Islamic Spain

In 711AD Spain was invaded by Islamic invaders who would rule there for the next hundred years. These invaders would build lasting monuments and influence the culture of Europe in the area of science, medicine, literature and music for centuries to come. Among these invaders were Arabs, Berbers and West Africans (Almoravid period). The latter types would be called by Europeans, Moors. Just what racial grouping these Moors belonged to is a perplexing question. In most modern texts, the Moors are regarded as white Mediterranean-type tribes who existed in North Africa at the time. Black Africans are discounted from these Islamic invaders, except perhaps in the role of a few minimal slaves. However the answer to the Moorish racial makeup is by no means so simple. According to the old versions of the Oxford English Dictionary, the Moors, as early as the Middle Ages and as late as the 17th Century, were "commonly supposed to be black or very swarthy, and hence the word is often used for Negro." However more modern texts, such as Webster's New World Dictionary, identify Moors as "a member of Moslem people of mixed Arab and Berber descent." This deletion of "black" or "Negro" from the term Moor is generally recent. According to historian Wayne Chandler, "Although the term Moor has been put to diverse use, its roots are still traceable. Circa 46BC the Roman army entered West Africa where they encountered black Africans which they called "Maures" from the Greek adjective 'mauros,' meaning dark or black." Though the word "Moor" originally seems to have been meant to indicate Blacks, it in time came to be applied to Muslims in general, especially the Berbers. During the European Renaissance explorers, writers and scholars began to apply the term Moor to Blacks in general. Pictured above are Black Moorish noblemen playing chess while being waited upon by white and black servants. This European work is dated at 1283AD. (Photo and Information courtesy of Blacks in Antiquity by Frank Snowden, Golden Age of the Moor ed. by Ivan Van Sertima, Black Brittanica by Edward Scobie and National Geographic Magazine)