, ‘Indians’, ‘Mahometans’ or ‘Muslims’. All these terms were more often than not used interchangeably. This study is concerned with the Moor from North Africa.” “The words “Moor,” “blackman”, “blackmoor,” “Negroe,” “Aethiopian,” (or even “Turk,” and “Arab”) were used interchangeably in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in spite of the fact that the English became aware of the distinctions between different types of blacks.”(P.3) “The word ‘Moor’ was commonly used to refer to Muslims in general whether they came from Africa or Asia. Thus, the inhabitants of the island of Molucca (part of today’s Malaysia) are referred to as “Moors in religion”.6 In fact, as Anthony Gerald Barthelemy puts it, “almost anyone who was not Christian, European, or Jewish could have been called a Moor; this includes Asians, Native Americans, Africans, Arabs, and all Muslims regardless of ethnicity.” (P.7)
“The U.S. Immigration Dictionary of Races and Peoples was originally intended to guide the Immigration Commission workers, but when it became clear that it would appear too late for that, it came to be seen as the Commission’s summation of knowledge about each race or people.
“Moor: A historical rather than an ethnographical term applied to very different peoples of northwestern Africa. In Roman history it is applied to inhabitants of Mauretania (Morocco and Algeria), who were in part Phoenician colonist. In Spanish history the “Moors” and “Moriscos” were mainly supposed to be Arabs. Today the word is wrongly applied to the Riffs of Morocco and to the town dwellers of Algeria and Tunis. The latter call themselves generally “Arabs,” although often in part of Berber blood. The Moors, in a stricter ethnological sense, are the mixed Trarza and other tribes on the western coast, from Morocco to Senegal, mainly of nomadic habits. They are of mixed Berber, Arab, and often Negro blood. Many speak Arabic. (See Semetic-Hamitic.)”
“So predominant was the black skin of the Moorish invaders of Europe that blackamoor (black as a Moor) came to be used not only for Moroccans but for other blacks as Ethiopians and Sudanese. As Elliot Smith say, “Negro admixture is so evident among the Moroccan population that the word Moor is often used to suggest Negro influence, as we see it ‘blackamoor,'” (Human History, p. 124. 1919). The Oxford Dictionary also says it was commonly used for Negro in the Middle Ages and as late as the 17th century. Hambly, a more recent writer says, “In physique a Moor may be a Berber or an Arab, or a mixture of the two with Negro blood as well.” (Source Book of Anthropology, Vol. I, p. 135, 935. 1937). But since many Arabs and Berbers are already Negro.”.. Moors are, on the whole, darker than the average American mulatto.”
“Ancient Mauritania is wider in terms of geographic dimension than it is today. It stretched from North Africa to West and Central Africa.”
Strabo corroborates the fact that “Maures (Mauri, Moors)” named themselvesby stating “Mauri” was a name used by the natives of Mauritania as well as the Romans.” Mauri” was a name used by the natives of Mauritania, not just the “Romans” or “Greeks” .
Moor. Forms Maur, More, Moure, Mowre, Maure, Moore, Moor. Moor. (Now with initial capital.) [ME. More, a. F.More (13th c), Maure, ad. L. Mounts (med. L. Morus), Gr. Mavpos. Cf. Sp., Pg., It. Moro; MDu. Moor, Moer (Du. Moor), OHG. M0r, pi. M6H (MHG. MSr, Mar, mod.G. Mohr), The L. Maurus, Gr. Mavpos may possobly be from some North African language. Some believe the word to be merely a use of Gr. Maupos black (which on this view is… but the adj. (or at least this sense of it) is confined to late Gr., and may even be derived from the ethnic name). 1. In Ancient History , a native of Mauretania a region of North Africa corresponding to parts of Morocco and Algeria. In later times, one belonging to the people of mixed Berber and Arab race, Mohammedan in religion, who constitute the bulk of the population of North-western Africa, and who in the 8th c. conquered Spain. In the Middle Ages, and as late as the 17th c., the Moors were commonly supposed to be mostly black or very swarthy (though) the existence of ‘white Moors’ was recognized), and hence the word was often used for ‘negro’; cf. BLACKAMOOR.
