The Moors

When the topic of the Moorish influence in Europe is being discussed, one of the first questions that arises is, what race were they?

Author and historian Chancellor Williams said “the original Moors, like the original Egyptians, were black Africans.”

The 16th century English playwright William Shakespeare used the word Moor as a synonym for African. His contemporary Christopher Marlowe also used African and Moor interchangeably.

Arab writers further buttress the black identity of the Moors. The powerful Moorish Emperor Yusuf ben-Tachfin is described by an Arab chronicler as “a brown man with wooly hair.”