Moors

The term Moors refers to the medieval Muslim inhabitants of Northwest Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Septimania, Sicily and Malta. The Moors called their Iberian territory Al-Andalus, an area comprising Gibraltar, much of what is now Spain and Portugal, and part of France. There was also a Moorish presence in present-day southern Italy after they occupied Mazara in 827^[1] until their last settlement of Lucera was destroyed in 1300. The religious difference of the Moorish Muslims led to a centuries-long conflict with the Christian kingdoms of Europe called theReconquista. The Fall of Granada in 1492 saw the end of the Muslim presence in Iberia.The term "Moors" has also been used in Europe in a broader sense to refer to anyone of Arab or African descent. Moors are not a distinct or self-defined people. Medieval and early modern Europeans applied the name to the Berbers, Arabs, Muslim Iberians^[2] and West Africans from Mali and Niger who had been absorbed into the Almoravid dynasty.^[3] Mainstream scholars observed in 1911 that "The term 'Moors' has no real ethnological value."^[4]The Andalusian Moors of the late Medieval era inhabited the Iberian Peninsula after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the early 8th century. The Moors' rule stretched at times as far as modern-day Mauritania, West African countries, and the Senegal River.Earlier, the Classical Romans interacted with (and later conquered) parts of Mauretania, a state that covered northern portions of modern Morocco and much of north western and central Algeriaduring the classical period. The people of the region were noted in Classical literature as the Mauri. Today such groups inhabit Mauritania and parts of Algeria, western Sahara, Morocco, Nigerand Mali.^[5] In the languages of Europe, a number of associated ethnic groups have been historically designated as "Moors". In modern Iberia, the term is applied to people of Moroccan ethnicity. "Moor" is sometimes colloquially applied to any person from North Africa, but some people consider this usage of the term pejorative.Etymology

In Latin, the word maurus (plural mauri) means coming from Mauretania, a Roman province on the northwestern fringe of Africa. In the Medieval Romance languages (such as Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian,Romanian), the rootappeared in such forms as mouro, moro, moir, mor and maur. Derivatives are found in today's versions of the languages. Some derive the word from the ancient Greek mauros, meaning "dark".

Through nominalization, the root has taken on a variety of meanings. Moreno, from the Latin root, can mean dark-skinned in Spain and Portugal, as well as in Brazil. Also in Spanish, morapio is a humorous name for "wine", especially that which has not been "baptized" or mixed with water, i.e., pure unadulterated wine. Among Spanish speakers, moro ("Moor") came to have a broader meaning, applied to both Moros of Mindanao in the Philippines, and the moriscos ofGranada. Moro is refers to all things dark, as in "Moor", moreno, etc. It was used as a nickname; for instance, the Milanese Duke Ludovico Sforza was called Il Moro because of his dark complexion. In Polish murzyn means a black person and can be perceived either as a neutral or pejorative term.

In Portugal and Spain, mouro (feminine, moura) may also refer to supernatural beings known as enchanted moura, where "moor" implies 'alien' and 'non-Christian'; These beings were siren-like fairies with golden or reddish hair and a fair face. They were believed to have magical properties.^[6] From this root, the name moor is also applied to unbaptised children, meaning not Christian.^[7][8] In Basque, mairu means moor and also refers to a mythical people.^{[9][dead link]}

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors}