- Dec 15, 2007
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Exercerpted from a piece by James E. Brunson and Runako Rashidi
Althought scholar generally agree that the word Moor is derived from Mauri, there are profound disagreements on what the word originally meant and how it was applied. Hitti contends that the term Moor has a geographic designation meaning Western. Hitti, the author of the comprehensive History of the Arabs write that:
The Romans called Western Africa Mauretania and its inhabitants Mauri (presumably of Phoenician origin meaning western), whence the Spanish Moro, and the English Moor. The Berbers, therefore, were the Moors proper, but the term was conventionally applied to all Moslems of the Spain and north-western Africa.
Using Greek and Roman sources, Snowden has pointed out that Mauri (a northwest African people whose color received frequent notice) were described as nigri (black) and adusti (scorched). The Roman dramatist Platus maintainted that the Latin word Maurus was a synonym for Niger. In contrasting the Moors of the sixth century with another racial group in North Africa, Procopius wrote that tey were not black skinned like the Moors. Isidore, a Catholic scholar and the Archbishop of Seville wrote that the word Maurus meant black.
What was the term Moor originally meant to describe? Is it a vague term?? What yah'll know about this??
Althought scholar generally agree that the word Moor is derived from Mauri, there are profound disagreements on what the word originally meant and how it was applied. Hitti contends that the term Moor has a geographic designation meaning Western. Hitti, the author of the comprehensive History of the Arabs write that:
The Romans called Western Africa Mauretania and its inhabitants Mauri (presumably of Phoenician origin meaning western), whence the Spanish Moro, and the English Moor. The Berbers, therefore, were the Moors proper, but the term was conventionally applied to all Moslems of the Spain and north-western Africa.
Using Greek and Roman sources, Snowden has pointed out that Mauri (a northwest African people whose color received frequent notice) were described as nigri (black) and adusti (scorched). The Roman dramatist Platus maintainted that the Latin word Maurus was a synonym for Niger. In contrasting the Moors of the sixth century with another racial group in North Africa, Procopius wrote that tey were not black skinned like the Moors. Isidore, a Catholic scholar and the Archbishop of Seville wrote that the word Maurus meant black.
What was the term Moor originally meant to describe? Is it a vague term?? What yah'll know about this??