Where were the Moors from?
African-American heritage of presidents of the United States
Calvin Coolidge's mother Victoria Moor was claimed to be of a mixed-race family in Vermont. Vaughn noted that her surname was derived from "Moor", a European term for people of North Africa. He did not note that another meaning of her surname is the landscape feature of moor or bog. People's surnames were often based on such landscape features when surnames became generally adopted in 14th century England. Moor/Moore is a common name in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Moro people
The word "Moro" itself was a exonym which had been used before in the 16th century by Spanish colonisers in reference to a Muslim group of "Moors", which originating from "Mauru", a Latin word that referred to the inhabitants of the ancient Roman province of Mauritania in northwest Africa, which today comprises the modern Muslim states of Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco. With the rise of Mauritania as part of the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate, Muslim armies conquered and ruled much of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 1492, for about a total of 781 years in which the term was revived when the Christian-majority Spanish became involved in a war with them and started to call the Muslims as "Moors".
Islam in Delaware
It is possible that the history of Islam in Delaware extends as far back as the origin of the Delaware Moors, a mixed-race community in Kent and Sussex counties whose origins are variously attributed to 18th century shipwrecked Moorish pirates, wives brought over from the 17th century British evacuation of Tangier, or a legendary romance between a European colonist and an enslaved Moorish prince. The community itself lays claims to a Muslim origin dating back to Colonial times.
There is a community of converted Muslims; an article in "The News Journal" by Summer Harlow in September 2007 highlights the transition many are making.
Sri Lankan Moors
The Moors trace their ancestry to Arab traders who settled in Sri Lanka in waves beginning from the 8th century. The population of Moors are the highest in the Ampara, Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts.
French migration to the United Kingdom
Much of the UK's medieval aristocracy was descended from Franco-Norman migrants to England from the time of the Norman Conquest. Prominent families of the period, include the Grosvenor family originally, "Gros Veneur" (in Norman) "great hunter": their influence can be found throughout central London with many roads, squares and buildings bearing their family names, such as Grosvenor Square and Grosvenor House. Ancestors of the Molyneux family, the Earls of Sefton who arrived in England around the time of the Norman Conquest, bore the name "de Molines": they came from Molineaux-sur-Seine, near Rouen, in Normandy where they resided in the Château de Robert-le-Diable also known as Château de Moulineaux. Other well known names are the Beauchamps (Beecham), Courtois and Le Mesurier. Some British people are descended from the Huguenots, French Protestants who in the 16th and 17th centuries fled religious persecution in France. Although a substantial French Protestant community existed in London from the sixteenth century, the suppression of Protestantism in France in the 1680s led to a mass migration of predominantly Calvinist refugees, most of whom settled in London, partly in Spitalfields in the east and Soho in the west. The French protestant community was one of the largest and most distinctive communities in the capital in the 18th-century. Later, during and after the French Revolution, there was also an influx of French Catholics.
Slavery in Spain
The Moors often served as slaves in Christian Spain. These slaves were captured from Muslim Spain and North Africa and imported into the Christian section of the Iberian peninsula. When the Moors were forcibly evicted from Spain, in 1610, Moor slaves were allowed to stay, however, they were forced to convert to Christianity. Spain's Moorish slave population was eventually freed in the early 18th century.
Möre
The mention is viewed as evidence that Möre was a well-known region. Traditionally, it has also been interpreted as evidence of 9th-century rule from the Mälaren Valley, but some modern historians instead opine that "Sweons" was a general term for peoples north of Denmark and did not imply centralised Swedish rule.
Berbers
The Berbers are the "Mauri" cited by the "Chronicle of 754" during the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, to become since the 11th century the catch-all term "Moros" (in Spanish; "Moors" in English) on the charters and chronicles of the expanding Christian Iberian kingdoms to refer to the Andalusi, the north Africans, and the Muslims overall.
The Moors Murderers
The Moors Murderers was a short-lived punk band who caused controversy by naming themselves after the perpetrators of the Moors murders. The band was founded in 1977 by Steve Strange, later to be in Visage.
Māori people
The Māori (; ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from eastern Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages some time between 1250 and 1300. Over several centuries in isolation, the Polynesian settlers developed a unique culture, with their own language, a rich mythology, and distinctive crafts and performing arts. Early Māori formed tribal groups based on eastern Polynesian social customs and organisation. Horticulture flourished using plants they introduced; later, a prominent warrior culture emerged.
