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===Etymology=== {{further|Mauri people|Mauretania}} The etymology of the word "Moor" is uncertain, although it can be traced back to the [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] term ''Mahurin'', meaning "Westerners".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://apc.aast.edu/ojs/index.php/ILCC/article/view/ilcc.2023.03.1.026/pdf_18 |journal=Insights into Language, Culture and Communication| volume=3| issue=1 |date=2023 |title=Maghrebians (or Mauri) speak Magharibi, not Arabic |last=Elimam |first=Abdou |pages=26–29 |doi=10.21622/ILCC.2023.03.1.026|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Va6oSxzojzoC&pg=PA560 |title=First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936, Volume V |publisher=E. J. Brill |last1=Houtsma |first1=M. |display-authors=etal |date=1993 |isbn=9004097910 |pages=560}}</ref> From ''Mahurin'', the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] derive ''Mauro'', from which [[Latin]] derives ''[[Mauri]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Skutsch |first=Carl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yXYKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |title=Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities |date=2013-11-07 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-19388-1 |pages=31 |language=en}}</ref> The word "Moor" is presumably of Phoenician origin.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Va6oSxzojzoC&pg=PA560 |title=First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936 |date=1993 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-09796-4 |pages=560 |language=en}}</ref> Some sources attribute a [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] origin to the word.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ditson |first=George Leighton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvLvJG3k7S0C&pg=PA122 |title=Adventures and Observations on the North Coast of Africa, Or, The Crescent and French Crusaders |date=1860 |publisher=Derby & Jackson |pages=122 |language=en}}</ref> During the classical period, the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] interacted with, and later conquered, parts of [[Mauretania]], a state that covered modern northern [[Morocco]], western [[Algeria]], and the Spanish cities [[Ceuta]] and [[Melilla]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Diderot|first1=Denis|title=Ceuta|journal=Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert – Collaborative Translation Project|date=1752|page=871|hdl=2027/spo.did2222.0000.555}}</ref> The [[Berbers|Berber]] tribes of the region were noted in the [[Classics]] as ''[[Mauri people|Mauri]]'', which was subsequently rendered as "Moors" in English and in related variations in other European languages.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Moor&allowed_in_frame=0 |title=Online Etymology Dictionary |publisher=Etymonline.com |access-date=2014-05-12}}</ref> ''Mauri'' ([[Ancient Greek]]: Μαῦροι) is recorded as the native name by [[Strabo]] in the early 1st century. This appellation was also adopted into Latin, whereas the Greek name for the tribe was ''Maurusii'' ({{langx|grc|Μαυρούσιοι}}).<ref>{{lang|grc|οἰκοῦσι δ᾽ ἐνταῦθα Μαυρούσιοι μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων λεγόμενοι, Μαῦροι δ᾽ ὑπὸ τῶν Ῥωμαίων καὶ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων}} "Here dwell a people called by the Greeks Maurusii, and by the Romans and the natives Mauri" Strabo, ''Geographica'' 17.3.2. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DMauri Lewis and Short, ''Latin Dictionary'', 1879 ''s.v.'' "Mauri"]</ref> The Moors were also mentioned by [[Tacitus]] as having revolted against the [[Roman Empire]] in 24 [[Anno Domini|AD]].<ref>Cornelius Tacitus, Arthur Murphy, The Historical Annals of Cornelius Tacitus: With Supplements, Volume 1 (D. Neall, 1829 ) [https://books.google.com/books?id=MEoWAAAAYAAJ&dq=Cinithians&pg=PA113 p114].</ref> During the Latin Middle Ages, ''Mauri'' was used to refer to Berbers and Arabs in the coastal regions of Northwest Africa.<ref name="OxfordIslamic">{{cite web|url=http://bridgingcultures.neh.gov/muslimjourneys/items/show/218|title='Moors' from Oxford Islamic Studies Online|last1=Assouline|first1=David|website=Muslim Journeys|publisher=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World in the Oxford Islamic Studies Online.|access-date=30 May 2018|archive-date=20 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520183655/http://bridgingcultures.neh.gov/muslimjourneys/items/show/218|url-status=dead}}</ref> The 16th century scholar [[Leo Africanus]] (c. 1494–1554) identified the Moors (''Mauri'') as the native Berber inhabitants of the former [[Roman Empire|Roman]] [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa Province]] ([[Roman Africans]]).<ref name="Leo">{{cite book |last1=Africanus |first1=Leo |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyanddescr03porygoog#page/n150/ |title=The History and Description of Africa |date=1526 |publisher=Hakluyt Society |pages=108 |quote=the Mauri – or Moors – were the Berbers |access-date=30 August 2017}}</ref> ===='White Moors' and 'Black Moors'==== The existence of both 'white Moors' and 'black Moors' is attested in historical literature from the late Middle Ages onwards.