Male head with Negroid features : ( CE12093 ) Hometown : The seabed in the vicinity of the tip of the Nao (La Caleta ) Size : 22.5 x 16.5 cm (8.9 inches x 6.5 inches) Dating: sixth century B.C. Museum of Cádiz Cultural Context / Iron Old Style . Phoenician- Punic Hometown Playa de La Caleta , Cádiz ( m ) ( Cadiz Northwest Coast (district) , Cádiz ( province): Negroid Underwater Archaeological Survey , Rodicio Mera, Antonio Specific / Site Location Playa La Caleta
“The Mauri, another north-west African people whose color received frequent notice, were at times described as as “nigri” (black) and “adusti” (scorched).”
“Nigri is derived from the Italian word “negri” which means “black.” The recorded spellings of Nigri include Negri, Negro, Nigri, Nigris, Nigra, Negris, Negrelli, Negrotto, Negrello, Negroni and many more.”
“Isidore, a Catholic scholar and the Archbishop of Seville (587-636) wrote that the word ‘maurus’ meant ‘black’. “The Mauri possess bodies black as night, while the skins of the Gauls are white“
For example, in a Middle English romance called Kyng Alisa under ( ca. 1175), the conqueror Darius has, among his troops, a contingent of soldiers led by Duke Mauryn. Regarding Mauryn, J.B. Friedman writes that, “… it sounds rather like “Moor” in this context.”
In old European children songs like the Dutch song Moriaantje about a litte Moor as black as soot.
The Roman dramatist Platus (254-184 B.C.) maintained that the Latin word “Maurus” was a synonym for “Niger”.
In contrasting the Moors of the sixth century with another racial group in North Africa, Procopius (circa 550 A.D.) wrote that: “they were not black skinned like theMoors.”
“The earliest European account of the Moorish invasion of Spain, the Chronicle of 754, refers to the Visigothic capitulation, the so-called “loss of Spain” (perdida de España) at the hands of the “Arabs and Moors sent by Musa,” or Musa Ibn Nusayr, the Muslim governor of North Africa.
In the Estoria de Espanna (History of Spain), the first vernacular chronicle composed in Spain, we find a characteristic portrayal:
“All the Moorish soldiers were dressed with silk and black wool that had been forcibly acquired … their black faces were like pitch and the most handsome of them was as black as a cooking pan.”
The extensive European historiography on the Crusades is replete with similar portrayals. French, Italian, and English histories of the medieval Moors—and later the Turks—repeat these stereotypes and reinforce this negative image.”
“This view of the origin of Maurus must, however, be disregarded here, and out attention turned more directly to the dwellers among the moors and marshes. Whether they gave their name to these places or were so styled because they inhabited them, they were at any rate known as Moors. That is to say, this became the general pronunciation given to the word. The original root seems likelier to have been “mor”, as seen in Cornish, Amorican, and other languages. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, says of the word “moriave,”, defined by him as “black, swarthy, resembling a Moor,”–” This word has certainly been used in Old English, as Cotgrave gives it as the sense of Fr. more, id. It is probably a contraction of Lat. Mauritanus, a moor.” (It would, perhaps, be more correct to say that Lat. Mauritannus and Maurus are extensions of Mor.)“
“He also connects this word with the morion that formed the head-piece of the medieval man at arms. After English word from this root is murrey, mean ing dark red, or copper-color. The country of Moravia is said to receive its name from its chief river the Morava, March, or anciently Marus, and its first known inhabitants are stated to have been a people named Quadi, who emigrated in the fifth century to Gaul and Hispania. “The river Morava” is a tautology; for morava is Mor River, whether ava be regarded as Celtic, or Gothic, or a language older than either. It is not unreasonable to conjecture that the “Quadi” who went into France and Spain may have borne this name “Mor,” the other having been given to them by outsiders, or vice versa. They seem to have been known to the Romans, against whom they fought, by the first of these names.”
“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.”
It appears that writers have replaced the ancient “Westerner” meaning of the term “Moor” with the “Black” or “Brown” complexion or skincolordescription of the people in their efforts to implement “White Skin Supremacy” into literature which requires enforcement of the crusader duty to “Blacken” “White-out” or “strip” dark skin people of their Moorish heritage. I have theory that the purpose is to employ illusions of association among descendants of “enslaved Moors” now identifying under the badges of Slavery branded upon “enslaved Moors” starting around 1441 A.D. such as Negro and Black, when these two terms are found within legislation enacted to govern slaves, slave records and revisionist history books written in effort to create “Political Black Pride” in those learning about the history, heritage and culture of the Moors, who claim it as Black History, it was Black authors who accepted the badges of slavery as a suitable social or political i.e. racial Identity following behind “White Supremacist authors” whose very agenda is the same.
