The Untold History of Moors



The Untold History of Moors

Introduction

After the emergence of new religion from Arabia, Muslims spread all over the world and had their strong influences over different culture and traditions all over the world. This began in the seventh and eighth century, when Muslims first conquered Spain and Portugal (Steve & Openshaw, 2007). These Spanish Muslims were called Moors and during their reign, Spain was flourishing with their learning in every field of life and at the same time, Europe was “rutting in the mud” (Steve & Openshaw, 2007). It was the time of Dark Age in Europe and Western World, while Muslim world was flourishing with enlightenment. When these Moors entered Europe they introduced the same of glory and enlightenment to the European world.

Discussion

These Muslims were called as Moors because of their Blackness and dark skin color due to their North African descent. The word, 'Moor' originate from Greek “maures” and the Roman maurus, which means “dark” (Sertima, 1992, p.4 ). One interesting fact about the history of Moors is that, world knows that there were Black slave trading in Europe, but this was just a reversal of Moors' tradition of keeping slaves. Moors in their reign in North Africa brought millions of European slaves. One famous Sultan, Mulai Ismail of Meknes, in Morocco had 25,000 European slaves (Sertima, 1992, p.4). These were the original Black Berbers of North Africa. The word Berber was derived from Roman “barbari” “barbarian” (Sertima, 1992, p.5). These people were from the South of Sahara and were transported to Europe during slave trade after the seven hundred years of domination of Moors in Iberian Peninsula. Apart from this ancestry of Moors, the Moors from Egypt had lighter skin and they were known as “tawny Moors” or “white Moors”.

History of Moorish Conquest

History of Moors is very rich, after their evolution and origin from the land of Arabia, they moved to the neighboring countries of Africa, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and a number of different other countries. With the conquest of Spain by Muslims from Arab countries, Spain first experienced the Golden Age of glory and learning. The Moors invaded Spain in 711 AD, under the Arab leader, Musa-ibn-Nusair and with them brought their Islamic culture and tradition in this country (Sertima, 1992). During 719, Spain was under the rule of Ayyub ibn-Habib and then al-Hurr ibn Abdurrahman (Sertima, 1992). After their rule in Spain, Hurr next tried to expand their reign to France across the Pyrenees, but they were defeated by Charles Martel and were forced to leave France. Hurr was replaced by Ab-Samh-ibn-Malik, who introduced the system of taxation in Spain (Sertima, 1992).

In eleventh century, their caliphate ended in Spain and they were driven out from Spain. After Spain these Moors keep exploring different areas of world and introduced their learning and skills with more richness and influence added to their studies while exploring and ruling in a number of different countries with diversified cultures and ...