Moors: Difference between revisions

==History==

=== Overview ===

Although the ''Moors'' came to be associated with Muslims, the name ''Moor'' pre-dates Islam. It derives from the small [[Numidia]]n Kingdom of ''Maure'' of the [[3rd century BC]] in what is now northern central and western part of [[Algeria]] and a part of northern [[Morocco]].<ref>Michael Brett and Elizabeth Fentress, ''The Berbers'' at 25 & 77; Gabriel Camps, ''Les Berberes'' (Edisud 1996) at 20-21, 25</ref> The name came to be applied to people of the entire region. "They were called Maurisi by the Greeks," wrote [[Strabo]], "and Mauri by the Romans."<ref>Strabo, ''Geographica'' (c.17 A.D.) at XVIII,3,ii (cited by Rene Basset in ''Moorish Literature'' (N.Y., Collier 1901) at iii.</ref> During that age, the Maure or Moors were trading partners of [[Carthage]], the independent city state founded by [[Phoenicia]]ns. During the second [[Punic wars|Punic war]] between Carthage and [[Rome]], two Moorish [[Numidia]]n kings took different sides, [[Syphax]] with Carthage, [[Masinissa]] with the Romans, decisively so at [[Battle of Zama|Zama]]. Thereafter, the Moors entered into treaties with Rome. Under King [[Jugurtha]] collateral violence against merchants brought war. [[Juba II|Juba]], a later king, was a friend of Rome. Eventually, the region was incorporated into the [[Roman Empire]] as the provinces of [[Mauretania Caesariensis]] and [[Mauretania Tingitana]]; the area around Carthage already being the province of [[History of Tunisia|Africa]]. Roman rule was beneficial and effective enough so that these provinces became fully integrated into the empire.