Moors
In 711 the Islamic Arab and Moors of Berber descent in northern Africa crossed the Strait of Gibraltar onto the Iberian Peninsula, and in a series of raids they conquered Visigothic Christian Hispania. Their general, Tariq ibn Ziyad, brought most of Iberia under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign. They continued northeast across the Pyrenees Mountains but were defeated by the Franks under Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732.
Māori people
The ancestors of the Māori arrived from eastern Polynesia during the 13th century, bringing with them Polynesian cultural customs and beliefs. Early European researchers, such as Julius von Haast, a geologist, incorrectly interpreted archaeological remains as belonging to a pre-Māori Paleolithic people; later researchers, notably Percy Smith, magnified such theories into an elaborate scenario with a series of sharply-defined cultural stages which had Māori arriving in a Great Fleet in 1350 and replacing the so-called "moa-hunter" culture with a "classical Māori" culture based on horticulture. The development of Māori material culture has been similarly delineated by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa into "cultural periods", from the earlier "Ngā Kakano" stage to the later "Te Tipunga" period, before the "Classic" period of Māori history.
Māori people
Recent DNA studies show that the ancestors of the Polynesian people (including Maori) are from Taiwan and from the northern Philippines. They did not mix with the Melanesians natives but displaced them mostly.
Sri Lankan Moors
The Moors had their own court of justice for settling their disputes. Upon the arrival of the Portuguese colonizers in the 16th century, larger population of Moors were expelled from cities such as the capital city Colombo, which had been a Moor-dominated city at that time. The Moors were thus migrating towards east and were settled there through the invitation of the Kingdom of Kandy. Robert Knox, a British sea captain of the 17th century, noted that the Kings of Kandy Kingdom built mosques for the Moors.
Indian Moors
The Indian Moors was a collective of ethnic groups, identified by their Islamic faith and similar geographic origin. The Largest of those groups being Tamils from South India. Others included the Memons, originally from Sind (in modern Pakistan), who first arrived in 1870; in the 1980s they numbered only about 3,000. The Bohra and the Khoja came from Gujarat, India after 1880; in the 1980s they collectively numbered fewer than 2,000.
Landship (Barbados)
The dancing of the maypole has been given an English and Scottish provenance, but that too is believed to have been borrowed from the Moors. The etymology traces this word moor, to maure, maurice, and morris to the Black peoples who lived in Ancient Briton.
Momin Ansari
The Momin of Maharashtra are descended from immigrants from North India. They are split into two groupings, the giyara gaonwala and the bais goanwala. The former are found in Ahmadnagar, while the latter are found near Pune. The Momin were historically a community of weavers, found mainly in the towns and cities of western Maharashtra. They are found mainly in the districts of Pune, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Jaina, Osmanabad, Dhule, Nagpur, Thane, Kolhapur and Raigarh. The community speak Urdu, but the Momin are bilingual, speaking Marathi as well. They are strictly endogamous, and tend to marry close kin. The Momin are Sunni, and are a fairly orthodox community.
Istán
It was originally a Moorish settlement and, as with its near neighbour Ojen, survived where others didn't largely because it was away from the coast. After the Reconquest, Moors were not allowed to live near the coast so as to be unable to communicate easily with their kinsmen in nearby North Africa. The moorish influence can still be seen in the town, Acequia del Chorro is a water channel called a Acequia in Spanish, built by the moors that can still be seen here, they are used in the same way as the Levadas in Madeira.
Moors
During the Latin Middle Ages, "Mauri" was used to refer to Berbers and Arabs in the coastal regions of Northwest Africa. The 16th century scholar Leo Africanus (c. 1494–1554) identified the Moors ("Mauri") as the native Berber inhabitants of the former Roman Africa Province (Roman Africans). He described Moors as one of five main population groups on the continent alongside Egyptians, Abyssinians (Abassins), Arabians and Cafri (Cafates).
Mooro
The Mooro were a Nyungar Indigenous clan who lived in and to the north of Perth, Western Australia, until shortly after European settlement at the Swan River Colony in 1829. Their territory stretched from the Swan River north to the Moore River beyond the northern limits of metropolitan Perth and east to Ellen Brook. Evidence of indigenous occupation of the Swan Coastal Plain extends back more than 40,000 years.
Border Morris
The term "morris" is believed to be from the late Middle English word "morys", a variant of the word "moorish" – from the Moors of Morocco; this explanation was cited as early as 1801.
Azawagh Arabs
The Azawagh Arabs () (also known as nomadic Moors) are nomadic ethnic Arab-ancestry tribes who are settling mainly in the area of Azawagh which is a dry basin covering what is today northwestern Niger, as well as parts of northeastern Mali and southern Algeria. Azawagh Arabs are named after the Azawagh region of the Sahara. and speak Hassaniya Arabic which is one of the regional varieties of Arabic.
Māori people
The earliest period of Māori settlement is known as the "Archaic", "Moahunter" or "Colonisation" period. The eastern Polynesian ancestors of the Māori arrived in a forested land with abundant birdlife, including several now extinct species weighing between and each. Other species, also now extinct, included a swan, a goose and the giant Haast's eagle, which preyed upon the "moa". Marine mammals—seals in particular—thronged the coasts, with evidence of coastal colonies much further north than those which remain . Huge numbers of "moa" bones—estimated to be from between 29,000 and 90,000 birds—have been located at the mouth of the Waitaki River, between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast of the South Island. Further south, at the mouth of the Shag River (), evidence suggests that at least 6,000 "moa" were slaughtered by humans over a relatively short period of time.
Moors murders
Myra Hindley was born in Crumpsall on 23 July 1942 and raised in Gorton, then a working-class area of Manchester. Her parents, Nellie and Bob Hindley (the latter an alcoholic), beat her regularly when she was a young child. The small house the family lived in was in such poor condition that Hindley and her parents had to sleep in the only available bedroom, she in a single bed next to her parents' double. The family's living conditions deteriorated further when Hindley's sister, Maureen, was born in August 1946. About a year after the birth, Hindley, then 5, was sent by her parents to live with her grandmother, whose home was nearby.
Moors
In 711, troops mostly formed by Moors from northern Africa led the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The Iberian peninsula then came to be known in Classical Arabic as al-Andalus, which at its peak included most of Septimania and modern-day Spain and Portugal.
Mazippa
Mazippa was the leader of the Moors, a Berber tribe of Roman North Africa during the Gaetulian Wars, around 24 AD. This revolt, in which he allied with Tacfarinas, a Roman auxiliary soldier of Roman North Africa, who turned brigand, and who rose to be leader of the Musulamii, a tribe of nomadic Berber people living in Mauretania in what is today Morocco during the Roman Empire. The revolt was the largest revolt against Roman rule in Algeria during the whole of the Roman occupation. .
Moors
Moorish architecture is the articulated Islamic architecture of northern Africa and parts of Spain and Portugal, where the Moors were dominant between 711 and 1492. The best surviving examples of this architectural tradition are the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba and the Alhambra in Granada (mainly 1338–1390), as well as the Giralda in Seville (1184). Other notable examples include the ruined palace city of Medina Azahara (936–1010) and the Mosque of Cristo de la Luz, now a church, in Toledo, the Aljafería in Zaragoza and baths at for example Ronda and Alhama de Granada.
Wyman B. S. Moor
Wyman Bradbury Seavy Moor (November 11, 1811March 10, 1869) was an American politician and lawyer from the U.S. state of Maine. His political career, interspersed with periods in private law practice, began with his service in the Maine House of Representatives, and continued when he became Maine Attorney General. Moor married Clara Ann Niel Cook (b. 1813 in Waterville, Maine) in 1834. She was a descendant of Thomas Dudley, one of the Governors of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Black people
The term "Moors" has been used in Europe in a broader, somewhat derogatory sense to refer to Muslims, especially those of Arab or Berber descent, whether living in North Africa or Iberia. Moors were not a distinct or self-defined people. Medieval and early modern Europeans applied the name to Muslim Arabs, Berbers, Black Africans and Europeans alike.
Évora
In 715, the city was conquered by the Moors under Tariq ibn-Ziyad who called it Yaburah يابرة. During the Moorish rule (715–1165), the town, part of the Taifa of Badajoz, slowly began to prosper again and developed into an agricultural center with a fortress and a mosque. The present character of the city is evidence of the Moorish influence. During that time, several notables hailed from Evora, including Abd al-Majid ibn Abdun Al-Yaburi عبد المجيد بن عبدون اليابري, a poet whose diwan still survives to this day.
Moraira
During the Reconquista, the Moors were expelled by Jaime I de Aragón and became part of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1270 and 1280 - this is still celebrated today during the annual Moros y cristianos festival. In the years that followed, the Moors were replaced by Christian settlers from Catalonia and Aragon, who introduced the Valencian language to the area. In 1386 Teulada was founded five kilometers from the coast by the Lords of Lluria, Serria and Grandia and became a municipality in its own right.
Sri Lankan Moors
The Portuguese named the Muslims in India and Sri Lanka after the Muslim Moors they met in Iberia. The word "Moors" did not exist in Sri Lanka before the arrival of the Portuguese colonists. The term 'Moor' was chosen because of the Islamic faith of these people, and was not a reflection of their origin.
Beidane
It is important to understand that the term "Moor" is not the term for a specific ethnic group, but rather the term used by the European Christians, in reference to the Arab and Berber populations that hailed from North Africa in the medieval era and soon took control of Malta, Sardinia, Spain, southern France, Portugal, southern Italy, and Sicily. Another term that was used in reference to the Arabs and Berbers at this time was "Saracen." This was largely used to refer to the peoples of the entire Arab Islamic empire, mostly used by Italians and Europeans to the north. The term largely fell out of use post- Middle Ages.
Moorlands, South Australia
Moorlands is located east of Murray Bridge and has farms that cultivate wheat, sheep and other livestock. It is on the Mallee Highway and Pinnaroo railway line. Its name is believed to be derived from Moorlands near London in England.
Mappila
The Muslims present in Kerala were distinguished by the Portuguese historians into two groups: Mouros da Terra ("Moors of the Land") and the Mouros da Arabia/Mouros de Meca ("Moors from Arabia/Mecca"). The latter, also known as the "Paradesi Muslims", in fact came from all over the Islamic world. They included Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Turks, Iraqis, Gujaratis, Khorasanis and Deccanis (and Melakans, Sumatrans, Bengalis). These Muslims were not unsettled navigators but had settled in Kerala. The Malayali (and Tamil Muslim) community as a whole was considerably lower economic standing than the Paradesi Muslims. Up to 16th century, as noticed by the contemporary observers, Muslims settled mainly along the coastal tracts of Kerala (especially in major Kerala ports such as Calicut (Kozhikode), Cannanore (Kannur), Cochin (Kochi) and Quilon (Kollam)). They were traditionally elite merchants who were all part of the brisk foreign trade. Until well into the European period, the Muslims were almost exclusively concentrated in the port cities. Middle Eastern sailors had to rely on lighterage at most of the Kerala ports in the medieval period. This lead them to enter into mutually beneficial relationships with the traditional sea fishermen community. A large majority of fishermen, once low-caste Hindus, in northern Kerala follow Islam.
History of Spain
The most visible effect was the depopulation of the cities as they moved to the countryside. Even while the country enjoyed a degree of prosperity when compared to the famines of France and Germany in this period, the Visigoths felt little reason to contribute to the welfare, permanency, and infrastructure of their people and state. This contributed to their downfall, as they could not count on the loyalty of their subjects when the Moors arrived in the 8th century.
Moors Sundry Act of 1790
The "Free Moors", Francis, Daniel, Hammond and Samuel petitioned on behalf of themselves and their wives Fatima, Flora, Sarah and Clarinda. They explained how some years ago while fighting in defense of their country, they and their wives were captured and made prisoners of war by an African king. After this a certain Captain Clark had them delivered to him, promising they would be redeemed by the Moroccan ambassador residing in England, and returned to their country. Instead, he transported them to South Carolina, and sold them for slaves. Since then, "by the greatest industry," they purchased freedom from their respective masters. They requested that as free born subjects of a Prince in alliance with the U.S., that they should not be considered subject to a state law (then in force) known as the "negro law". If they be found guilty of any crime or misdemeanor, they would receive a fair trial by lawful jury. The matter was referred to a committee consisting of Justice John Faucheraud Grimké, General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Edward Rutledge.
Moors
The Maghreb fell into a civil war in 739 that lasted until 743 known as the Berber Revolt. The Berbers revolted against the Umayyads, putting an end to Eastern dominion over the Maghreb. Despite racial tensions, Arabs and Berbers intermarried frequently. A few years later, the Eastern branch of the Umayyad dynasty was dethroned by the Abbasids and the Umayyad Caliphate overthrown in the Abbasid revolution (746-750). Abd al-Rahman I, who was of Arab-Berber lineage, managed to evade the Abbasids and flee to the Maghreb and then Iberia, where he founded the Emirate of Córdoba and the Andalusian branch of the Umayyad dynasty. The Moors ruled northern Africa and Al-Andalus for several centuries thereafter. Ibn Hazm, the polymath, mentions that many of the Caliphs in the Umayyad Caliphate and the Caliphate of Córdoba were blond and had light eyes. Ibn Hazm mentions that he preferred blondes, and notes that there was much interest in blondes in al-Andalus amongst the rulers and regular Muslims:
Moors
The languages spoken in the parts of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule were Andalusian Arabic and Mozarabic; they became extinct after the expulsion of the Moriscos, but Arabic language influence on the Spanish language can still be found today. The Muslims were resisted in parts of the Iberian Peninsula in areas of the northwest (such as Asturias, where they were defeated at the battle of Covadonga) and the largely Basque Country in the Pyrenees. Though the number of Moorish colonists was small, many native Iberian inhabitants converted to Islam. By 1000, according to Ronald Segal, some 5,000,000 of Iberia's 7,000,000 inhabitants, most of them descended from indigenous Iberian converts, were Muslim. There were also Sub-Saharan Africans who had been absorbed into al-Andalus to be used as soldiers and slaves. The Berber and Sub-Saharan African soldiers were known as "tangerines" because they were imported through Tangier.
Rory O'Moore
O'Moore's uncle Ruairí Óg Ó Mórdha, King of Laois, had fought against the English. In 1556 Queen Mary confiscated the O'Mores' lands and created "Queens County" (now County Laois). Over 180 family members, who were peaceful and had taken no part in any rebellion, were killed with virtually all of the leaders of Laois and Offaly by English forces at a feast at Mullaghmast, County Kildare in 1577, Rory Óg and his wife Maighréad O'Byrne, sister of Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne, were hunted down and killed soon afterwards. This led to the political downfall of the O'Moore family; their estates were given to English 'undertakers'.
Favaios
The invasion of the Iberian peninsula by Arabs reached the north, where the Moors took the Roman "Castle of Flávias": it would later be remembered as the ""Castelo dos Mouros”" (). This occupation forced the locals to escape the region and re-established settlements away from Favaios: half the population took refuge in the area that would be renamed São Bento. From this new colony the Portuguese battled the Moors of Favaios; after the expulsion of the Moors the region was covered in the destruction of these battles. The destruction lead to a slow reconstruction of Favaios.
Slavery in Portugal
Trade ties between the Moorish kingdoms and the North African Moorish state led to a greater flow of trade within those geographical areas. In addition, the Moors engaged sections of Spaniards and Portuguese Christians in slave labor. There was not a “racial” component to slavery in Iberia. The Moors utilised ethnic European slaves: 1/12 of Iberian population were slave Europeans, less than 1% of Iberia were Moors and more than 99% were native Iberians. Periodic Arab and Moorish raiding expeditions were sent from Islamic Iberia to ravage the remaining Christian Iberian kingdoms, bringing back stolen goods and slaves. In a raid against Lisbon in 1189, for example, the Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur held 3,000 women and children as captives, while his governor of Córdoba, in a subsequent attack upon Silves, held 3,000 Christian slaves in 1191. In addition, the Christian Iberians who lived within Arab and Moorish-ruled territories were subject to specific laws and taxes for state protection.
Moors
Some Muslims converted to Christianity and remained permanently in Iberia. This is indicated by a "high mean proportion of ancestry from North African (10.6%)" that "attests to a high level of religious conversion (whether voluntary or enforced), driven by historical episodes of social and religious intolerance, that ultimately led to the integration of descendants." According to historian Richard A. Fletcher, "the number of Arabs who settled in Iberia was very small. 'Moorish' Iberia does at least have the merit of reminding us that the bulk of the invaders and settlers were Moors, i.e., Berbers from Algeria and Morocco."