Mauritania Nuova Tavola Southwest
These same authors chose to ignore the use of the “Black” as a Caste/Perpetual Brand/Badge of Slavery” as only being employed in Slave Records and accepted it as an identifier for various indigenous and ancient nations, kingdoms and tribes. Much reliance is based on historical references identifying the skin complexion or color of several ancient groups including the Moors. However, the truth can be colored over but it cannot be removed.
Striking dark impression of Ruscelli’s map of the Northwest portion of Africa. Ruscelli’s Atlas is an expanded edition of Gastaldi’s Atlas of 1548, which has been called the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin Waldseemüller’s Geographiae of 1513, and the Abraham Ortelius Theatrum of 1570. Ruscelli and Gastaldi’s maps were beautifully engraved on copper, marking a turning point in the history of cartography.
“The history of the Greek alphabet starts with the adoption of Phoenician letter forms and continues to the present day. The Greek alphabet postdates Linear B, the syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, by several centuries. This article concentrates on the early period, before the codification of the now-standard Greek alphabet.”
“The Phoenician alphabet was strictly speaking one that was consistently explicit only about consonants, though even by the 9th century BC it had developed matres lectionis to indicate some, mostly final, vowels.[1] This arrangement is much less suitable for Greek than for Semitic languages, and these matres lectionis, as well as several Phoenician letters which represented consonants not present in Greek, were adapted according to the acrophonic principle to represent Greek vowels consistently, if not unambiguously.”
“The Greek alphabet was developed by a Greek with first-hand experience of contemporary Phoenician script. Almost as quickly as it was established in the Greek mainland, it was rapidly re-exported, eastwards to Phrygia, where a similar script was devised. It was also exported westwards with Euboean or West Greek traders, where the Etruscans adapted the Greek alphabet to their own language, which eventually led to the Latin alphabet.”
German: variant of Maurer. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): topographic name for someone who lived by a wall, Middle High German mure, German Mauer. As a Jewish name it can be ornamental.
“The etymology of the word “Moor” can be traced to the Phoenician term “Mahurin” meaning “Westerners”. The Semitic etymon “Mahourím,” referred to “People of the West,” and the terms “Maghreb” meant “The West” or “the place where the sun sets;” and “Greater Maghreb” referred to “Further West;” while “Moghrab el Aksa,” meant “the extreme west.” According to Laurence WaddellEarly Phoenician titles such as: “Muru,” “Mer,” or “Marutu,” can be translated as meaning “Of the Western Sea (or Sea of the Setting Sun).” The “Akkadian Amurru” occur as a geographical term meaning literally “the West.” In Sumerian the “Amorites” were known as the “Martu” or the Tidnum, in Akkadian by the name of “Amurru”, and in Egypt as “Amar”, all of which mean ‘westerners‘ or ‘those of the west‘. It must be noted the “Hebrew” terms “Maarab,” “Mareb,” “Marrabah” and “Mah-ar-awb” also mean “West“. The Hebrew “Mahur” also means “Westerner.” Odyssey 1.21-25: “But now Poseidon had gone to visit the Ethiopians worlds away, Ethiopians off at the farthest limits of mankind, A PEOPLE SPLIT IN TWO , one part where the Sungod sets and part where the Sungod rises.” Source: Homer on the Ethiopians I inquired with Dana Reynolds Marniche as to her thoughts on this and she confirmed that “Ma’rib” does not mean “Maarab“. However, “Ma”rib” was definitely a “jurisdiction” within “Arabia Felix”
In Hebrew the word ערב ʿarav thus has the same triconsonantal root as the root meaning “west” (מערב maʿarav) “setting sun” or “evening” (מעריב maʿariv, ערב ʿerev). The direct Arabic cognate of this is غرب ġarb (“west”, etc.) rather than عرب ʿarab ; however, in Ugaritic and Sayhadic,[2] languages which normally preserve proto-Semitic ghayin, this root is found with ʿayin adding to the confusion. The first recorded use of the word is in Hebrew, Genesis 1:5, and its meaning there is “evening.” Source: Semitic etymology
