Thanks for the link, however, I'd be careful when dealing with Metatron, while the info is not necessarily incorrect, he have a way of doing a bit of slight of hand, for eg, he did not deal with the etymology of the term Moor itself, which existed before the Medieval era, Moor in the European mind exemplified Blackness, this will include others as the centuries ticked off, but leave no doubt as to whom it referred originally to , one can be left with the belief that early Berbers and Blacks were mutually exclusive, take for eg, this below that throw the notion out the window.
A great host of captives? A note on Vikings in Morocco and Africans in early medieval Ireland & BritainThe final section of FA 330, detailing how the Vikings brought a 'great host' of North African captives back to Ireland, from O'Donovan's 1860 edition of the text; click the image for a larger view (image: Internet Archive).
In light of the above, the account in the Fragmentary Annals has been viewed with some suspicion. Nonetheless, the suggestion that Vikings might have raided along the coast of North Africa and even perhaps captured and enslaved people from this region is supported, to some degree, by other historical and archaeological evidence. Of particular importance in this regard is the fact that medieval Muslim writers also refer to Vikings (Majūs) having raided along the North African coast in the mid-ninth century. For example, the Andalusi geographer Al-Bakrī in his Kitāb al-Masālik wa-al-Mamālik ('Book of Roads and Kingdoms'), completed c. 1068 but based on earlier materials, records the following:
Majūs [Vikings]—God curse them—landed at Nakūr [Nekor, Morocco], in the year 244 (858–859). They took the city, plundered it, and made its inhabitants slaves, except those who saved themselves by flight. Among their prisoners were Ama al-Raḥmān and Khanūla, daughters of Wakif ibn-Mu'tasim ibn-Ṣāliḥ. [The emir] Muḥammed ransomed them. The Majūs stayed eight days in Nakūr.
The same basic tale is recorded by a number of other writers too, including the tenth-century Andalusi historian Ibn al-Qūṭīya and the later authors Ibn Idhārī and Ibn Khaldūn, and a version also appears in the late ninth-century Christian Chronicle of Alfonso III, where it is related that the 'Northman pirates... sailed the sea and attacked Nekur, a city in Mauritania, and there they killed a vast number of Muslims.
' Needless to say, the above is of considerable interest in the present context, and the reality of Viking activity in the region of Morocco is further supported by a recent analysis of bones of ancient mice recovered from the Portuguese island of Madeira, located off the coast of Morocco, which indicates that this island was probably visited by Vikings from Scandinavia/northern Germany in the tenth or early eleventh century, at least four centuries before the medieval Portuguese colonisation of the island.
Map showing the territories and voyages of the Vikings, with dates for key settlements and expeditions (image
www.caitlingreen.org/2015/09/a-great-host-of-captives.htmlHere we can see coastal north Africans battling with Vikings these would be Berbers, the fact that some folks of Tropical African were enslaved soldiers would not negate the fact that many others,from the south were in fact allies.
Wārjābī b. Rābīs and Reform in the Sahel It has become conventional to attribute initial Islamic reform in the Sahel to the rise of the Almoravids, though their relationship to the middle Senegal valley (or Takrur) remains opaque. There arose the (likely) Pullo leader Wārjābī
Wārjābī b. Rābīs (d. 432/1040–1), who challenged a non-Muslim, “idol (dakkūr)-worshiping” population.30 Wārjābī’s activities are usually viewed as subsidiary to those of the Almoravids, but closer examination reveals the latter’s close if not vital connection to the resources and politics of the Sahel, suggesting Wārjābī’s endeavors may have been more generative than derivative. Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm, founder of the Almoravids, hailed from the Banū Gudala division of the Ṣanhāja and lived in what is now southern Mauritania, close to the Senegal River.
The community from which he sprang was closely affiliated with bilād as-sūdān, as was that of his mentor, ‘Abd ‘Allāh b. Yāsīn, whose own mother hailed from “Tamāmānāwt, situated on the edge of the desert which adjoins the town of Ghāna.” Though Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm’s spiritual quest took him to Mecca and then al-Qayrawan, it is worth asking whether Wārjābī helped fire the imagination of Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm rather than the reverse, aiding the explanation of why the Almoravids began in southern Mauritania and northern Senegal.
After all, by the time Yaḥyā b. Ibrāhīm gets under way “to proclaim the Truth (da’wat al-ḥaqq)” in 440/1048, Wārjābī b. Rābīs had been dead for eight years, having completed his own holy war.31 Instructively, two years following the capture of Awdaghust, the son of Wārjābī b. Rābīs, one Labbī, attempted an ill-fated rescue of ‘Abd Allāh b. Yāsīn’s brother Yaḥyā b. ‘Umar, under siege in the Lamtuna Mountains and eventually killed by the Banū Gudala in 448/1056–7. Given Takrur’s earlier example and subsequent military support for the Almoravids, it is not at all clear who preceded whom.
Gomez, Michael. African Dominion (pp. 36-37). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.
Addendum to "The African Heritage and
Ethnohistory of the Moors", in Golden Age of the Moor
In the 6th century, Isidore was among several writers who vividly described the "white" Gauls, contrasting them with the "black as night" Moors or Mauri (Barney, S. A., 2007, p. 386). According to one expert in late antiquity, "By the time Isidore of Seville wrote his Etymologies, the word 'Maurus' or 'Moor' had become a Latin adjective, as 'the Greeks call 'black' 'mauron'. In Isidore's era, Moors were inherently black" (Conant, J., 2012, p. 269).
Further west, the Byzantine poet Corippus chronicled the inhabitants of Byzacena in Tunisia, south of Carthage, who were part of a confederation under the Berber leader Antalas, fighting against the Byzantines. Corippus frequently described Moors individually and collectively as "black" or "dark" (Niger), even likening one Moorish woman and her children to a raven and its chicks (Conant, 2012, p. 269). (Byzantines paraded Moorish women through Carthage's streets.)
The Moorish leader Antalas had previously clashed with the Germanic Vandals, whom the Byzantine author Procopius noted had settled by the tens of thousands in northern Algeria, including Kabylia. In the 6th century, Procopius, aside from describing the Moors or Maurusioi as black-skinned, mentioned the Vandals, stating, "the number of the Vandals and Alans was said in former times, at least, to amount to no more than fifty thousand men. However, after that time by their natural increase among themselves and by associating other barbarians with them they came to be an exceedingly numerous people. But the names of the Alans and all the other barbarians, except the Mauretanii, were united in the name of Vandals." (Procopius, History of the Wars Book III)
The descendants of Tuareg slavers and traders, still present in the Sahara and Sahel, are undoubtedly partly the result of admixture, including descendants of white slaves and husbands. "The discolored child terrifies its cradle" (Bell. Gild. 1.189-93) (Waarden, J. A. & Kelly, G., 2013, p. 263, fn. 63).
There is reason to believe that the Tuareg may have been the "great-statured Ethiopians" Strabo referred to, who were said by tradition to have settled along the coasts of North Africa and the Atlas. Mercenaries were also settled in such areas, much like black slaves. Additionally, it is known that Tuareg men, as late as colonial times, frequently married their slave concubines. One observer reports, “the women are often employed in the double capacity of servants and concubines, and are eventually married” (Landor, A.H. S., 1907, p. 333).
This practice of marrying captured or foreign women appears to have a long history. Ancestral Tuareg, or the al-Anusamani (Nasamones), are mentioned in the Byzantine period by Claudian (4th century, see De Bello Gildonico), as capturing white Roman women from the Levant and producing "Ethiopian hybrids" under their leader Gildo "the Moor" (Platnauer, M., 1922, p. 113).
Another translation notes: "Each disdained noble matron is handed over to the Moors. Taken into the middle of Carthage, these Sidonian mothers undergo marriage with barbarians. [Gildo] thrusts upon us an Ethiopian as a son-in-law, a Nasamon as a..."husband. The discoloured child terrifies its cradle’" (Bell. Gild. 1.189-93) (Waarden, J.A. and Kelly, Gavin, 2013, p. 263, fn. 63)
There is certainly reason to believe that the Tuareg could have been the great-statured
"Ethiopians" that Strabo claimed were by tradition said to have been settled along the
coasts of North Africa and in the Atlas.
www.academia.edu/6314823/Addendum_to_The_African_Heritage_and_Ethnohistory_of_the_Moors_in_Golden_Age_of_the_Moor?email_work_card=titleMany times you'll see the familiar pics of mixed bands of Islamic soldiers, dubbed as Moors
collectively as was used in the vid clip, but how many times will you see this, plus many more.
Grandes Chroniques de France [Royal MS G VI]
f. 167r. Agolant and his Moors attack a castle (Charlemagne, book 4, 3).
France (1332-1350)
Parchment codex; 390 x 280 mm (text space: 255 x 190 mm).
British Library, London.
medievalpoc.tumblr.com/tagged/Art%20HistoryGrandes Chroniques de France Art HistoryMedieval Art Charlemagne France Agolant130
The Song of Roland
translated by Jessie Crosland
143. Of what avail is it? If Marsilie has fled, his uncle Marganice remains behind. He it was who held Carthage...[?] and Ethiopia, an accursèd land. The black people are in his domain; they have big noses and wide ears and altogether there are more than fifty thousand of them. They ride fiercely and furiously and they shout the heathen battle-cry. Then said Roland: “We shall obtain martyrdom here, and I know well now that we have not long to live. But cursed be he who does not sell himself dearly first! Strike, lords, with your burnished swords, and make a bid, whether it be for life or death, that sweet France be in no wise dishonoured by us! When Charles, my lord, comes to this field of battle he will see such punishment of the heathen that for every one of ours there will be fifteen dead of them, and he will not fail to give us his blessing.”
144. When Roland sees the accursèd people who are blacker than ink and have no white about them except their teeth, thus the count spoke: “Now I know indeed that we shall die to-day without fail. Strike, French, for I myself am about to begin again!” Said Oliver: “Cursed be he who lingers At these words the French rush to the attack.
www.yorku.ca/inpar/roland_crosland.pdfSo yes while he's getting there he have a way to go.
This is also a great resource.
blackcentraleurope.com/#%3A~%3Atext%3DThere%20are%20over%201%20million%2Care%20historical%20and%20national%20outsiders.