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Drew Ali attended the 1929 inauguration of Illinois Governor Louis Lincoln Emmerson. The Chicago Defender stated that his trip included “interviews with many distinguished citizens from Chicago, who greeted him on every hand.” With the growth in its population and membership, Chicago was established as the center of the Moorish Science movement.The death of Drew Ali brought out a number of candidates who vied to succeed him. Edward Mealy El stated that he had been declared Drew Ali’s successor by Drew Ali himself, while John Givens-El, Drew Ali’s chauffeur, declared that he was Drew Ali reincarnated. However, the governors of the Moorish Science Temple of America declared Charles Kirkman-Bey to be the successor to Drew Ali and named him Grand Advisor.

Drew Ali used this material to claim Jesus and his followers were Asiatic. (“Asiatic” was the term Drew Ali used for all dark or olive-colored people); he labeled whites as European, although he labeled whites who became a part of the MSTA as “Persians” or “Celts”. He suggested that all Asiatics should be allied.Drew Ali believed that African Americans were all Moors, who he claimed were descended from the ancient Moabites (describing them as belonging to Northwest Africa as opposed to Moab as the name suggests). He claimed that Islam and its teachings are more beneficial to their earthly salvation, and that their ‘true nature’ had been ‘withheld’ from them. Male members of the Temple wear a fez or turban as head covering; women wear a turban.This text came to be known as the Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America (not to be confused with the Islamic Quran). It is also known as the “Circle Seven Koran” because of its cover, which features a red “7” surrounded by a blue circle. The first 19 chapters are from The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, published in 1908 by esoteric Ohio preacher Levi Dowling. In The Aquarian Gospel, Dowling described Jesus’s supposed travels in India, Egypt, and Palestine during the years of his life which are not accounted for by the New Testament.

Drew Ali reported that during his travels in Egypt, he met a high priest of Egyptian magic. In one version of Drew Ali’s biography, the leader saw him as a reincarnation of the founder. In others, he claims that the priest considered him a reincarnation of Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad and other religious prophets. According to the biography, the high priest trained Ali in mysticism and gave him a “lost section” of the Quran.Drew Ali crafted Moorish Science ideology from a variety of sources, a “network of alternative spiritualities that focused on the power of the individual to bring about personal transformation through mystical knowledge of the divine within”. In the interwar period in Chicago and other major cities, he used these concepts to preach Moorish pride. His approach appealed to thousands of African Americans who had left severely oppressive conditions in the South through the Great Migration and faced struggles adapting in new urban environments.Drew Ali was out of town at the time, as he was dealing with former Supreme Grand Governor Lomax-Bey (professor Ezaldine Muhammad), who had supported Green-Bey’s attempted coup. When Drew Ali returned to Chicago, the police arrested him and other members of the community on suspicion of having instigated the killing. No indictment was sworn for Drew Ali at that time.

It is possible that Drew Ali did actually travel to Egypt and Morocco, but historians believe that after leaving North Carolina, he moved to Newark, New Jersey, where he worked as a train expressman. In 1913, Drew Ali formed the Canaanite Temple in Newark. Drew Ali and his followers migrated, while planting congregations in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C., and Detroit. Finally, Drew Ali settled in Chicago in 1925, saying the Midwest was “closer to Islam.” The following year he officially registered Temple No. 9. One version of his life, common among members of the Moorish Science Temple, holds that Drew was raised by an abusive aunt, who once threw him into a furnace. This version holds that he left home at 16 and joined a band of Romani people who took him overseas to Egypt, and the Middle East. Drew Ali also reportedly worked as a circus magician, or a merchant seaman, before purportedly traveling to Egypt. He never received a formal education, but at some point came into contact with Eastern philosophy. There he instructed followers not to be confrontational but to build up their people to be respected. In this way, they might take their place in the United States of America by developing a cultural identity that was congruent with Drew Ali’s beliefs on personhood. In the late 1920s, journalists estimated the Moorish Science Temple had 35,000 members in 17 temples in cities across the Midwest and upper South.

Timothy Drew, better known as Noble Drew Ali (January 8, 1886 – July 20, 1929), was an American religious leader who founded the Moorish Science Temple of America and the Moorish Divine and National Movement in the early 20th century. Considered a prophet by his followers, in 1913 he founded the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey, before relocating to Chicago, where he gained a following of thousands of converts. Following the murder of a rival Moorish Science Temple leader, Drew Ali was arrested (but never charged) and sent to jail; he died in 1929 shortly after being released.As Drew Ali began urging the “Moorish-Americans” to become better citizens, he made speeches like, “A Divine Warning By the Prophet for the Nations”, in which he urged them to reject derogatory labels, such as “Black,” “colored,” and “Negro.” He urged Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love. He believed that Chicago would become a second Mecca.In early 1929, following a conflict over funds, Claude Green-Bey, the business manager of Chicago Temple No. 1 split from the Moorish Science Temple of America. He declared himself Grand Sheik and took a number of members with him. On March 15, Green-Bey was stabbed to death at the Unity Hall of the Moorish Science Temple, on Indiana Avenue in Chicago.

The ushers of the Temple wore black fezzes. The leader of a particular temple was known as a Grand Sheik, or Governor. Noble Drew Ali was known to have had several wives. According to The Chicago Defender, he claimed the power to marry and divorce at will. The Moorish Science movement was reportedly studied and watched by the Chicago police.

In 2014, a completely different understanding of Drew Ali’s early life was presented with the publication of an article in the online Journal of Race Ethnicity and Religion. The article presented newly compiled evidence, including census records, newspaper ads, newspaper articles, a World War I draft card, and street directory records, to link Noble Drew Ali to one “Thomas Drew,” who was born on the same date as “Timothy Drew” but originated from Virginia instead.Several details of Drew Ali’s early life are uncertain, as true information became mixed with that of legend by his devout followers. He is believed to have been born Timothy Drew, on January 8, 1886, in North Carolina. Sources differ as to his background and upbringing: one reports he was the orphaned son of two former slaves born in a Cherokee tribe, while another describes him as the son of John A. Drew-Quitman, military and political leader of the Cherokee (Coharie) Nation and Eliza Turner-Quitman full blooded Washitaw-Tunica mother. When his leadership was largely rejected, he broke away from the Moorish Science Temple, moved to Detroit, and founded the Nation of Islam. Nation of Islam leaders denied any historical connection to the Moorish Science Temple of America, until February 26, 2014, when Louis Farrakhan acknowledged Noble Drew Ali’s contribution to the Nation of Islam. Chapters 20 through 45 are borrowed from the Rosicrucian work, Unto Thee I Grant, with minor changes in style and wording. They are instructions on how to live, and the education and duties of adherents.

Shortly after his release by the police, Drew Ali died at age 43 at his home in Chicago on July 20, 1929. Although the exact circumstances of his death are unknown, the Certificate of Death stated that Noble Drew Ali died from “tuberculosis broncho-pneumonia”. Despite the official report, many of his followers speculated that his death was caused by injuries from the police or from other members of the faith.The fallen sons and daughters of the Asiatic Nation of North America need to learn to love instead of hate; and to know of their higher self and lower self. This is the uniting of the Holy Koran of Mecca for teaching and instructing all Moorish Americans, etc. The key of civilization was and is in the hands of the Asiatic nations. The Moorish, who were the ancient Moabites, and the founders of the Holy City of Mecca.

In 1978, Fort returned to Chicago and changed the name of his gang to El Rukn (“the foundation” in Arabic), also known as “Circle Seven El Rukn Moorish Science Temple of America” and the “Moorish Science Temple, El Rukn tribe”. Scholars are divided over the nature of the relationship, if any, between El Rukn and the Moorish Science Temple of America. Fort reportedly hoped that an apparent affiliation with a religious organization would discourage law enforcement.

Chapters 20 through 45 are borrowed from the Rosicrucian work, Unto Thee I Grant with minor changes in style and wording. They are instructions on how to live, and the education and duties of adherents.Building Moorish-American businesses was part of their program, and in that was similar to Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League and the later Nation of Islam. By 1928, members of the Moorish Science Temple of America had obtained some respectability within Chicago and Illinois, as they were featured prominently and favorably in the pages of The Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper, and conspicuously collaborated with African American politician and businessman Daniel Jackson.

At the September Unity Conference, Givens again made his claim of reincarnation. However, the governors of the Moorish Science Temple of America declared Charles Kirkman Bey to be the successor to Drew Ali and named him Grand Advisor.The community was further split when Wallace Fard Muhammad, known within the temple as David Ford-el, also claimed (or was taken by some) to be the reincarnation of Drew Ali. When his leadership was rejected, Ford El broke away from the Moorish Science Temple. He moved to Detroit, where he formed his own group, an organization that would become the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam denied any historical connection with the Moorish Science Temple until February 26, 2014, when Louis Farrakhan acknowledged the contribution(s) of Noble Drew Ali to the Nation of Islam and their founding principles.