It is in the case of the Assyrian forms that a possible derivation from “ArabDIN|ʿgh-r-b” (“west”) is most plausible, referring to people or land lying west of Assyria in a similar vein to the later Greek use of the term Saracen meaning in Arabic “Easterners”, “ArabDIN|šarqiyyūn” for people living in the east. The root of the word has many meanings in Semitic languages including “west/sunset,” “desert,” “mingle,” “merchant,” “raven” and are “comprehensible” with all of these having varying degrees of relevance to the emergence of the name. It is also possible that some forms were metathetical from transl|sem|ʿ-B-R “moving around” (Arabic ArabDIN|ʿ-B-R “traverse”), and hence, it is alleged, “nomadic.” The plurality of meanings results partly from the assimilation of the proto-Semitic “ghayin” with transl|sem|”ʿayin” in some languages. In Hebrew the word “transl|sem|ʿarav” thus has the same triconsonantal root as the root meaning “west” (“transl|sem|maʿarav”) “setting sun” or “evening” (“transl|sem|maʿariv”, “transl|sem|ʿerev”). The direct Arabic cognate of this is “ArabDIN|ġarb” (“west”, etc.) rather than “ArabDIN|ʿarab”; however, in Ugaritic, a language which normally preserves proto-Semitic “ghayin”, this root is found with Unicode|”ʿayin” adding to the confusion. [If we assume that the word for “evening” was originally pronounced with Unicode|”ʿayin”, or that the distinction between Unicode|”ʿayin” and “ghayin” was not phonemic, it could be connected with the “mixture” meaning, as evening is when day mixes with night.] Source: Arab (etymology)
The Maghrib prayer (Arabic: صلاة المغرب ṣalāt al-maġrib, ‘”sunset prayer”), prayed just after sunset, is the first of five obligatory daily prayers (salat) performed by practicing Muslims. Counted from sunset, the traditional begin of the Islamic day, it is the first prayer. Counted from midnight it is the fourth prayer. Source:Maghrib prayer“Maghreb is Arabic for “sunset.” In some definitions, the wider region of this name includes Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania. A narrower definition (the one current in France, for example) only encompasses Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The narrowest definition is Maghreb al-Aqsa, “the Furthest Sunset,” i.e. Morocco.” Source:How did Africa get its name?
The firstsource I present that “Moor” means “Westerner” is Philip Khuri Hitti (فيليب خوري حتي in Arabic), (Shimlan 1886 – Princeton 1978) was a Lebanese American scholar and authority on Arab and Middle Eastern history, Islam, and Semitic languages. He almost single-handedly created the discipline of Arabic Studies in the United States. In his work History of the Arabs first published in 1937, contended that the term “Moor” has a geographic designation meaning Western.
Phillip Khuri Hitti spent 10 years writing this book he provided that: “The Romans called Western Africa “Mauretania” and its inhabitants Mauri (presumably of Phoenician origin meaning ‘Western’) whence [the] Spanish Moor [and the] English Moor. The Berbers, therefore, were the Moors proper, but the term was conventionally applied to all Moslems of Spain and North-western Africa.”
The origins of the term is not elusive like most claim and do not go back to “death” as the term precedes existence of the Roman deity “Mors.”‘ Many of these frivolous notions that people have come up with today on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. The arrogance within the ignorance is remarkable, among some of these bogus scholars and educators, you even have people on the Hidden Colors video purporting to be educators telling people that “Moors” means “Black“, this is because they do not deal with technicalities, the fact that English dictionaries from the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and early 19th century use “Black” and “Negro” and sometimes Black man merely demonstrates who it applied to versus specifically meaning that Moor means Black or Negro, what it shows is that the writers of the English Dictionaries were on board with the Stripping of Name and Heritage Scheme (Capitis dimunitio), they branded Moors as Negroes and Blacks, thus it was significant to define Moor as Negro and Black in their dictionaries so the English descendants would not forget who the term “Moor” applies too i.e. the People now identified as “Negros“, “Blacks” and “AfricanAmericans.
