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MOORS ( See also: present used, is loosely applied to any native of See also: Morocco, but in its stricter sense only to the townsmen of mixed descent
.
In this sense it is also used of the See also: Mahommedan townsmen in the other See also: Barbary states: It has been by some connected with the See also: Hebrew and Phoenician mahur, western
.
Wetzstein derives it from mahir, a corruption of Amasir with its plurals Imazir and Masir, archaic forms of the See also: Berber native name Amazigh, the See also: free
.
From Mauri, the classic name for the See also: north-western See also: African tribes, the north-western districts of that continent came to be called by the See also: Romans See also: Mauretania
.
The See also: term " Moors " has no real ethnological value
.
The tribes known to the Romans by that name were undoubtedly of Berber stock (see See also: BERBERS)
.
They first appear in See also: history at the See also: time of the Jugurthine War (xxo-io6 B.C.), when Mauretania west of the Mulucha was under the See also: government of a See also: king called
See also: Bocchus, and appears to have constituted a See also: regular and organized See also: state
.
It retained its independence till the time of See also: Augustus, who in 25 B.C. bestowed the See also: sovereignty of the previously existing See also: kingdom upon See also: Juba II., king of See also: Numidia, at the same time uniting it with the western portion of Numidia, from the Mulucha to the Ampsaga, which received the name of Mauretania Caesariensis, while the province that had previously constituted the kingdom, or Mauretania proper, came to be known as Mauretania Tingitana (see MAURETAMA)
.
With the rest of North See also: Africa Mauretania was overrun by the See also: Arabs in the 7th century
.
The subsequent See also: conquest of See also: Spain was effected chiefly by Berber tribes, but the Moslems in the peninsula—known to the Christian nations as Moors—always had a strong strain of Arab See also: blood and in most respects became Arabized: The See also: race was also influenced considerably by intermarriage with the natives of Spain, and when the Moors were finally expelled from that country they had become almost entirely distinct from their Berber kinsfolk, to whom they were known as Andalusians
.
While the mountainous parts of Morocco continued to be occupied by pure Berber See also: people, the Shlilh or See also: Shilluh, the Andalusian Moors flocked to
Proc
.
Zool
.
See also: Soc., 1848, p
.
7 ; Trans. iii
.
336, 0.1-V1
.
9 Proc
.
1850, pp
.
209-214, pl. xxi
.
; Trans. iv
.
69-74, pl. See also: xxv
.
7 Thus the See also: leg-bones and what appeared to him the sternum were described and figured (Trans. iv. pp
.
12, 17, pls. ii.. iv.), and the pelvis and another femur (vii. pp
.
369, 373, pls. xlii., xliii.) ; but the supposed sternum afterwards proved not to be that of Notornis, and See also: Owen (Proc
.
1882, p
.
689) rectified the error, to which hisSee also: attention had been See also: drawn, and which he had already suspected (Trans. viii
.
120)
.
',Notwithstanding the evidence, which presented some incongruities, offered by Mr See also: Mackay (See also: Ibis,
.
1867, p
.
144)
.
9"Trans
.
N
.
Zeal
.
Inst. xiv
.
238-258
.
the See also: coast towns and the plains of Morocco, occupied largely by Arabs
.
The name See also: Moor is however still applied to the populations speaking Arabic who inhabit the country extending from Morocco to the See also: Senegal, and to the See also: Niger as far See also: east as Timbuktu, i.e. the western See also: Sahara
.
In this vast region and in all the towns of Barbary many of the Andalusians settled . The Moors are ethnically a very hybrid race with more Arab than Berber blood . A See also: common See also: mistake is to regard them as a black race, as indicated by the old See also: English phrase " Black-a-Moor," i.e. black as a Moor
.
They are a See also: white race, though often sunburnt and bronzed for generations, and both their
See also: children and those who have lived in the cities might pass anywhere as Europeans
.
The typical Moors of Morocco are a handsome race, with skin the colour of See also: coffee-and-milk, with black eyes and black silky hair, and the features of Europeans
.
They See also: wear a full See also: beard, and are characterized by a marked dignity of demeanour
.
There is a general tendency to obesity, which is much admired by the Moors in their See also: women, See also: young girls being stuffed like chickens, with paste-balls mixed with honey, or with spoonfuls of See also: olive oil and See also: sesame, to give them the necessary corpulence
.
The Moors are an intellectual people, courteous in manner and not altogether unlettered; but they are cruel, revengeful and bloodthirsty
.
Among the pirates who infested the Mediterranean none were worse than the Moors
.
They are fanatical Mahommedans, regarding their places of worship as so sacred that the See also: mere approach of a See also: Jew or a Christian is forbidden
.
The Moors are temperate in their See also: diet and See also: simple in their dress, though among the richer classes of the towns the women cover themselves with silks, gold and jewels, while the men indulge to excess their love of See also: fine horses and splendid arms
.
The See also: national fault is See also: gross sensuality
.
The position of women is little better than a pampered See also: slavery
.
They are uneducated, indolent and vicious
.
Such See also: education as the children receive is of a superficial kind
.
Slavery flourishes, and slave See also: auctions, conducted like those of cows and mules, take place on the afternoons of stated days, affording a lounge for the See also: rich Moors, who discuss the " goods " offered and seek for bargains
.
This public sale of slaves was prohibited in the coast towns, c
.
185o, under pressure from See also: European See also: powers, but means are found to evade the prohibition
.
Of See also: games the young Moors See also: play a See also: great number; the See also: principal one is a kind of See also: football, more like that of Siam and See also: Burma than that of See also: England; See also: wrestling and See also: fencing are popular, but the chief amusement of the adult Moors is the " powder-play " (la'ab el bdrud), which consists of a type of military See also: tournament, the horsemen going through See also: lance and musket exercises or charging in review fashion, firing volleys as they gallop
.
Other recreations much in favour throughout Morocco are See also: music, singing, jugglery, snake-charming and acrobatic performances
.
As professional See also: story-tellers many Moors are remarkable, but the national music is monotonous and not very harmonious
.
See Dr Arthur Leared, Morocco and the Moors (1891); Budgett Meakin, The Moorish See also: Empire (1899); and The Moors (1902); Frances Macnab, A Ride in Morocco (1902); and see under
MOROCCO; MAURETANIA; BERBERS, &C
.
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