One-third of the members, or 10,000, lived in Chicago, the center of the movement. There were congregations in numerous other cities where African Americans had migrated in the early 20th century. The group published several magazines: one was the Moorish Guide National. During the 1930s and 1940s, continued surveillance by police (and later the FBI) caused the Moors to become more withdrawn and critical of the government.

A Rise of the Moors member had earlier been arrested in Danvers, Massachusetts, in 2019 on an outstanding warrant. He alleged his arrest was unlawful and filed a federal lawsuit against the police, which was dismissed after he tried to pay the court fees with a silver coin, saying U.S. currency was unconstitutional because it was “not backed by anything of value”. On July 15, 2019, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney, as part of a diversity program, proclaimed July 15 to be “Morocco Day”. The city mistakenly invited members of the local Moorish Science temple to the ceremony, believing them to be of actual Moroccan descent. Drew Ali reported that during his travels, he met with a high priest of Egyptian magic. In one version of Drew Ali’s biography, the leader saw him as a reincarnation of the founder. In others, he says that the priest considered him a reincarnation of Jesus, the Buddha, Muhammad and other religious prophets. According to the biography, the high priest trained Ali in mysticism and gave him a “lost section” of the Quran.Ali believed that African Americans are all Moors, who he claimed were descended from the ancient Moabites (the kingdom of which he says is now known as Morocco, as opposed to the ancient Canaanite kingdom of Moab, as the name suggests). This claim does not align with scientific studies of human history, such as the genetics of African-Americans and genetic history of sub-Saharan Africa. He claimed that Islam and its teachings are more beneficial to their earthly salvation, and that their “true nature” had been “withheld” from them. In the traditions he founded, male members of the Temple wear a fez or turban as head covering; women wear a turban.With the support of several temples each, Mealy El and Givens El both went on to lead separate factions of the Moorish Science Temple. All three factions (Kirkman Bey, Mealy El, and Givens El) are active today.

In 2005, musician Roy “Future Man” Wooten pleaded guilty to income tax evasion, after having been indicted on charges in 2001 that he had not filed or paid taxes between 1995 and 1998. He was affiliated with the Washitaw Nation, and before his guilty plea had been judged possibly incapable of assisting in his own defense after filing incomprehensible sovereign citizen paperwork with the court.

In 1984 the Chicago congregation bought a building from Buddhist monks in Ukrainian Village, which continues to be used for Temple No. 9. Demographic and cultural changes have decreased the attraction of young people to the Moorish Science Temple. Only about 200 members attended a convention in 2007, rather than the thousands of the past. In the early 2000s, the temples in Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., had about 200 members each, and many were older people.Drew Ali crafted Moorish Science from a variety of sources, a “network of alternative spiritualities that focused on the power of the individual to bring about personal transformation through mystical knowledge of the divine within”. In the inter-war years in Chicago and other major cities, he used these concepts to preach racial pride and uplift. His approach appealed to thousands of African Americans who had left severely oppressive conditions in the South through the Great Migration and faced struggles in new urban environments. The ushers of the Temple wore black fezzes. The leader of a particular temple was known as a Grand Sheik, or Governor. Noble Drew Ali had several wives. According to The Chicago Defender, he claimed the power to marry and divorce at will. The death of Drew Ali brought out a number of candidates to succeed him. Brother Edward Mealy El stated that he had been declared Drew Ali’s successor by Drew Ali himself. In August, within a month of Drew Ali’s death, John Givens El, Drew Ali’s chauffeur, declared that he was Drew Ali reincarnated. He is said to have fainted while working on Drew Ali’s automobile and “the sign of the star and crescent [appeared] in his eyes”.

The Moorish Science Temple of America was incorporated under the Illinois Religious Corporation Act 805 ILCS 110. Timothy Drew, known to its members as Prophet Noble Drew Ali, founded the Moorish Science Temple of America in 1913 in Newark, New Jersey, a booming industrial city. After some difficulties, Ali moved to Chicago, establishing a center there, as well as temples in other major cities. The movement expanded rapidly during the late 1920s. The quick expansion of the Moorish Science Temple arose in large part from the search for identity and context among black Americans at the time of the Great Migration to northern cities, as they were becoming an urbanized people.