The following source provides that its derivation from the Semitic etymon Mahourím, “People of the West,” those who say that source is questionable are usually unaware as to the Phoenician/Canaanite origin to the term Roman “Maure”, and the Greek “Mavros” which gave birth to the Romance languages (German, English, French, Spanish, etc), the Arabic al-Mar is extremely rare and is alleged to not occur in Andalusi Arabic sources which I think is irrelevant because the Moors (Maures) were a Nation composed of many tribes before the Andalusian Era in general. Mauroi is late Greek and may have been derived from the Latin ethnic name Mauri. Following the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C.E., the term mauri was used to indicate the tribes inhabiting the Roman provinces established in Ancient Mauretania, corresponding to modern-day western Algeria and northeastern Morocco.
The following article explained the term “Moor” as background to Menocal’s Ornament of the World and Maalouf’s Leo Africanus.
“In the Latin Middle Ages, Mauri referred to a mixture of Berbers and Arabs inhabiting the coastal regions of Northwest Africa. In Spain, Portugal, and Italy, Mauri became Moros (Maures in French). More commonly, however, it was a racial designation for dark-skinned or black skin peoples, as in its English usage, which is seen as early as the fourteenth century.”
Another source demonstrating the relationship between “Moor” and “Westerner” is the fact that the “West” in “Arabic” is pronounced “Maghrib” which should also ring a bell.
“The Normans re-took Sicily in 1061, establishes trading relationships with northern Africa, and employed Africans in their armies. Fredrick II, for example, no only used such warriors but placed them in his bodyguard. These African guards, together with African musicians and animal keepers, as well as the Emperor’s African personal attendants, formed part of the imperial processions. An African Johannes Morus was appointed vizier of the Kingdom of Sicily. (The etymology of the word Moor is uncertain; it can be traced to the Phoenician term “Mahurin” meaning “Westerners“
“The Mediterranean and south-western European ports. They were the foremost among the ancient merchants. They inhabited only a narrow strip of the northern coastline of Palestine. The area was originally settled by Amorites (meaning “Westerners”), who were not necessarily Hebrews, but were a kindred people. They were Semitic, or Shemitic people, that is, they claimed descent from Shem. Although they later became very mixed with the descendants of Ham, such as the Canaanites, they had a high proportion of fair skinned, fair-haired Shemitic peoples, from whom Abraham and his family came. When Israel later settled in the Promised Land, many Israelite’s, mostly from the tribes of Dan and Zebulun, joined with them in their seafaring enterprises. In this way the forerunners of the later Israelitish migrations reached the British Isles, and they had settlements in Spain and Portugal. The Phoenicians had included Canaanites and Jebusites, as well as Israelites, but the rulers of the Phoenician and Carthaginian nations were of the Semitic stock, as we may guess from the story of Hiram, King of Tyre, in Phoenicia. He was of great assistance to King Solomon of Israel in his temple building operations of the Temple. If Hiram had not been of the original Amoritic or Shemitic stock, it is unlikely that he would have been so friendly and helpful to a king of Israel.”
Sixth Source: M. Florian’s “History of the Moors in Spain” Page 20 also states in footnotes the term “Moor” comes from a “Hebrew” word “Mahuran“.
“The term Moors, according to Bochart, comes from a Hebrew word, Mahuran, which signifies Western.”
“Mahuran” (Hebrew) is very close in spelling and sound as the term “Mahourím (Phoenician) identified by Phillip Khuri Hitti, above. According to Dana Reynolds-Marniche “the word Amurru is supposed to the source of the semitic-Assyrian word “Western” because the Amorites lived in the mountains West of them.
Dana Reynolds-Marniche provided the following reference also which raises a significance to “Westerner” or “West“. “THE MOGHRABINORMOGHRABINXII:
“From the word “Moghrabi” the singular of Mogharba or Mograbin, through the Latin Maurus, has arisen the anglicized “Moor,” and from “Moghrab el Aksa,” “the extreme west,” the name “Morocco.” It must not, however, be assumed that all the MOGHARBA in Egypt or the Sudan came from Morocco; it is unlikely that any of them, a certain number of individuals of the merchant class excepted, did so.”
SeventhSource: Using Greek and Roman sources Frank M. Snowden has pointed out that Mauri (a northwest African people whose color received frequent notice) were described as nigri (black) and adusti (scorched). With the sudden eruption of the Arabs, during the middle of the seventh century, Mauri disappears for a time from the historical records. It reemerges, however, in medieval literature. For example, in a Middle English romance called Kyng Alisaunder (ca. 1175), the conqueror Darius has among his troops a contingent of soldiers led by Duke Mauryn. Regarding Mauryn, J.B. Friedman writes that “ … it sounds rather like Moor in this context.”
