Appendix 13: The Mixed Racial Origins of the Moors

WHO WERE THE MOORS?

“Moor” - Encyclopædia Britannica

 “Moor - in English usage, a Moroccan or, formerly, a member of the Muslim population of Spain, of mixed Arab, Spanish, and Berber origins, who created the Arab Andalusian civilization and subsequently settled as refugees in North Africa between the 11th and 17th centuries. By extension (corresponding to the Spanish moro), the term occasionally denotes any Muslim in general, as in the case of the Moors of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) or of the Philippines.

The word derives from the Latin Mauri, first used by the Romans to denote the inhabitants of the Roman province of Mauretania, comprising the western portion of modern Algeria and the northeastern portion of modern Morocco. Modern Mauritanians are also sometimes referred to as Moors (as with the French maure); the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, however, lies in the large Saharan area between Morocco and the republics of Senegal and Mali.”

 - "Moor" Encyclopædia Britannica  from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=54958

MIXED RACE ORIGINS : SEMITIC, AFRICAN AND BERBER

When the Arab armies swept across Northern Africa in the 7th Century AD, they found in the north-western corner of that continent the Berbers, an ancient grouping of part White origin (indeed, to this day, red hair is not unknown amongst the Berbers).

The Berbers were converted to Islam after a sharp struggle at the beginning of the 8th Century.

“Then Berbers and Arabs then joined in invading and conquering Spain, as a mixed race sprang up called the Moors.”

 - Waverly’s ‘New Book of Knowledge’, Waverly Book Company, Faringdon Street, London, E.C,4, 1936. Volume six page 2800

GENETIC COMPOSITION

A recent genetic study of genetic influences in Iberia, contained the following remarks on the racial make-up of North Africa at the time of the Moorish invasion of Spain and Portugal:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12627534&dopt=Abstract

Mitochondrial DNA affinities at the Atlantic fringe of Europe.

Gonzalez AM, Brehm A, Perez JA, Maca-Meyer N, Flores C, Cabrera VM.

Departamento de Genetica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38271 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. amglez@ull.es

As expected, sub-Saharan African influence, represented by baplotypes classified in L and Ml clusters, is important in northwest Africa (26.1%) but negligible in Europe, with the exception of south Portugal (11.7%).

On the other hand, subhaplogroup U6, of North African origin (Rando et al., 1998), has a local presence in Europe, being detected only in northwest lberian Peninsula. The differential geographic distributions of these sub-Saharan African and northwest African haplogroups in the Iberian Peninsula are statistically significant: L and Ml clusters are more abundant in south Portugal (x = 9.81; P < 0.01), and U6 in northern areas (x = 5.83; P < 0.05).

With respect to northwest Africa, the geographically localized distribution of matches and haplotypes of sub-Saharan  African and northwest African origin in the Iberian  Peninsula is noteworthy.  This distribution cannot be totally explained by  a historic genetic influence  from the Moslem occupation (Pereira et. al., 2000). During  that time, the haplotype composition of northwest  Africa had to be similar to that of the present,  and for this reason, sub-Saharan African L and northwest African  U6 haplotypes should be uniformly  distributed in the Iberian peninsula.

Our results are in agreement with the gene flow (19.5%) from northwest Africa to the Iberian Peninsula estimated in a recent study of variation in the autosomic CD4 locus (Flores et al., 2000b), and with the evidence of northwest African African male input in Iberia calculated at around 20%, using the relative frequency of northwest African Y-chromosome-specific markers in Iberian samples (Flores et al, 2000a).

Furthermore, our results clearly reinforce, extend, and clarify the preliminary clues of an important mtDNA contribution from northwest Africa into the Iberian Peninsula (Côrte-Real et al., 1996; Rando et al., 1998; Flores et al., 2000a; Rocha et al., 1999). On the basis of the Lib frequencies detected in Spanish and Portuguese samples (2—3%) and those found in western Africa (10-30%), a significant influence (at least 10%) of North Africans in have reached the Iberian Peninsula gene pool has also been admitted (Rocha  et al., 1999).

In a similar way, and discarding possible genetic drift effects, our own data allow us to make minimal estimates of the maternal African pre Neolithic, and/or recent slave trade input into Iberia.  For the former, we consider only the mean value of the U6 frequency in northern African populations, excluding Saharans, Tuareg, and Mauritanians (16%), as the pre-Neolithic frequency in that area, and the present frequency in the whole Iberian Peninsula (2.3%) as the result of the northwest African gene flow at that time.

The value obtained (14%) could be as high as 35% using the data of Côrte-Real et al. (1996), or 27% with our north Portugal sample.

In the same vein, the Saharan Neolithic gene flow can be estimated as 13%, taking the actual frequencies for the sub-Saharan African haplogroups (51%) in southern northwest African samples (Tuareg, Saharans, and Mauritanians) as the frequency of the African Neolithic, and that of the Iberian Peninsula (6.8%) as the result of the putative Neolithic maternal gene flow. This value could rise to 23% when only south Portugal is taken into account.

Full PDF copy of this article available here.

THE RACIAL MAKE-UP OF THE MOORS

To the earlier Greeks, the Moors were “a black or dark people” (Mauros) and to the Romans, Maurus, a black wooly-haired people, known synonymously as Ethiops, Niger (Negro) and Afer (African).

As late as the 5th Century A. D. Procopius, a Roman historian, called the people of Morocco “black.”

In the ‘Chanson of Roland’ (Song of Roland) written after the Moors invaded France in 718 A.D., the invaders are described (verses 145 and 146) as “blacker than ink with large noses and ears” and with “nothing white except the teeth.” (Moriaen. Arthurian Romance No. 4, PP. 29, 39, 41, 103. 1907. Trans. by J. L. Watson).

