Who are the Moors?

FORTUNATO · #1 (**permalink**) 17th July 2006, 14:39

Any Idea..s

Who were they? They must have been somebody. They were in Spain for nearly 800 years and finally got kicked out in the same year Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

??

http://herso.freeservers.com/ebooks/moors.pdf

Nectar77 · #2 (**permalink**) 17th July 2006, 15:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by FORTUNATO

Any Idea..s

Who were they? They must have been somebody. They were in Spain for nearly 800 years and finally got kicked out in the same year Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

??

http://herso.freeservers.com/ebooks/moors.pdf

Well, according the the wikipedia, the Moors were the medieval Muslim inhabitants of al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula including the present day Spain and Portugal) and the Maghreb and western Africa, whose culture is often called Moorish. In general, a Moor was an Islamic conqueror in Europe. The term derives from the Phoenician and Greek name Mauri, applied to the inhabitants of Mauretania (centered on modern-day Morocco, not Mauritania.) The Moors were mainly comprised of Arabs, Berbers, Ethiopians and a mixture of the three.

The term Moors is also used to refer to the main ethnic group inhabiting modern-day Mauritania, who - like the historic Moors - are of mixed Arab-Berber-Ethiopian origins.

Since the Arabs, Berbers and Ethiopians were darker-skinned than most Europeans, Maure or 'Moor' came to be applied indiscriminately by Europeans to Muslims, North Africans, Saracens, Persians, Indians, and even southern Filipinos (Moros). Shakespeare's Othello was 'the Moor of Venice.'

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors

FORTUNATO · #3 (**permalink**) 17th July 2006, 15:29

Didn`t Algeria also called "Cesarian Mauritania" before punic war(s)?
Aren`t Algerians also a Moors?

Nectar77 · #4 (**permalink**) 17th July 2006, 15:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by FORTUNATO

Didn`t Algeria also called "Cesarian Mauritania" before punic war(s)?
Aren`t Algerians also a Moors?

Well we have proof of Moor presence all over algeria, as even the Casbah is built with a moorish style and "Notre Dame D'afrique" as well. I wouldn't say that I was a moore (as an algerian) but yes the moores are North Africans..so in essence we used to be...I guess!

Let me do some research!