“As late as 1 398 we find the following reference to the Moors: “Also the nacyn [nation] of Maurys [Moors] they’re blacke colour comyth of the inner partes.” There are Irish records of a Viking raid on Spain and North Africa in 862. During the raid, a number of Blacks were captured and some carried to Dublin. In Ireland, they were known as “blue men” (Irish, fir gorma\ Old Norse, blamenn).”
“The entry is under the title:
Three Fragments Copied from Ancient Sources,” and sheds further light on the ethnicity of the Moors. The entry reads: After that, the Scandinavians went through the country, and ravaged it; and they burned the whole land, and they brought a great host of [the Moors] in captivity with them to Ireland. These are the ‘blue men’ (firgorma ); because the Moors are the same as negroes; Mauretania is the same as negro-land.”
According to E.J. Brill’s First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, Volume 5, edited by M. Th. Houtsma, we find the following origin of the term Moor:
“The word, presumably of Phoenician origin, corresponds to the ancient local name of the natives of Barbary reproduced by the Romans as Μαῦρο, Mauri and by the Greeks as Maurusii (Strabo vii, 825).”
The First Encyclopedia of Islam continues:
“The land of the Moors is MAURITANIA, or Mauretania. This name which has been derived either from a Phoenician word “Mauharim” [meaning] “the Westerns” or with more probability a name of a tribe living before the Christian era in North Africa……At a later date, by extending the application, Europeans have given the general name of Moors to the Arabo-Berber peoples of Mediterranean and Saharan Africa. Then gradually they came to distinguish out of this mass the groups with which they came into frequently more contact (Tripolitans, Tunisians, Algerians, Moroccans), so that the name Moors came to be limited to people of Spanish (Muslim), Jewish or Turkish origin of North Africa and particularly to the nomads of the Sahara.” In Sumerian they [Amorites] were known as the Martu or the Tidnum (in the Ur III Period), in Akkadian by the name of “Amurru”, and in Egypt as “Amar”, all of which mean ‘westerners‘ or ‘thoseof the west‘, as does the Hebrew name “Amorite”.
“In Sumero-Akkadian and Eblaite texts from the period from 2400 to 1600 B.C.E., Sumerian MAR.TU, Eblaite Martu(m), and “Akkadian Amurru” occur as a geographical term meaning literally “theWest.” The area extended westward from the Euphrates River as far as the Mediterranean Sea. It specifically embraced the great Syrian desert, the Orontes River valley, and the Amanus Mountains. In later Assyrian texts, “Amurru” was an established name for Syria-Palestine.”
I suspect those “Hebrew” terms are the origin of “Arab“. The Kushites had a capital in modern-day Yemen (Arabia Felix) called “Ma’rib” during the Sabaen era.
A page from Elia Levita’s 16th century Yiddish-Hebrew-Latin-German dictionary contains a list of nations, including the word “כושי” Cushite or Cushi, translated to Latin as “Aethiops” and into German as “Mor”. The German “Mor” or “Mohr” is translated into English as “Moor”. English descends from Old German.
“The English word “west,” as we use it today, originated from an old Anglo-Saxon and Gothic (the Goths and the Saxons were Germanic tribes in north-central Europe; the Anglos were a tribe of the Saxons from whom the English people originated) root word, vas, which meant to dwell – not referring foremost to people, but to the sun. Their logic was that, just as most people go to their dwelling place at night, they regarded the “west” as the dwelling place of the sun because that’s where it went at night when it set in that direction. The original meaning of “west” was used to translate two original Hebrew words of the Holy Scriptures. One of them, pronounced yawm, means to roar. It referred to the Mediterranean Sea (although it was not known to the ancient Israelites by that name) which formed the western border of the land of Israel as a whole. The other Hebrew word is pronounced maw-ar-aw-baw; it means shading or shadows, as produced by the sun as it set in the west. To the ancient Israelites, “west” was both the end of their land, and the end of their day.
Source: Article titled Contributions and Commentsdocumenting E. A. Wallis Budge’s association of “Amurru” with South-West.
