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THE MOORS
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The moors were the medieval rulers of what is now modern day Spain ,Scicily, Southern France and Portugal or as they called it Al-andalus. They created a highly sophistacated civilization famous for its art ,science,architecture, and centers of learning. They would rule in Spain for over 700 years, their civilization would eventually enlighten Europe, ending the dark ages and bringing upon the Renaisance. Europe at that time was a squalid lot ran under a corrupt feudal system and an even corrupter church system.While the most wonderful city in the world of that age was the moorish capital of Spain, Cordova: the streets were well-paved, with raised sidewalks for pedestrians. During the night, ten miles of streets were well illuminated by lamps. (This was hundreds of years before there was a paved street in Paris or a street lamp in London.) Cordova had a population of at least one million, and it being served by four thousand public markets and five thousand mills. Public baths numbered in the hundreds.
The amenity was present at a time when cleanliness in Christian Europe was regarded as a sin. Education was universal in Moorish Spain, available to the most humble, while in Christian Europe ninety-nine percent of the population were illiterate, and even kings could neither read nor write. The Moorish rulers lived in sumptuous palaces, while the monarchs of Germany, France, and England dwelt in big barns, with no windows and no chimneys, and with only a hole in the roof for the exit of smoke. The event that would've done most for the intellectual and scientific revival of Europe was the fall of Toledo in Spain to the Christians, in 1105." In Toledo they had huge libraries containing the lost! (to Christian Europe) works of the Greeks and Romans along with original philosophy and mathematics. "The Spanish libraries were opened, revealing a store of classics and original works that staggered Christian Europeans."The subjects covered by the texts included medicine, astrology, astronomy pharmacology, psychology, physiology, zoology, biology, botany, mineralogy, optics, chemistry, physics, mathematics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, music, meteorology, geography, mechanics, hydrostatics, navigation and history." (Burke, 1985, p. 42. Eventually the Christsian Europeans after centuries of trying to retake these territories, would lead several attempts known as the Reconquista and would bring an end to 700 years of Moorish rule in Spain. |
Were the moors really black?
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First off the term moor literally means someone that is black or dark skinned .If you were to be in the middle ages and were wanting to describe a black person the word you would use would be moor, or moorisco.Thus when we look back we will find several black men of note described in that way .But it was also used as a blanket term for most muslim invaders .When we talk about the muslim invaders of Europe the ruling classes must be split into three distinct periods, the Umayyad, the Almoravid and the Almohad. While the Umayyad were mostly what we would consider Arabic peoples they definitely had black people amongst them. The Almoravids were destinctely African in origin. They haled from what is now modern day senegal and the regions under the African kingdom of Ghana which would later be know as the Empire of Mali and finally The Kingdom of Songhay. Which would later create the famed west African city of Timbukto, the literal center of knowledge for the whole world! where all manner of races would come to learn under the tutelage of African scholars. The Almoravids were crucial in preventing a fall of Al andalus to the Iberian Christian kingdoms, when they decisively beat a coalition of the Castillian and Aragonese armies at the Battle of Sagrajas. This enabled them to control an empire that stretched 3,000 kilometers north to south. After a reign of a little over 200 years the Almoravids fell - at the height of their power - when they failed to quell the Masmud-led rebellion initiated by Ibn-Tumart. As a result, their last king Ishaq Ibn Ali was killed in Marrakesh in April 1147 by the Almohads, who replaced them as a ruling dynasty both in Morocco and Al-andalus. Though this did not end the rule of black kings in the ancient Islamic world the Almohads themselves being a mixed dynasty. While in the middle ages Africa went through a golden age and many important kingdoms existed such as Mali and Songhay . One of their most esteemed kings being Mansa musa who was famous the world over for his wealth and generosity and who historians list as the richest man who ever lived. His most notable legacy was the hajj to mecca, which not only caused an economic inflation in the Mediterranean, but may have indirectly supplied financial support for the Italian Renaisance.
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Gallery
Below is a collection of art dating back to a time when it was not taboo to show a black man in a role of power they simply studied history and painted it .This is why Shakespear's othello is a black-a-more and why tales such as the romance of Morien the black knight of the roundtable exist. The idea of the inferior black man who lived in a jungle and never had contact with the civilized white man had not become staples of society yet. Infact the oldest surviving piece of french literature ,The song of Roland is about the Battle of Roncevaux an epic poem about the frank's battle against a moorish king, the description of the king and his army go as such "Although Marsile has fled, his uncle Marganice remains, he who rules Carthage, Alfrere, Garmalie, and Ethiopia, an accursed land. He has the black people under his command, their noses are big and their ears broad, together they number more than fifty thousand. They ride fiercely and furiously, then they shout the pagan battle cry." another line goes as such "When Rollant sees those misbegotten men, Who are more black than ink is on the pen With no part white, only their teeth except, “I know now very well That here to die we’re bound, as I can tell. Strike on, Franks! For so I recommend.”“ Who holds back, is condemned!”
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