The Chanson of Roland states that the Moorish army was 50,000 strong and led by Marganice, Emperor of Ethiopia and Carthage. Their most valiant figure is Abisme (that is, Abyssinian), who (verse 126) is described as “black as melted pitch.” In this epic, the Moors are called Sarrazins, in English, Saracens.

In the official coat of arms of Aragon, which has four Moorish kings killed in battle by Pedro VIII, king of Aragon, on November 18, 1096, all the Moors are shown as jet-black. (Biblioteca de escritores aragoneses. Blancas. Comentarios de las cosas de Aragon. Seccion histor. 3, p. 110. 1878.)

Pietro Tacca in his monument to Ferdinand I erected at Leghorn, 1620, has four Moors in chains, which were modeled from originals, one of whom is instantly recognizable as a so Negro. (Raymond M. La Sculpture Florentine, XVIe siecle, pp. 182-3 1900).

Pitch black Negro troops played an important part in the Moorish conquest of Spain especially under Abderrahman I. (757-787), who founded the independent kingdom of Cordova. (Troupes noires. Revue de Paris, p. 62. July 1909 (pp. 61-80). A rival Moorish leader “brought from Africa a great number of Negroes from which he formed a redoubtable regiment of cavalry in 1016” and took over the Caliphate. (Troupes noires. Revue de Paris, p. 62. July 1909 (pp. 61-80).

In 1086, Yusuf ben Tachfln, who is described by Moorish historian Ali ibn Abd Allah as as “dark” and “wooly-haired,” (Roudh ci Kartas, p. 304.) and who was probably a Nigerian, brought in an army composed largely of “pure Negroes” (11. Ency. Brit. Vol. 21 (See SPAIN—Almoravides). Ibn El-Athair. Op. cit. pp. 525 Also pp. 457-60, 462. Scott, S. P. Hist. of the Moorish Empire, p. 622. 1904.)

Another Moor, Yakub el-Mansur, recorded as “the son of a Negro woman,” (Roudh el Kartas, p. 304.) invaded Iberia in 1194 and made himself master of almost the whole of it. The guards of these Moorish kings were specially chosen for their size Negroes, “jet-black and of immense strength, recruited from the Atlas, Tumbuctoo, and Nigeria." (Scott. S. P.History of the Moorish Empire, p. 668. 1904.)

RACIAL MIXING BETWEEN MOORS AND IBERIANS

There were white Moors, especially because of their part Berber ancestry and after they had lived in Europe for centuries and had been ‘whitened’ by mating with Europeans.

The mixed racial make-up of the Moors is confirmed by their own writing: the Moorish historian Ali ibn Abd Allah, writing in the 1300s, (recall that the Moors were only finally expelled from Spain in 1452) said that a Moorish Sultan of the time , Mohammed ben Idriss is described as “blond” while Abou el-Hassan el Said had as mother “a Nubian slave . . . dark and of mixed blood,” (‘Aoudh ci Kartas’, by Ali ibn Abd Allah, translated by Beaumier pp. 25, 61, 190, 257, 288, 367).

The favorite wife of Yusuf ibn Tachfin, was a white Christian captive, called Fadh-el-Hassen, or ‘Perfection of Beauty’. (Roudh ci Kartas, p. 224) She was the mother of his frizzy-haired son and successor, Ali.

Abu Hassan Au, “The Black Sultan” whose mother was a Negro slave, had as his favorite wife, Shams-ed-Douha (The Morning Sun), a beautiful white captive. (Scott-O’Connor, V. C. Vision of Morocco, pp. 99-100. 1923).

Of the three Moorish kings killed in the battle of Alcazar in 1578, two were mulattoes and one, an unmixed Negro, Mulai Mohammed “the Negro.” (Chenier L. Recherches Hist. sur les Maures, V 3, p. 328. 1787. (Muley Moharnet qui fut surnomme’ le Negre parce qu’il ‘etait fils d’une Negresse).

Even more interesting is how the Moors described their European foes: Sa-id of Andalusia (1029-1071) wrote the following of his White Iberian  opponents:

(T)hey “are nearer animals than men . . . They are by nature unthinking and their manners crude. Their bellies protrude; their color is white and their hair is long. In sharpness and delicacy of spirit and in intellectual perspicacity, they are nil. Ignorance, lack of reasoning power and boorishness are common among them.” (Kitab Tabakat al Umaxn (Blachere K. p. 36. 1935).

ILLUSTRATIONS OF MOORS

There are two sources of illustrations of Moors available to scholars. The first is those pictures drawn from the European side, and then those drawn from the Moorish side. From both these sources, the mixed racial origins of the Moors are apparent.

One of the most quoted European sources is the famous "Games Book" of Alfonso X, the King of Castile (Northern Spain). Although this book was made primarily to illustrate chess and other games, it contains some interesting insights into the racial make-up of both Moors and Spaniards of the time.

For example, this picture ("Problem number 103" in Alfonso's book) shows a Spaniard (sitting left) as a blond and a Moors with red hair (an obvious reference to the Berber part of the Moorish makeup)

However, "Problem number 25" shows Moors as much darker as well:

"Problem number 69" of that book shows two "Arabs" as the book describes them, one red bearded again, the other with dark hair:

"Problem No. 86" shows an Arab and a blond Spanish girl.

OTHER SOURCES ALSO SHOW MIXED RACIAL ORIGIN OF MOORS

This illustration shows a Moorish ship art sea: the crew includes as Negro, while the rest of the crew are lighter, typically Arab in appearance.

This picture is of a Muslim army, once again showing the wide variety of racial types on display:

Lastly, this illustration shows a black servant in a Spanish household. The origin of the servant is either Black or Moorish.

Chapter 23

Appendices

Main Contents Page

All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999.

Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden.