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More poor definitions of Moor

You may have heard of the Moors from history class, or Shakespeare.

Leo Dong

Leo Dong

— 1 min read
More poor definitions of Moor
Photo by Olga Angelucci / Unsplash

You may have heard of the Moors from history class, or Shakespeare.[1] Interestingly, it has never referred to a precise people, location or culture. Across different stages of history, the term has been used to refer to Berbers,[2] Moroccans,[3] Arabs,[4] Indian Muslims[5], Muslims living in the Philippines,[6] and Muslims living in the European Mediterranean.[7]

To simplify this, it originally referred to slightly darker-skinned ethnicities from North Africa and the Middle East. After the rise of Islam, it seems to have evolved in meaning, gradually becoming a term that specifically referred to Muslims who fit this description.

  1. The namesake of Othello. ↩︎

  2. By the Romans. ↩︎

  3. In modern colloquial Spanish. ↩︎

  4. By Europeans in the Middle Ages. ↩︎

  5. By the Portuguese. ↩︎

  6. By the Muslim Filipinos. ↩︎

  7. By the Christian Europeans. ↩︎

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