Maghreb: “The Maghreb (/ˈmʌɡrəb/; Arabic: المغرب, translit. al-Maɣréb, lit. ‘The West’), also known as Northwest Africa[2] or Northern Africa, Greater Arab Maghreb (Arabic: المغرب العربي الكبير, translit. al-Maghrib al-ʿArabi al-Kabir), Arab Maghreb (Arabic: المغرب العربي, translit. al-Maghrib al-ʿArabi) or Greater Maghreb (Arabic: المغرب الكبير, translit. al-Maghrib al-Kabīr), or by some sources the Berber world, Barbary and Berbery, is a major region of North Africa that consists primarily of the countries Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. It additionally includes the disputed territories of Western Sahara (mostly controlled by Morocco) and the cities of Melilla and Ceuta (both controlled by Spain and claimed by Morocco). As of 2018, the region has a population of over 100 million people. “
“Mauritania, by which most of this region was known to them, being derived from a native word mahur, maur, the “west,” whence the Mahurim of the Phoenicians, and the Mauri of the Greeks and Romans. Later the expression “BarbaryStates,” which had reference to the indigenousBerber populations, came into general use, and is not yet quite obsolete.” Page 77 states:
“In ancient times the most general name of the Atlas populations appears to have been Mahur, that is “Highlanders,” whence the Roman Mauri, and Mauri-tania, “Mauri-land.” But in the course of ages, this word Mauri has undergone strange vicissitudes. Under the various forms of Moro, Morisco, Moor, it came to be applied in a vague way to all the natives of North Africa, and the more particularly to the Negroes or blacks (compare “Blackamoor”), who were popularly supposed to be the exclusive inhabitants of the African continent.”
“…name of Mahras of Hamitic origin, whose language has greatly aided in unlocking the ancient Hamitic tongues. Compare this with Mauri (the Moors) and Mahur (the West), and their sameness of origin will at once be suggested. If correct, the Mauri did not take their name from Mahur (the West), else how did the Mahras of the South get their name. Is it not more reasonable to suppose that all three find a common origin in Mizraim or some of its varied forms?”
” The belief that their name was derived from a Greek word which signifies black is evidently without foundation; for the inhabitants of N.W. angle of Africa are not and never were black; and besides, the Romans, though they used the name Mauri; preferred calling the people Maurusii, a variation which evidently discountenances the proposed Greek etymology. It is more likely the name Mauri was derived from a Semitic word [Hebrew, Mahur) signifying the West, so that is was, in fact, equivalent to the Maghrebi of the present day. At all events, the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula knew the occupants of the opposite African coasts under no other name than that of Maurusii, Mauri, or Moors; and consequently, when, at the commencement of the 8th century, the Arabs carried their victorious arms from W. Barbary into Spain, they were generally called by Spanish writers, the Moors; the name comprising the Berbers as well as the pure Arab tribes and dynasties which for some centuries ruled in Spain.”
“Marning,” as we pronounce the word “morning,” corresponds with “Mahur” of the Hebrew, and this word again is found among the aborigines of Western Australia and in Spain, with nearly the same sound and spelling.
“Mauritania and Maurufia, the names of this country, are derived from the Mauri, an ancient people who inhabited it; and Bochart considers Maurus as equivalent to Maur, or Maur, i.e. one from the west or an occidentalist, Mauritania being west of Carthage and Phoenicia. This country, it is well known, before also the name of Barbary, of which there are several derivations. To those that occur under BARBARY, vol. ii. we shall here add that the name may be formed from the oriental Bar Barca, or the Sea of Barca, a town of the Pentapolis, called afterward Ptolemans.”
“The origin of the name is doubtful. Some derive it from the word BapBapoi(barbarians) employed first by the Greeks and later by the Romans. Others attribute it to the Arab conquerors. Tribal titles, Barabara and Beraberata, appear in 1700 and 1300 BC and the Berbers were known to the Egyptians as “Lebu,” “Mashuasha,” “Tamahu,” “Tehennu” and “Kahaka”; a long list of names is found in Herodotus; and the Romans called them Numidae, Gaetuli and Mauri, terms derived from the Greek vomaves (nomads), the name Gued’oula, of a great Berber tribe, and the Hebrew ‘mahur‘ (western).”
“BERBERS, the name of the various branches of the indigenous “Libyan” race of North Africa. Since the dawn of history, the Berbers have occupied the tract between the Mediterranean and the Sahara from Egypt to the Atlantic. The origin of the name is doubtful. Some derive it from the word (36,pi3apot (barbarians), employed first by the Greeks and later by the Romans.”