As Drew Ali began his version of teaching the Moorish-Americans to become better citizens, he made speeches like, “A Divine Warning By the Prophet for the Nations”, in which he urged them to reject derogatory labels, such as “Black”, “colored”, and “Negro”. He urged Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love. He believed that Chicago would become a second Mecca.In July 2021, eleven men identifying themselves as a group called Rise of the Moors were arrested on Interstate 95 in Wakefield, Massachusetts, after a state trooper responding to disabled vehicles allegedly found the group carrying long guns, side-arms and wearing tactical body armor. Police said the group claimed to be traveling from Rhode Island to Maine for “training” on their privately owned land. An Instagram account belonging to the group says its goal is to continue the work of Noble Drew Ali.

The Moorish Science Temple of America is an American national and religious organization founded by Noble Drew Ali (born as Timothy Drew) in the early 20th century. He based it on the premise that African Americans are descendants of the Moabites and thus are “Moorish” (sometimes also spelled “Muurish” by adherents) by nationality, and Islamic by faith. Ali put together elements of major traditions to develop a message of personal transformation through historical education, racial pride, and spiritual uplift. His doctrine was also intended to provide African Americans with a sense of identity in the world and to promote civic involvement.There he instructed followers not to be confrontational but to build up their people to be respected. In this way, they might take their place in the United States by developing a cultural identity that was congruent with Drew Ali’s beliefs on personhood. In the late 1920s, journalists estimated the Moorish Science Temple had 35,000 members in 17 temples in cities across the Midwest and upper South. It was reportedly studied and watched by the Chicago police.

Some “Moorish” activists have practiced hostile possession of properties, citing “reparations” as a justification for their actions, even though their victims included other Black Americans. In June 2021, Hubert A. John, a self-identified citizen of the Al Moroccan Empire, was arrested and charged on with counts of criminal mischief, burglary, criminal trespass and terroristic threats after he occupied a house in Newark, New Jersey, claiming that it fell into the jurisdiction of the Al Moroccan Empire.In addition to the Moorish Science Temple doctrine that Black Americans are of Moorish descent, Moorish sovereign citizens claim immunity from U.S. federal, state, and local laws, because of a mistaken belief that the Moroccan–American Treaty of Friendship (1786) grants them sovereignty. In reality, the 1786 treaty was primarily a trade agreement.

In 1913, Drew Ali formed the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey. He left the city after agitating people with his views on race. Drew Ali and his followers migrated, while planting congregations in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C., and Detroit. Finally, Drew Ali settled in Chicago in 1925, saying the Midwest was “closer to Islam”. The following year he officially registered Temple No. 9.Drew Ali and his followers used this material to claim, “Jesus and his followers were Asiatic.” (“Asiatic” was the term Drew Ali used for all dark or olive-colored people; he labeled all whites as European. He suggested that all Asiatics should be allied.)

The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Moorish sovereign citizens as an extremist anti-government group. Tactics used by the group include filing false deeds and property claims, false liens against government officials, frivolous legal motions to overwhelm courts, and invented legalese used in court appearances and filings. Various groups and individuals identifying as Moorish sovereign citizens have used the unorthodox “quantum grammar” created by David Wynn Miller. An article syndicated by the Associated Press states that the Temple has disavowed any affiliation with those responsible, calling them “radical and subversive fringe groups” and also states that “Moorish leaders are looking into legal remedies.” The article also quotes an academic who has been advising authorities on how to distinguish registered Temple members from impostors in the sovereign citizen movement.

Despite the turmoil and defections, the movement continued to grow in the 1930s. It is estimated that membership in the 1930s reached 30,000. There were major congregations in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago.An organization with headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, claiming to be “the ONLY Moorish Science Temple teaching the full National side of the Moorish Movement”, is the Moorish Science Temple, with registered business names of the Divine and National Movement of North America, Inc., and Moorish American National Republic.

On September 25, 1929, Kirkman Bey’s wife reported to the Chicago police his apparent kidnapping by one Ira Johnson. Accompanied by two Moorish Science members, the police visited the home of Johnson, when they were met by gunfire. The attack escalated into a shoot-out that spilled into the surrounding neighborhood. In the end, a policeman as well as a member were killed in the gun battle, and a second policeman later died of his wounds. The police took 60 people into police custody, and a reported 1000 police officers patrolled the Chicago South Side that evening. Johnson and two others were later convicted of murder.

Shortly after his release by the police, Drew Ali died at age 43 at his home in Chicago on July 20, 1929. Although the exact circumstances of his death are unknown, the Certificate of Death stated that Noble Drew Ali died from “tuberculosis broncho-pneumonia”. Despite the official report, many of his followers speculated that his death was caused by injuries from the police or from other members of the faith. Others thought it was due to pneumonia. One Moor told The Chicago Defender, “The Prophet was not ill; his work was done and he laid his head upon the lap of one of his followers and passed out.”

Competing factions developed among the congregations and leaders, especially after the death of the charismatic Ali. Three independent organizations developed from this ferment. The founding of the Nation of Islam by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930 also created competition for members. In the 1930s membership was estimated at 30,000, with one third in Chicago. During the postwar years, the Moorish Science Temple of America continued to increase in membership, albeit at a slower rate.

Moorish Science Temple of America, U.S. religious movement founded in Newark, New Jersey, in 1913 by Timothy Drew (1886–1929), known to followers as Noble Drew Ali and also as the Prophet. Drew Ali taught that all blacks were of Moorish origins but had their Muslim identity taken away from them through slavery and racial segregation. He advocated that they should “return” to the Islam of their Moorish forefathers, redeeming themselves from racial oppression by reclaiming their historical spiritual heritage. He also encouraged use of the term “Moor” rather than “black” in self-identification. Many of the group’s formal practices were derived from Muslim observances. Rigorous obedience to the Prophet’s regulations was required, and certain foods were forbidden. The group’s sacred text was the Holy Koran, which was distinct from the Qurʾān of orthodox Islam and which members considered to have been divinely revealed by Allah to Drew Ali. The work begins with a long narrative spanning from the Fall of Man to the Resurrection of Jesus; it includes moral instructions by Drew Ali and closes with a prophecy of the imminent “uplift of fallen humanity.”Drew Ali moved his organization several times and ultimately settled in the mid-1920s in Chicago, where he found success. He died under mysterious circumstances during a period of internal strife, and the Moorish Science Temple of America split into several factions. The Nation of Islam grew out of the contested succession to Drew Ali and became a separate organization in Detroit in 1932. Several men claimed to carry on the spiritual lineage of Noble Drew Ali and founded similar organizations. In the early 21st century the largest of those—the Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc.—operated a prison ministry and a theological seminary, the University of the Moorish Science Temple of America.

The palace has stucco decoration and painted plaster like a cake, but the result is serene, an art form brought to perfection just shortly before the civilization was about to collapse.

Tourists visiting Southern Spain look for these wonders, but what is less well known is the role played by the Moors in opening a thriving era of scientific discovery. The study of the Koran triggered a thirst for knowledge and learning, and also sharpened people’s thinking skills. The new spirit of inquiry led to amazing advances in astronomy, medicine, botany, philosophy and mathematics. The Arabic numeral system was transmitted to Europe via Spain. And while the rest of Europe in the 14th century was dying in large numbers of the black death, or plague, the Moors opened their first hospitals and understood that quarantining sick people had something to do with protection from disease.

In 1492 the last Muslim king, Boabdil the Unlucky, surrendered the keys of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabel, the two Catholic sovereigns. Those two were intolerant of religious minorities and unleashed the Inquisition, a court both religious and political that was directed against the Jews and the Moors. Jews and Muslims were forced to eat pork and convert, or else they were expelled or enslaved. Their brilliant rulers showed genius in absorbing the traditions of the natives they conquered. The Moorish civilization became a multi-racial melting pot of Jews, Muslims and Christians. The patios or private interior gardens of Cordoba, the Moorish capital under the Umayyad dynasty in the 8th century, are still to be seen today, especially in the Juderia, Cordoba’s Jewish neighborhood.Europeans owe a lot to the Moors, who retrieved the texts of Ancient Greece and Rome from oblivion. This helped usher in the Italian and French Renaissance, and made possible the explorations and discoveries that were to propel Western Europe to the front stage in the centuries to follow.If you go

1492 is a momentous date in world history, not only because of Christopher Columbus’s successful crossing of the Atlantic and arrival in the New World.

Granada, the capital of the Moorish Nazrid dynasty (1232-1492), is fabulously set in the midst of the snow-capped mountains of the Sierra Nevada, under luminous blue skies. The gardens and fortress of the Alhambra sit on top of one of the area’s seven steep hills, along with the Nazrid Palace and the Generalife, the summer “cottage” built in the 14th century. These buildings, created in the twilight of the Moorish civilization, blend architecture and landscaped gardens in an amazing orchestration of light and space with no real boundary between interior and exterior. Running water reaches every single room. There are topiaries, slender cypresses and spouting water jets, everywhere punctuated by the perfume of seasonal flowers such as jasmine and roses and the soothing sound of trickling water.The Moors also thought highly of poetry. And they introduced all kinds of exotic plants and foods to southern Europe, such as almonds, citrus fruits, sugarcane, cumin, saffron, nutmeg, pomegranates, persimmons and palm trees.

