Moors

The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim (and earlier non-Muslim) people of Berber and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to inhabit the Iberian Peninsula (which they termed Al Andalus, comprising most of what is now Spain and Portugal). Moors are not distinct or self defined people but an appellation applied by medieval and early modern Europeans primarily to Berbers, but alsoArabs, and Muslim Iberians.^[1] As early as 1911, mainstream scholars have recognized that "The term Moors has no real ethnological value."^[2]

In the Spanish language, the term for Moors is moro; in Portuguese the word is mouro. There consequently seems to have been some confusion about the relationship of the word moro/mouro with the word moreno (which means tanned or dark or brown-skinned; in origin the term was used to refer to a person with brown or black hair color, regardless of skin or eye color - synonym for Brunette, today both meanings co-exist). However, the two words have different etymological roots, and the Moors, though most were probably swarthy, were not "negro".^[3][4]

The Al Andalus Moors of the late Medieval era inhabited the Iberian Peninsula after the Arab conquests of theRashidun and Umayyad Caliphates, and the final Umayyad conquest of Hispania. These conquests stretched south to modern-day Mauritania, Western Sahara, and West African countries as far south as the Senegal River. Earlier, the Classical Romans interacted (and later conquered) Mauretania, a state in what is now Algeria. The people of the region are remembered in Classical literature as the Mauri. This name, not their own, was applied by cultures north of the Mediterranean.

The term, or variations thereof, was later used by European traders and explorers of the 16th to 18th centuries to designate ethnic Berber and Arab groups speaking the Hassaniya Arabic dialect, today inhabiting Mauritania and parts of Algeria, Western Sahara, Morocco, Niger and Mali. This is the genesis of the name of the modern Islamic Republic of Mauritania, first applied during French Colonial rule. A variation of the term is still used in thePhilippines to designate some Muslim populations.

Speakers of European languages have historically designated a number of ethnic groups "Moors". In modern Iberia, the word remains associated with those of Morrocan ethnicity living in Europe, and is consideredpejorative. It is sometimes used in a wider context to describe any person from North Africa. Similarly, in Spanish, the cognate moro is considered a racist and derogative term. But the Spanish still use it and even think of it as a neutral word in local sayings such as "no hay moros en la costa" (lit. "there are no Moors on the coast," meaning "the coast is clear").