“Others attribute it to the Arab conquerors. Tribal titles, Barabara and Beraberata, appear in Egyptian inscriptions of 170o and 130o B.C., and the Berbers were known to the Egyptians as “Lebu,” “Mashu asha,” “Tamahu,” “Tehennu” and “Kahaka”; a long list of names is found in Herodotus; and the Romans called them Numidae, Gaetuli and Mauri, terms derived respectively from the Greek voµuBES (nomads), the name Gued’oula, of a great Berber tribe, and the Hebrew mahur (western). In regard to the ethnic relations of the Berbers, on the monuments of Egypt, their ancestors are pictured with the comparatively blond features which many of them still display.”
“Though considerable individual differences of type may be found in every village, the Berbers are distinctively a “white” race. Dark hair and brown or hazel eyes are the rules; blue-eyed blonds are found, but their frequency has been considerably overstated. The invaders who have most affected the Berber race are the Arabs, but the two races, with a common religion, often a common government, and the same tribal groupings, have failed to amalgamate to any great extent. The Berber is straightforward, honest, by no means averse to money-making, but not unscrupulous in the methods which he employs to this end, and trustworthy.”
“To the Egyptians they were known as ” Lebu,” ” Mashuasha,” ” Tamahu,” ” Tehennu ” and ” Kahaka “; a long list of names is found in Herodotus, and the Romans called them Numidae, Gaetuli and Mauri, terms which have been derived respectively from the Greek voµaSes (nomads), the name Gued’oula, of a great Berber tribe, and the Hebrew mahur (western).”
Twenty First Source: “This early Phoenician title of Muru, Mer, Marutu or Martu, meaning “Of the Western Sea (or Sea of the Setting Sun)”, which now seems obviously the Phoenician source of the name “Mauretania,” or “Mor–occo” with its teeming megaliths, and of “Mor–bihan” (or LittleMor“) in Brittany, with its Sun-cult megaliths, is also found in several of the old mining and trading centres of the earlier Phoenicians in Britain, associated with Stone Circles and megaliths and mostly on the coast, e.g., Mori-dunum, port of Romans in Devon, and several More-dun, Mor-ton and Martin, Caser Marthen, West Mor-land, rich in circles and old mines, More-cambe Bay, Moray and its Frith and seat of Murray clan, &c.”
“Now, there was probably some difference between a “Moor” and a “Saracen,” although in heraldry there does not seem to be much distinction. The Algerine pirates who made occasional descents upon our coast, were probably the latest wearers of this title. “The opinion which has been most generally supported, and prevails at the present time, is that the word was originally Sharkeyn,” an Arabian word signifying “eastern people,” and used in contradistinction to Maghribe, or “western people,” the Moors of Morocco. While, therefore, all Saracens were Moors, all Moors were not necessarily Saracens. But at any rate, the term “Saracen” has been applied to the piratical invaders of this country from a very early period.”
Moor, 1) Muslim of North Africa. Although often assumed to be a black race, in fact, the Moors were of Berber and Arab descent, mixed with considerable Negroid and Iberian blood. The word probably derives from Mauri, L. by way of Gr. for ‘dark men.’ Their native lands constituted parts of Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania. One theory is that the name originally derives from Berber Amazigh, ‘freemen,’ referring to their nomadic existence, and in Greek times came to mean anyone with dark skin. By the Middle Ages the term came to be applied to any Muslims (similarly, all Europeans were called Franks in the Mohammadean world). Since Moors were thought of as being dark skinned, the word was also used generally to apply to blacks, although light-skinned Moors were well known. The word ‘blackamoor’ was also common, which implies a distinction from lighter-skinned Moors.
In any case, attitudes to race were much different then because there had been so little direct contact between the population of England and the ‘exotic races. There was also no long history of the disgusting racist theories which still burden the modern world. There were celebrity Moors in London, but the overall awareness would be of a faraway people, who to a greater or lesser degree were allied with the enemies of Christendom. After their early history (see Mauritania), the Moors were overrun by the Arabs in the 7th c., who replaced their religion and language and formed a dynamic culture. In the 8th c. the Moors defeated the Visigoths and conquered Spain.
