Moors (population)

See also: Moor

By Moors , various people were designated at times different from the Histoire. But, in medieval Europe, the Moors meant primarily the Musulman S. This name derives from old French of a term which indicated at the time Roman the Berbères of North Africa, more precisely, the Berbères of Maurétanie (current north of the Morocco and west of the Algérie) ( Greek Mauroi in , Latin Mauri in ) and which passed in Spanish in the form Moros to apply to the Musulman S Berbères but also, wrongly, with the Arab in the beginning conquest of the Iberian peninsula at the 8th century.

Today, the Moor term refers to the dividing whole of a population of the common features. They are approximately 1.5 million and live mainly in Morocco, in Mauritania, in the north of Senegal and the west of Mali. Of Arab language, there exists however an small group berbèrophone, Zenaga. As for their ethnic origin, it is discussed, one generally considers that they are the fruit of an interbreeding of Arab populations Bedouins, Berber and black,

It is not a question of the inhabitants of the current Mauritania, the Mauritanians . The name of this country was selected with its independence in the Années 1960, in reference to the ancient Maurétanie.

Pre-Islamic Moors

Remarkable riders, they offered indifferently their services as well to the Carthaginois as with the Romains at the time of the Punic Wars. Jugurtha, having taken for woman the girl of their king, profited some time from their support but was delivered to its enemies at once that he asked them asylum.

The Maurétanie was gradually conquered by Rome and constituted two provinces of the empire, one in 37, the other in 40 or 41 under Caligula. Engaged at the sides of the Roman forces, of the Moors contributed to establish the Pax romana in Gaulle and established colony S here and there. Several localities called Mortaigne or Mortagne, as well in France as in Belgium, would be derived from Mauretania , but another interpretation sees the invocation of a dead water there (in opposition to running water).

Romanisés then christianized as of the 3rd century, the Moors was partially allured by the schism donatist. Pagan persecutions succeeded Christian persecutions when the empire set up Christianity in Religion of State.

About the same time, Vandals and their allies Alains, badgered by the Visigoths, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and cut a kingdom in North Africa in 431. The Moors collaborated in the forwardings of plundering organized by the Vandales, in particular the second Sac of Rome into 455. The Roman prisoners were taken along in slavery by the Moors. They were however demolished by Justinien I {{er}}, Roman Emperor of the East, in 533.

The Byzantine domination was however only very relative when, in 647, occurred the Islamization. The resistance of chiefs such as Kusayla or Al Kahina did not prevent only at the 8th century most of the tribes from converting with Islam to propagate it in their turn, with the image of the Kahina which ordered with its sons to embrace the new religion, and the country of the Moors was annexed to the Califat Omeyyades.

Conquest of the Iberian peninsula

In 711, the Moors invaded the Spain. Under the command of Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they imposed on most of Spain and Portugal the reign ic Islam until in 1492. They extended their influence to midday of the France, where they protected the Christian from Provence against the plunderers Francs, and made incursions until into the north of France, but were stopped with the Bataille of Poitiers in 732.

In the Iberian peninsula, only from small zones in the North-West and the areas mainly Basque of the the Pyrenees escaped their domination. The State Moor undergoes some civil conflicts in the Années 750.

See the general article on the Moslem Conquest of Spain undertaken by the Moors.

The country, Al-Andalus, were then divided into a number of small Islamic territories mainly , named the Taifa S. the Christian States were located at north and to the west and slowly they extended their influence to the remainder of Spain to the wire of the centuries.

In 1212, the Christian kingdoms, under the command of Alphonse VIII of Castille, pushed back the Moors of the center of Spain. It is the period of the Reconquista itself. However the Royaume of Grenade resisted during nearly three centuries. The January 2nd 1492, the army of Christian Spain, recently linked, besieged Grenade, and the Moors remaining were obliged to leave Spain or to convert with the Christianisme. Certain converted Moors remained on the ground of Spain and were called the Morisco S . They were definitively driven out by it in 1609.

Modern Moors

Wide meaning

The term “Moor” is often used for the Moslem Noir S, , the Perses or the Indiens. Othello of Shakespeare was the “Moor of Venice”. In the uses Spanish S, “Moors” has also a broader direction and means Moslem in general (just like rumi , which meant Romain initially, means Christian in several Arab dialects). This use was spread in the Spanish Colonies and thus one speaks about “Moros” with Mindanao in the Filipino .

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the term “Moors” was often used by the Western Géographe S to indicate the métissés Arabo-Berber S North-African, especially those of the cities to differentiate them from the Arabic-speaking people and the berbérophones considered as a Ethnie S.

Thus the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1911 defines “Moor” as “the name which, according to the current practice, is freely applied to the natives of the Morocco, but strictly, should apply only to the men of the town of mixed descent”. But however, she recognizes that this term does not have an ethnological value real.

Geographical surface

However today, one can define the social surface thus Moor: the south of Morocco and the Mauritania, are a zone having for community a culture and the language Hassaniya.

References

Random links: