Friday, 10 February 2012

White slaves in history

http://elliotlakenews.wordpress.com/2007/09/10/untold-story-of-white-slavery/


Extract

Untold Story of White Slavery

 
by ELN
 
 
 
 
 
 
6 Votes
English: Purchase_of_Christian_captives_from_t...
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As Robert C. Davis notes in this eye-opening account of Barbary Coastslavery, American historians have studied every aspect of enslavement of Africans by whites but have largely ignored enslavement of white (Europeans) by North Africans.
Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters is a carefully researched, clearly written account of what Prof. Davis calls “the other slavery,” which flourished during approximately the same period as the trans-Atlantic trade, and which devastated hundreds of European coastal communities.
Slavery plays nothing like the central role in the thinking of today’s whites that it does forblacks, but not because it was fleeting or trivial matter. The record of Mediterranean slavery is, indeed, as black as the most tendentious portrayals of American slavery. Prof. Davis, who teaches Italian social history at Ohio State University, casts a piercing light into this fascinating but neglected corner of history.
The Barbary Coast, which extends from Morocco through modern Libya, was home to a thriving man-catching industry from about 1500 to 1800. The great slaving capitals were Salé in Morocco, Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli, and for most of this period, European navies were too weak to put up more than token resistance.
[...]
What is most striking about Barbary slaving raids is their scale and reach. Pirates took most of their slaves from ships, but they also organized huge, amphibious assaults that practically depopulated parts of the Italian coast. Italy was the most popular target, partly because Sicily is only 125 miles from Tunis, but also because it did not have strong central rulers who could resist invasion.
http://cruises.about.com/library/graphics/montecarlo/100-0078_IMG.JPG Building on high hills was a relative safety feature and offered an “early warning” lookout to help stave off North African Moors (Muslim) raiding parties.
Large raiding parties might be essentially unopposed. When pirates sacked Vieste insouthern Italy in 1554, for example, they took an astonishing 6,000 captives. Algerianstook 7,000 slaves in the Bay of Naples in 1544, in a raid that drove the price of slaves so low it was said you could “swap a Christian for an onion.”
Spain also suffered large-scale attacks. After a raid on Granada in 1566 netted 4,000 men, women, and children, it was said to be “raining [white] Christians in Algiers.” For every large-scale raid of this kind there would have been dozens of smaller ones.
[...]
If the pirates were short on galley slaves, they might put some of their captives to work immediately, but prisoners usually went below hatches for the journey home. They were packed in, barely able to move in the filth, stench, and vermin, and many died before they reached port.
Once in North Africa, it was tradition to parade newly-captured [WHITE] Christians through the streets, so people could jeer at them, and children could pelt them with refuse. At the slave market, men were made to jump about to prove they were not lame, and buyers often wanted them stripped naked again to see if they were healthy.
This was also to evaluate the sexual value of both men and women; white concubines had a high value, and all the slave capitals had a flourishing homosexual underground. Buyers who hoped to make a quick profit on a fat ransom examined earlobes for signs of piercing, which was an indication of wealth. It was also common to check a captive’s teeth to see if he was likely to survive on a tough slave diet.
[...]
Why is there so little interest in Mediterranean slavery while scholarship and reflection on black slavery never ends? As Prof. Davis explains, white slaves with non-whitemasters simply do no fit “the master narrative of European imperialism.” The victimization schemes so dear to academics require white wickedness, not White SUFFERING. Source
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Source:http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-forgotten-white-slaves-part-ii-nehesy/


Extract:


The Forgotten White Slaves Of America – by – Nehesy

This story of white servitude is hidden and they represent (AT LEAST) 1/2 to 2/3 of the first settlers of the America colony.
They were temporary chattel.
They were:
The Forgotten White Slaves Of America
By: Nehesy (Jan 2009)
You had:
- The Redemptioners ( specially the Germans who came with all their family but the family members were frequently sold to different masters);
- The Indentured Servants who sold themselves for a better life and a better place to live; they were lured with false promises ie “A land of milk and Honey is waiting for you in the new world”; and London was characterized by high poverty, famine and was “infested” with plagues…
- The kidnapped people of London, Bristol and Liverpool (Men, Women, Children); It was a Royal policy : POOR RELIEF;
- The poors and vagrants (Men, Women, Children) of the United Kingdom;
- The loose or lewd women (prostitutes);
- The convicts and criminals; who were highly preferred by planters because they were bound for 14 years at least; The child servants were praised for the same reason ( long period of bondage)…Maryland and Virginia were convicts’ states…
- The war prisoners ie Irish and Scottish ( Monmouth Rebels , Covenanters etc); the “Irish slave trade” is hidden into our history books but it’s a reality of the past …
- Apprentices , which was the best form of “bondage” (with the Redemptioners) because they could learn a job;
- Many indentured servants came from Europe (Italy and Greece) as well;
- Seamen impressed in ships ( they were bound to the master’s ship and could whipped in case of mutiny). They were often kidnapped in British Taverns; many case of desertions occurred in the Royal and Continental navies. As Richard Brandon Morris said they were the “last slaves” to be emancipated in 1915…Their hand could be cut off in a case of aggression against the ship’s captain…
It must be said that London ( Liverpool,Bristol) Merchants and British authorities ( Royalty; Mayor etc) were responsible for their temporary enslavement, and made huge profits in selling them to the colonies …
London ( Liverpool , Bristol) Merchants with British Authorities ( specially the Royalty) were also involved in the African slave trade…
When the supply of white servants happened to be insufficient in order to match the labor demand in the colonies, they created the Royal Company of Africa in order to import (kidnap) more Africans…
When you have a look at the first census in the American colonies , white servants or temporary slaves, outnumbered African slaves in all the British colonies ( America and West Indies).
The African slave trade and the possession of black slaves happened to be more profitable to the former servants traders/drivers and to the former servants masters in the colonies. This is why, we African or afro descendants suffered so much..
Planters were really harsh on them : many servants deaths were due to maltreatment…
After the American Revolution, British turned to Australia , as a convict colony. The Jails ships in London ( called “HULKS” were overcrowded).
When the African slave trade has been abolished, they turned to Asia for the “Pig” Trade or Coolie Trade, ( China and India). The same suffering, the same maltreatments, the same riots ( in the plantations and the slave ships)….
Only the European poor and the middle class went to the new world , the richest stayed in Europe.
Many white servants and black slaves married together because they suffered the same pains and maltreatments. Many white servants were involved in slave riots like in the New York Plot ( see Pr Richard Brandon Morris and Pr Abbott Emerson Smith), and some even fled to the Indians with their black brethren.
They suffered the “middle passage” as well, because they died like flies in the ships who brought them to the colonies, they were packed like “herring”….
With the time, white servants became overseers, and hatred was installed between the two communities, by the planters who divided them in order to ruled them…Some white servants were used in the militia in order to defend the colony from French and Spanish , but also to kill Indians or suppress slaves insurrections.
The “Divide and Rule” technique was used against the Indians (first slaves in America) in order to get allies and slaves. Europeans would give guns to their Indian allies in order to enslave other Indians. They used this technique in Canada, North America, South America ( Mexico) , the West Indies (Cuba) and in Africa as well… But the Indians slaves in North America died like flies, and could flee easily because after all it was their country.
Europeans kidnapped Indians , or caused wars between Indians tribes in order to response to their labor demand.
The American used the race card in order to ally with the white servants (or former servants), even if they really despised them , by calling them names : “White Trash”; “Redneck”; “Hillbillies”; “White niggers” etc.
It’s must be said that white servant preceded the black slave into the South plantations.
And the system which was imposed to them ( punishment, tortures, rapes, separation of families etc) was ready to absorb the black Africans slaves ( See Pr Ulrich B Phillips).
It was really “A NASTY” period for poor whites and anything colored ( Blacks, Indians etc).
The European rich class caused a lot of suffering to these people , even if they were white like them ….
Nothing better could happened to blacks, Chinese or Indians who were bound to that same class !!!
The seeds and the framework of their suffering can be found in the story of the white “slaves” who peopled American and West Indies colonies.
The racial card and segregation was played against them, and the white colonists had any mercy for them : Burned alive, Emasculation; Cutting the limbs; Extreme cases of torture …
This is stories they won’t tell you at school, or in Hollywood movies. In order to know a little research process is compulsory…
Posted in Rastas.
20 comments
By Don Jaide – January 8, 2009
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Source  http://www.jstor.org/pss/470261

Extract  Some Notes on Slavery during the Golden Age
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Source  http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/westeurope/Visigoths.html


Extract:

The Visigoths

The Visigoths, also known as the Goths, were a barbaric tribe. Living on the delta of the Danube River, their kingdom was inherited by Alaric I. They were pushed west by attacks from the Huns.
In 382, Theodosius, Roman ruler at the time, under a treaty made the Visigoths the first independent barbarian nation within the Roman Empire. Visigoths allied with Rome in 394, and Alaric I led the Visigoths in the Roman army against the Huns. Theodosius, before his death, spilt the empire between his sons Honorius and Acradius. The empire was now permanently split into eastern and western empires. In 395, when Theodosius died, the Visigoths relinquished their allegiance with Rome.
In 401, Alaric decided to invade Italy, but was defeated by the Roman general Flavius Stilicho, and the Visigoths were forced to withdraw from Italy. Alaric's huge loss did not prevent him from attacking again, as he did. The second invasion also ended in defeat, but this time Alaric constrained the Senate at Rome to pay a large endowment to the Visigoths. An anti-barbarian party took over Rome after Stilicho's death and ordered that wives and children of the tribesmen who served in the Roman army be killed. The tribal soldiers then returned to serve under Alaric, increasing his military strength. Even though Alaric was eager for peace, the western emperor Honorius, refused to recognize Alaric's needs for supplies and land. This led Alaric to attack Rome once more and the Senate ended up paying an endowment to Alaric and granted Alaric the right to go and negotiate with Honorius. Honorius, close-minded, paid no attention to what Alaric wanted and refused to set up a meeting for the negotiations to take place. In 409, Alaric surrounded Rome. Honorius lifted his blockade and appointed Attalus as western emperor. Alaric soon deposed Attalus and besieged Rome for the third time. Allies that were in the city opened the gates for Alaric and for three days his troops occupied Rome. While in Rome Alaric and his troops took everything with them and burned things that were in their way. Soon after this Alaric died and the Visigoths moved northward towards Spain. After Alaric's death the Visigoths roamed and were vulnerable to attacks.

Sources:

Bury, J. B. History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius to the Death of Justinian (Dover Publications, Inc., 1958).
Duggan, Christopher, A Concise History of Italy (Cambridge University Press., 1994).
Grant, Michael, The Fall of the Roman Empire (Macmillan Publishing Company,1914).
Randers-Pherson, Justine Davis, Barbarians and Romans (Justine Davis Randers-Pherson Publishing, 1983).

Copyright 1996-1999 by David W. Koeller.All rights reserved.
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More info on Moors


Extract:

THE MOORS

BLACK CIVILIZERS OF EUROPE


An Introduction

By Maunfu 9

The so-called "Greek Miracle" was never to have a profound effect on European culture. In fact, the record shows virulent persecution of the major Greek thinkers by their own society for teaching concepts which were entirely foreign to their culture. By the 4th century, the temples and places of learning began to be shut down by the emperors of Byzantium. By the middle ages, Europe had sunk back into barbarism. But from the south - again - would come a new age of enlightenment ushered in by black Africans and black Asians from the Arabian peninsula.
As is the custom, these legendary figures have been whitened by academia and their influence erased. Yet it is clear that the sweeping wave of civilization brought in by these sons of Africa saved Europe from its backwardness and created the scientific and cultural foundation which would result in the European Rennaissance.
Over a period of 700 years, 4 superb Moorish dynasties would rule Spain, the Umayad, the Abbasid, the Almoravid and the Almohade.
Origin and Race of The Moors
The Black scholar Wayne Chandler traces the origin of the people called the Moors to an African people known as the Garamante. This civilization stood along important trading routes in the Sahara and existed contemporaneously with other great African civilizations including Egypt of the pre-Christian era. The Moors must be distinguished from the Berbers who were a mixed race people in North Africa resulting from the intermarriage between caucasian Libyans and indigenous Africans. Black Africans had beem called Maures ('dark') by the Greeks in antiquity and no distinction had been made between The Moorish tribes which would later invade Spain and their Black African kin. There was also to be an Arab component to these peoples and in order for this to be put in context, the racial composition of Arabia in antiquity must be understood. Much of the Arabian peninsular had originally been populated by Blacks. The area was a colony of the kingdom of Kush. Southern Arabia, in particular, remained black for a considerable period as the Greeks themselves attest.
With the coming of Islam, interaction between Moors and Arabs increased but research into the manuscripts and documents of medieval Europe emphatically demonstrates that the prevailing image of the Mooor - for the period - concerned was that of the black skinned, woolly haired African. The image occurs repeatedly in such famed works as Las Cantigas de Santa Maria , a 13th century manuscript of Moorish musical works translated by Spain's King Alfonso X (El Sabio), one of the best known of Europe's acquirers of Moorish texts. Numerous works such as these leave no doubt as to what race of people the term "Moor" referred to in medieval Europe.

Alfonso set up centres in cities such as Toledo for the express purpose of acquiring and translating these texts. There is no question that it was not until centuries later that the distinctions became blurred and the term Moor began to be used for various other ethnic groups as well.

The Conquest of Spain

The Ummayad Dynasty
By the end of the 7th century AD, the Islamic Jihad had swept through the Arabian peninsular and North Africa. It was the Moorish general Tarik-bin-Ziad who was given the task of spreading Moorish holdings northward into the Iberian peninsular. The catalyst for this action was the request by the Greek governor of Ceuta for help in emancipaton from the tyrany of the visigoth king Roderick who then ruled Spain.

Tarik and his black army swept up into Spain and defeated the Visigoths in successive stages - capturing and consolidating Spanish towns from the south includingToledo and Cordoba.

By 715 AD, the Ummayad dynasty had been established.It would rule Spain for over a century until 850 AD although their racial memory hes been erased, the achievements and monuments of the Moors still endure.

The great Mosque at Cordoba, the Mezquita is an architectural marvel and is to this day considered one of the most magnificent buildings of the middle ages.

The Ummayad dynasty was followed by the Abbasid an Arab dynasty which usurped the throne in 750 AD. However, in 756 AD, the African Abdurrahmon led an army of African Moors up into the Iberian Penninsula, overthrew the Abbasid and re-established the Ummayad dynasty.

A description of Cordova gives an idea of the cultural excellence introduced by the Moors into Spain. Excerpted from The Golden Age of the Moor (pg 166) , a historian provides the following analysis:
"Cordova had 471 mosques, and 300 public baths......and the number of houses of the great and noble were 63,000 and 200, 077 houses of the common people. There were ....upwards of 80,000 shops. Water from the mountains was...distributed through every corner and quarter of the city by means of leaden pipes into basins of different shapes, made of the purst gold, the finest silver or plated brass as well into vast lakes, curious tanks, amazing resevoirs and fountains of Grecian marble." The houses in Cordova were air conditioned in the summer by "ingeniously arranged draughts of fresh air drawn from the garden over beds of flowers, chosen for their perfume, warmed in winter by hot air conveyed through pipes bedded in the walls. Bathrooms supplied hot and cold water and there were tables of gold, set with emweralds rubies and pearls. This list of impressve works appears endless; it includes lampposts that lit their streets at night, to grand palaces, such as the one called Azzahra with its 15,000 doors. Rennaissance men like Zaryab."



White SlaveryOver time, an ugly development in the history of the Moors began: The initiation and growth of the aquisition of white slaves as a prevalent aspect of its culture. The trade was began by a a Jewish element which began to buy and sell captured Slavs and Germans as laborers and concubines. the polygamous tendencies of the Islamic Black Moors encouraged this development and contributed to the lightening of the complexion of the Moorish element over time. It also contributed to a degeneration of values. The Ummayyad dynasty became ripe foe overthrow and in 1031 Christian forces achieved their defeat and brought the dynasty to a close.
The Almoravid Dynasty
The famous era of the Almoravids begins with The Black Muslim leader Ibn Yasin. Originally brought from Mecca, Yasin's initial base of operations was in the area of Senegal in West Africa. He embarked upon an ambitious effort to convert all of the surrounding area to Islam through force. Over time, the Almoravids (from "Al-Murabitun") conquered a vast area of west and northern Africa. In 1076, they overwhelmed and brought to an end the mighty Empire of Ghana itself . In 1086 AD, Yusuf Ibn Tashibin became aware of events in Spain, where Christians had long been persecuting Arabs and Moors. Yusuf invaded Spain to aid in its liberation. He is unequivocably described in the Moorish work Roudh-el Kartos as a black skinned African. Other matters back home in Africa however prompted him to return before the conquest was complete. He left his army to aid the Spaniards in their battle but was later informed that the local Spanish governers had left the Moors to do most of the fighting.
Yusuf in fury, ordered their replacement with Moorish rulers and there followed a splendid era of African rule which would not end until 1142 AD

The Almohade Dynasty
In 1145, the last Moorish dynasty came to power. African accomplishment in the penisular reached its apex. But Christian resolve had strengthened, and as Moorish culture grew more and more passive, Christian forces gained courage and began a campaign which recaptured territories from the blacks over the following centuries.
The Almohade dynasty had deep intellectual concerns and encouraged its thinkers and scholars to engage in great debates and expressions of ideas of both theological and secular nature. It is during the reign of this dynasty that the tower of Seville is constructed. And it is during this time that Abu-Al-Walid Mohamed ibn Mohamed ibgn Rashd, known to the West as Averroes established a peerless intellectual body of work in the arts and sciences which is revered to this day.
Ummayad savants and scholars initiated another intellectual revolution by ushering in and promoting:
Land reforms in Spain.
Religious freedom.
Support of the arts and sciences.
A rennaissance in knowledge as the wisdom of the ancient cultures was relearned through the works of the Greeks, Hebrews, Chinese, Persians.Translating all into Arabic.
They were the first to trace the curvilinear path of light through the air.(1100)
They achieved advances in chemistry including the invention of gunpopwder.
Discoveries in Astronomy and on the nature of the earth.
The invention of the Astrolabe and the compass.
The medical use of vivisection and dissection.
The Almohade dynasty was to last until 1230 when Christian forces drove the last Moorish elements out of Spain in successive campaigns. But Europe was to benefit imeasurably from the legacy of these Africans for centuries after the expulsion:
Absence of class system, such that any man (regardless of birth stature) could rise to any rank except that of supreme ruler. This was in marked contrast to the Visigothic Christians who were legendry in their cruelty and usery
The creation of hospitals with running water and the widespread construction of baths. Christian Europe held this rite of bating in contempt for centuries.
Numerous fabulous gardens.
Latrines with running water hundreds of years before the rest of Europe.
Paved streets and street lights. Numerous bookstores and a highly literate populace.
The Moors also took interior decoration to new heights in elaborate building ideas. This compares with the rest of Europe where most structures were barren, artless hulks without the minimum of utilities even for hygiene.

Agriculture
The Moors of Al Andalu (Spain) introduced advanced numerous crops and methods of soil productivity including irrigation, crop rotation and the use of manure. After harvesting, Moorish preservation and drying know-how meant that foods could endure and be edible for several years.
Universities
There were numerous schools and places of learning in Moorish Al-Andalus (Spain).
begining with the Univerity of Cordoba, other great institutions were built in Seville, Valencia, Mallarga and Granada. Like the ancient Greeks under the Egyptians , several of the most prominent European Catholic scholars studied under the African Moors in their institutions in Spain. The Moors translated all great works they could lay their hands on from the ancients into Arabic. This included the knowledge of Egypt, Kush, India, China and the Greece. Western historians point to the Greek component of these documents and attempt to paint the Moors as merely borrowers of Greek intellectual culture. This ignores the fact that Greek knowledge comes directly from Ancient Egypt and that there is convincing evidence that the Moors already possesed similar knowledge of their own from their homelands.
But this was not only limited to higher education. The Moors promoted literacy and the advancement of the general population. Schools were everywhere, many of them free of charge.
Medicine
Again, far in advance of Western Europe, Moorish physicians were specially trained and highly regulated. They practiced surgery and cauterization and understood the importance of cleanliness in the operating environment.
Jose Pimienta Bey notes in Golden Age of the Moor (pg 211):
"Europeans offered no competition with Moorish advances in pathology, aetiology (study of diseases), therapeutics, surgery and pharmacology. Texts were written by Moorish physicians describing surgical technique and instruments that were used; doctors specialized in pediatrics, obstetrics, opthalmology, and in the treatment of hernias and tumors. Imamuddin tells us that Moorish scientists were even importing monkey skeletons from Africa for use in dissection when conditions prevented the use of cadavers."
For the Andalusan Moor, scholarly endeavor was considered devine. The more one knew of one's self and one's World, the more one was sup[posed to know of one's Creator. The ancient Kemetic creed "Know Thyself" was very much the creed of Andalus..........Rulers such as the Caliph Abd al-Rahman III, spent almost one-third of the state's income on education. At a time when most Christan monarchs could not even write their own names, the Caliphs of Moorish Spain were often scholars.
The works of a number of Moorish savants were revered, translated and became required texts in the universities which later developed in Europe. These include Generalities on Medicine by Averroes, Solitary Regime by Avempace, Primus Canonis by Avicenna and Al-Tasrif, by Abulcasis, which became the predominant university medical text for Europe's physicians.
Science
It was the Moorish chemists such as Jabir who discovered nitric, nitro-muriatric and sulphuric acid. They were well versed in the science well before Europe.
Jose Pimienta-Bey notes the proximity of the founding dates of the major European universities to the translations of Moorish works by rulers such as Alfonso X of Spain. These centres of learning relied primarilly on Moorish texts for centuries


The Primary Source for this article is:The Golden Age of the Moor. Edited by Ivan Van Sertima. Transaction Books, 1992.

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Moors/ Mauros - Mauritania and Morocco

Source    http://www.africawithin.com/moors/moors_and_arabs.htm

EXTRACT :   

Science Of The Moors
Dr. Ivan Van Sertima - DVD - $20.00

Moors and Arabs

by Yvonne Clark
When the Romans entered West Africa in 46 B.C., they saw Africans and called them Maures, from the Greek adjective Mauros, meaning dark or black.  

It is from Mauros and the Latin term Marues that the word Moor is derived.  

Since the inhabitants of North Africa were black, the Romans and later the Europeans called them Moors.  

It is no coincidence that the land inhabited by the Moors was called Mauritania and Morocco, meaning "Land of the Blacks."

In the beginning of the seventh century, the Arab prophet, Muhammad, began to preach the word of Islam. Consumed with religious fervor, the Arabs sought to spread Islam and conquer the world.  By 708, the Arabs had overrun North Africa.  Consequently, Moors in large numbers accepted Arabic as the national language and converted to their conqueror's religion, Islam.  Interestingly, hundreds of years later, Africans who had been enslaved by Europeans would again convert to their conqueror's religion, Christianity.
After the fall of the Roman Empire (fifth century), Spain was held by a barbaric white tribe, the Visigoths.  Though they were Christians, their brand of Christianity was cruel and unjust.  For this reason, Spain's Jews, serfs, and slaves looked favorably upon the arrival of a new civilization in which they would be able to live free of persecution.
Tarik, a great African chief, was given the rank of general in the Arab army and sent to raid Spain.  On April 30, 711, Tarik landed on the Spanish Coast with 7,000 troops.  His troops consisted of 300 Arabs and 6,700 native Africans (Moors).  An ancient source, Ibn Husayn (ca. 950, recorded that these troops were "Sudanese", an Arabic word for Black people.
The Moors were unstoppable, and Visigothic Spain ceased to be.  The few resisting Visigoths fled to the caves of the Cantabrian Mountains. Later in the century, the cave dwellers would venture out of the Cantabrian Mountains and reclaim parts of northern Spain.
The Moors of Africa were the real conquerors.  When the Arabs arrived, the hardest part of the job had been done.  Instead of treating the Moors fairly, the Arab chiefs assigned themselves the most fertile regions.  The dissatisfied Moors were not long in coming to blows with the Arabs.  (The History of Spain by Louis Bertrand and Sir Charles Petrie - published by Eyre & Spottiswood, London, 1945, page 36). Ultimately, the Moors acquired two-thirds of the peninsula, which they named Al-Andulus.
Al -Andulus was obliged to pay tribute to the Arab Caliph (King) of Damascus.  As Al-Andulus acquired its own identity, its bond with the Caliph began to weaken.  In 756, Al-Andulus proclaimed itself an independent state.  Thus, its only links to the Arabs would be the Islamic faith and the Arabic language.
The Moorish architectural remains in Cordoba, Seville, and Granada prove conclusively that these cities were more prosperous and artistically more brilliant than any Christian cities in Europe at the time.  The Moors of Al-Andulus held the torch of leaning and civilization when the rest of Europe was plunged in barbaric ignorance.
If Moorish Spain had been an accomplishment of the Arabs it would have been called Arab or Arabic Spain.  Instead it bears the name of its creators, the Moors, i.e., Moorish Spain.  Moorish culture was black in origin, bright in Achievement, and powerful in its influence on the rest of Europe.
Yvonne Clark is a researcher and public lecturer currently residing in Los Angeles, California.  She had recently returned from an educational tour of Bahia, Brazil, and has done extensive research on Moorish Spain.  Ms. Clark may be contacted at ycclark@earthlink.net

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