MUSLIM VILLA - QURAN ONLY

To cut a long story short, the word is Muslim, not "Moor."

It's not known when exactly the Europeans began using the term "moor," but it has been around since ancient times though it wasn't synonymous with Muslims in that period.  Initially it alluded to indigenous Africans. 

"Moor" in English comes from a Greek word "mavro" which means "black" or "charred."  The English transliteration of "mavro" is "maurus" and its plural "mauri" which came from the vocabulary of ancient Romans referring to black Africans.  But that  approach gradually changed.  It's distortion isn't only extensive but just as illogical and imaginary as the myths and misconceptions of the harem. (http://muslimvilla.smfforfree.com/index.php?topic=4443.0)

The North African Amazighs (aka Berbers, another distortion by Europeans) who lived near Mauretania (south of Morocco) were called "Mauri."  The word "Mauri" was, in the course of time, corrupted by Europeans into "Moors" (conforming with the ancient Greek and Roman lexica) even though "Mauri" was simply a label for a particular segment of Amazighs that had no ethnographic definition.  Initially in the minds of European historians, "Moors" included North African Muslims of  Morocco (including Moroccan Amazighs), Tunisia and Algeria.  Gradually it became a term for all Muslims of the world (definitely a derogatory insinuation) including the Muslim rulers of Spain though they were not of North African origin.  They were an offshoot of the Ommayads who were ethnically Arabians (from the Arabian Peninsula).   Ommayad rule with its capital in Damascus was from 661 to 750 AD.  During this period, Spain was ruled by the Omayyad caliphs in Damascus.  When the Abbasids came to power, a member of the Ommayad family named Abdur Rehman fled to Spain and established an independent Ommayad dynasty in 756 AD.  But he and his successors continued to recognize the Abbasid caliphs as the religious authority for the next 200 years.  It was in the year 930 AD when the eighth ruler of Muslim Spain, Abdur Rehman al-Nasir (or Abdur Rehman III)  declared Muslim Spain (or Al-Andalus) independent of the Abbasids in Baghdad with Cordoba as its capital. The actual splendor of Al-Andalus began from this period known as the rule of the Nassirids.  The assumption that the "Moors" of Morocco and Mauretania ruled Muslim Spain is another baffling misconception.

Neither are the orientalist historians and artists (contemporary as well as of the middle-ages) perceptive of the difference in ethnicity between North Africans and sub-Saharan Africans.  Muslims of North Africa (referred as "moors") are portrayed identically similar to the residents of sub-Saharan Africa. Within the inhabitants of North Africa (often known as The Maghreb) there has been much diversity in their descendancy, particularly from the 7th century, namely Arabs and Turks.  Then again, the indigenous Berbers of The Maghreb have a separate and independent racial identity different from the rest.  Briefly put, there is a huge difference between the ethnicity of residents of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.  Needless to mention, such ethnic differences are completely irrelevant from the perspective of progress and development.   I'm only stating a point on ethnic mix-up that's so often overlooked.  It  sprouted from ignorance and later thrived from the lethargy of intellects to weed out misinformation as well as disinformation.

During the reign of the Turkish Ottomans (which began in the late 1200s), the racist British artist, David Roberts, invented the term “Mooristan” (extension of an already existing fiction) he persistently used for describing the landmarks of Cairo.

David Roberts was born in Scotland in 1796 and was the son of a shoemaker.  With an inborn talent to sketch, his career as an artist prospered and he became an associate of the Royal Academy.  But his basic academic education was scant.  Despite the rise in his social status, his mentality never rose above that of a cobbler's son.  He never gave up nurturing an attitude-problem that dwelt in the illusion of cultural superiority. That was evident from the style in which he conversed about the great city of Cairo during the era.  He visited Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon between 1838 and 1840 and returned home with a bundle of sketches published in several volumes in the mid 1840s.  His visit to the Middle-East was reportedly patronized by the despotic queen, Victoria Saxe-Gotha.

Roberts' defamation of Cairo as described in the book “Making Cairo Medieval” throws enough light to expose where he came from.   Quoting Roberts’ rants about the streets of Cairo:  "filthy and impertinent mob who jostle and stare at me" …. “of the need for guard to keep back the crowd” .... “a half-sucked orange thrown from a window above me” .. “of the risk of being squeezed to a mummy by the loaded camels” ..... “of a mid January sun so hot I could hardly sit out the day” .... “of wind and dust” and “of constant diarrhea.”  Yet he arrived back in Britain in 1840, fit as a fiddle.  A half-sucked orange flying out of a window would be a huge relief compared to excrement, an 'epoch' when in London they threw royal feces of the Tudors and Hanovers down  the windows of Palace lavatories into the bylanes for the passers-by to enjoy a turdy royal bath.

Roberts was given the permission by the Ottoman Pasha, Muhammed Ali, governor of Cairo, to draw images of mosques.  About it, he remarked: "I must espouse the Turkish dress and divest myself of my whiskers. That is too bad but my object can be accomplished in no other way."  While mentioning of his visit to the Middle-East in “The Life of David Roberts" compiled from his journals and other sources, there are passages where he is completely unable to conceal his fanatical ethnocentricity.   He describes the  pilgrimage to Makkah (Hajj) as “a fool's errand.”

The Citadel of Saladin in Cairo was a fortified area of the city since the era of the Fatimids and Ayyubids (from 10th to 13th centuries) for protection against the invasions of  the Crusaders.  It continued to be so in the reign of the Ottomans.  It is located on Mokattam Hill near the center of the city, famous for its fresh breeze and grand views of medieval Cairo.  It is now a preserved historic site, with mosques and museums.  Roberts describes this landmark with the famous tourist attraction of Mokattam Hill as the "streets of Mooristan."    In the Ottoman period 1848, the Citadel was also called Mohamed Ali Pasha Citadel or Qila Mohammed Ali because of the location of the Mosque of Muhammed Ali Pasha built on the summit of the Citadel.  This was the period when Roberts visited Egypt, spending most of his time in Cairo and the captions of his paintings of the Citadel of Cairo and Muhammed Ali Pasha Mosque read as “Street scene el-Mooristan” and "el-Mooristan Mosque.”  Even the wily Google doesn't recognize "mooristan" as a search code.    It does not exist in history in relation to Cairo nor Egypt.  It does not exist in the Middle East at all nor in the history of any Muslim community.  But the insinuation is derogatory and that's the major attraction. 

"Moor" is used by Western historians as a prefix for every sphere of life of medieval Muslim society for example: "Moorish courtyard," "Moorish garden," "Moorish fountain," "Moorish cuisine" and so on.   These are common captions on artworks by orientalists - contemporaries and successors of David Roberts such as Edwin Weeks and Adrien Dauzats.  Intellectualism is often embedded in traditions as blindly as illiteracy.  Well-read authors of modern times with positive intent seldom refrain using the term "Moors."  It hasn't yet struck them to probe, why "Moors?"  What is the saga behind this strange expression in the lexicon of history?



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Many thanks for the appreciation my dear sisters.  From now on, let us keep correcting every dumbo who uses this term. 

I'm gonna print this and take it for our monthly discussion of December 2017 InshAllah.  This must be seen as a separate agenda.  There are plenty of segments in history indispensable for exposing the gross myths splattered on the Muslim world.  Ancient introduction of the baseless word "moor" is one example.

Thank you Sister Heba.  Absolutely superb work.  May Allah, The Greatest, reward you.