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1t8q92s.7 |title=Keywords of Identity, Race, and Human Mobility in Early Modern England |chapter=Blackamoor/Moor |date=2021 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press| editor-last1=Das |editor-first1=Nandini |display-authors=etal| pages=40–50|jstor=j.ctv1t8q92s.7 |last1=Das |first1=Nandini |last2=Melo |first2=João Vicente |last3=Smith |first3=Haig Z. |last4=Working |first4=Lauren |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1t8q92s.7 |isbn=978-94-6372-074-8 }}</ref> These terms are still used in modern-day [[Mauritania]], where the Moorish population is divided into the socially dominant 'white Moors' of Berber and Arab origin (also known ''[[Beidane|Beidanes]]''), and 'black Moors' (also known as ''[[Haratin|Haratines]]'') who are former slaves''.''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr38/003/2002/en/ |title=Mauritania: A future free from slavery |website=Amnesty International |date=2002 |pages=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/islamsblackslave00sega/page/204/mode/2up?q=white+moors |title=Islam's Black Slaves |date=2001 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |pages=204 |last=Segal |first=Ronald}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://growup.ethz.ch/atlas/Mauritania |title=Ethnicity in Mauritania |website=ETH Zurich}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://mondediplo.com/2019/08/04mauritania |title=Mauritania remains stuck in the past |website=Le Monde Diplomatique |date=2019}}</ref> {{quote |The Haratines are almost exclusively of black origin, but are closely associated with the Moorish population in terms of language and culture. In the words of Samuel Cotton: “[they] have lost virtually every aspect of their African origins except their skin color.” Their Moorish culture and their language are the result of generations of enslavement by the Moors. They are also referred to as “black Moors” to differentiate them from the “white Moors” who enslaved them, and from black Mauritanians who have not been enslaved by the Moors.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr38/003/2002/en/ |title=Mauritania: A future free from slavery |website=Amnesty International |date=2002 |pages=9}}</ref>}} In the 1453 chronicle ''The Discovery and Conquest of Guinea'' the Portuguese chronicler [[Gomes Eanes de Zurara|Gomes Eannes de Azurara]] writes: "Dinis Diaz, leaving Portugal with his company, never lowered sail till he had passed the land of the Moors and arrived in the land of the blacks, that is called [[Guinea (region)|Guinea]]."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35738/35738-h/35738-h.htm |title=The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, by Gomes Eannes de Azurara |date=1453 |website=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> The 'land of the blacks' here refers to the regions south of the Sahara known as [[Sudan (region)|''bilād as-sūdān'']] in Medieval Arabic texts. De Azurara also notes the existence of 'blacks' among the Moors, stating that "these blacks were Moors like the others, though their slaves, in accordance with ancient custom".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35738/35738-h/35738-h.htm |title=The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, by Gomes Eannes de Azurara |date=1453 |website=Project Gutenberg}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bwb_P8-DFH-699/page/122/mode/2up |title=Black Morocco: A history of slavery, race, and Islam |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last=El Hamel |first=Chouki |isbn=9781107025776 |pages=77}}</ref> In ''The First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge'' (1542) the English author [[Andrew Boorde|Andrew Borde]] writes that "[[Barbary Coast|Barbary]] is a great country, and plentiful of fruit, wine and corn. The inhabitants be called the Moors; there be white Moors and black Moors; they be infidels and unchristened." Borde includes a poem about "a black Moor born in Barbary" who will be "a good diligent slave".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aOueAAAAIAAJ |title=The First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge |last=Borde |first=Andrew |date=1542 |chapter=xxxvi, ‘Chapter treateth of the Moors which do dwell in Barbary’ |pages=212|publisher=Early English Text Society }}</ref> In his ''Description of Africa'' (1550) The [[Al-Andalus|Andalusi]] author [[Leo Africanus]] - described as a Moor by the English translator [[John Pory]] (1600) - refers to the Berber populations of [[Barbary Coast|Barbary]] and [[Numidia]] as "white Africans", translated by Pory as "white or tawny Moors".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyanddescr03porygoog/page/n334/mode/2up? |title=The history and description of Africa, Volume I |date=1550 |first=Leo |last=Africanus |publisher=Hakluyt society |pages=205}}</ref>
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