The Spanish horchata (a creamy summer drink made from the chufa nut, native to Africa) and turron (an almond nougat candy) still taste of their Moorish past.

Since the Moors came from Africa’s Sahara desert, they understood the importance of water. In Al-Andalus, they mastered the techniques of irrigation, creating landscapes and gardens that are oases of shade and bounty and heavenly perfection, as if the Moors had wanted to transcend the desert itself.It was also the year the Spanish Christian monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel, Queen of Castilla, finally defeated the Moors, forcing their retreat back into Africa.the 10th century, Cordoba had half a million inhabitants and was Europe’s intellectual center. Its mosque, the largest in the world, with seemingly endless rows of red and white arches, was founded in 785 AD. Its shady courtyard planted with sweet smelling orange trees was used for assembly, study and trade. The space was a reminder of everlasting heaven as described in the Koran. When the Christian monarchs took over, they redesigned the interior of the mosque and transformed it into a church.

Employing “the finest chinoiserie money could buy” it was a sumptuous location with its stained glass windows, coloured rope twist plasterwork and a statue depicting the 4th Earl and his great love Maria Foote.The design is attributed to Lewis Cottingham. It probably served as an ideal location for the earl’s passion for tea drinking and snuff taking in the pleasant environment of his developing evergreen gardens.

A: Those who fail to recognize the free national name of their constitutional government are classed as undesirables, and are subject to all Inferior names and abuses and mistreatments that the citizens care to bestow upon them.A: No. With us all members must proclaim their nationality and we are teaching our people their nationality and their Divine Creed that they may know that they are a part and a partial of this said government.

A: There is no difference. A moslem is one who submits his / her will to do the will of God (Allah). When Islam was brought to the Arab nation, they pronounced the word “muslim” instead of moslem.A: Moorish Science Temple of America is a religious corporation (jural society). It is a Divine and National Movement which teaches you to be yourself — Moorish American.

The marks of “black”, “colored”, “negro”, “afro-american”, “african-american”, “american descendant of slaves”, etc., were given to slaves by slaveholders in 1779 and lasted until 1865 during the time of slavery. If you consider yourself any of these names, you are a Moor.The Moorish Science Temple of America is actively involved in obtaining economic power, which assures us unity and the enjoyment of the genuine spirituality of life.

Moor, in English usage, a Moroccan or, formerly, a member of the Muslim population of al-Andalus, now Spain and Portugal. Of mixed Arab, Spanish, and Amazigh (Berber) origins, the Moors created the Islamic Andalusian civilization and subsequently settled as refugees in the Maghreb (in the region of North Africa) between the 11th and 17th centuries. By extension (corresponding to the Spanish moro), the term occasionally denotes any Muslim in general, as in the case of the “Moors” of Sri Lanka or of the Philippines. Today, the term Moor is used to designate the predominant Arab-Amazigh ethnic group in Mauritania (which makes up more than two-thirds of the country’s population) and the small Arab-Amazigh minority in Mali.The term Moorish continues to be widely used to describe the art, architecture, and high culture of Muslim Andalusia and North Africa dating from the 11th century onward. The word derives from the Latin term Maurus, first used by the Romans to denote an inhabitant of the Roman province of Mauretania, comprising the western portion of present-day Algeria and the northeastern portion of present-day Morocco. The term is of little use in describing the ethnic characteristics of any groups, ancient or modern. From the Middle Ages to the 17th century, however, Europeans depicted Moors as being black, “swarthy,” or “tawny” in skin colour. (Othello, Shakespeare’s Moor of Venice, comes to mind in such a context.) Europeans designated Muslims of any other complexion as “white Moors,” despite the fact that the population in most parts of North Africa differs little in physical appearance from that of southern Europe (in Morocco, for example, red and blonde hair are relatively common).Another important author was Alexander Pushkin who was Russian. He reportedly was of Moorish descent, however, by this he simply meant he was related to a man from Central Africa. He was incredibly influential in Russian literature and poetry but was not connected to the Moors of Spain or North Africa.

During Roman times, Moors was a term used to refer to people who lived in Northwestern Africa. These Moorish soldiers are being depicted fighting in Eastern Europe for Rome.This term typically refers to this historic group of people and their culture lives on in North African countries like Morocco. However, Europeans tended to use the word Moor in a broader sense to denote simply anyone who was Muslim.