Arab raid against Rome
There is disagreement among the chroniclers over the origins of the raiders who attacked Rome, although most sources describe them as Saracens. According to the "Liber Pontificalis" and the "Chronicle of Monte Cassino", the raiders were Saracens from Africa (Ifriqiya) who raided Corsica before attacking Rome. The "Annals of Fulda", on the other hand, describes the raiders as Moors (Latin "mauri"), which generally indicated Muslims from al-Andalus (Spain) or the Maghreb, as opposed to Ifriqiya. The author of the "Annals of Xanten" was unsure: he called the raiders "either Moors or else Saracens". It is possible that the annals, which are from north of the Alps, were using "Moors" as a synonym for "Saracens". No Italian source describes the raiders of 846 as Moors.
Goedendag
It has been mentioned that a similar weapon originated from the Moors. French Knights Templar would then have taught the Flemish how to use the weapon.
Moros, Zaragoza
Moros sits on the medieval border separating Muslim (Moorish) and Christian kingdoms. Moros is Spanish for Moors. Following the expulsion of the Moors it straddled the Kingdom of Aragon and the Kingdom of Castile. Consequently, the town shows influences of numerous cultures.
Mohe people
The Mohe, Malgal, or Mogher were a Tungusic people who lived primarily in modern Northeast Asia. The two most powerful Mohe groups were known as the Heishui Mohe, located along the Amur River, and the Sumo Mohe, named after the Songhua River. The Mohe constituted a major part of the population in the kingdom of Balhae, which lasted from the late 7th century to early 10th century. After the fall of Balhae, few historical traces of the Mohe can be found, though they are considered to be the primary ethnic group from whom the Jurchen people descended. The Heishui Mohe in particular are considered to be the direct ancestors of the Jurchens, from whom the 17th century Manchu people originated. The Mohe practiced a sedentary agrarian lifestyle and were predominantly farmers who grew soybean, wheat, millet, and rice, supplemented by pig raising and hunting for meat. The Mohe were also known to have worn pig and dog skin coats.
Early medieval European dress
Areas where Roman influence remained strong include most of Italy except the North, South-Western France, as far north as Tours, and probably cities like Cologne in Germany. Iberia was largely ruled by the Moors in the later part of the period, and in any case had received rather different influences from the Visigoths compared to other invading peoples; Spanish dress remained distinctive well after the end of the period. The also ruled the South and West of France for the first two centuries of the period.
Demographics of Sri Lanka
The Moors, descendants of Arab traders that settled in Sri Lanka and married local women, form the third largest ethnic group at 9.3% of the population. They are mostly concentrated in urban areas in the southern parts of the island with substantial populations in the Central and Eastern provinces. During times of Portuguese colonization, Moors were persecuted, and many forced to retreat to the central highlands and the eastern coast.
Stidia
Before the foundation of the European settlement down the hill, the Moors who were expelled from Spain after 1492, founded the original Stidia on the hill and it is called now "Douar" Stidia to differentiate it from " Village" Stidia which is the part built during the French occupation.
The moorish influence is obvious in the territory of Stidia and Fornaka. The ethnic groups living in the territory keep the remembrance of the epic History of the fighting against the Spanish crusades.
Maghrebis
Maghrebis or Maghrebians are the native inhabitants of Maghreb, the westernmost part of North Africa and the Arab world, an area stretching from Libya to Spain. Maghrebis were known in medieval times as Roman Africans or Moors. The term "Moor" is derived from "Mauri", the Roman name for the Berbers of "Mauretania", land of the Moors, the Roman name for the westen part of the Maghreb. Vast majority of Maghrebis are Arab-Berbers, Arabs, and Berbers, who are native to the region and synonymous with the term in older and historiographical literature.
Iberian Peninsula
From the 8th–15th centuries, only the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula was part of the Islamic world. It became a center of culture and learning, especially during the Caliphate of Córdoba, which reached its height of its power under the rule of Abd-ar-Rahman III and his successor al-Hakam II. The Muslims, who were initially Arabs and Berbers, included some local converts, the so-called Muladi. The Muslims were referred to by the generic name, "Moors" The Reconquista gained momentum on c. 718, when the Christian Asturians opposed the Moors.
George Raymond Dallas Moor
Moor was born 22 October 1896, in his mother's sister's home in Pollington Street, St Kilda, Australia. He was the son of William Henry Moor (Auditor-General, Transvaal, retired) and Mrs. Moor, and nephew of the late Sir Ralph Moor, formerly High Commissioner for Southern Nigeria. He was educated at Cheltenham College.
Moors
In modern, colloquial Portuguese, the term "Mouro" was primarily used as a designation for North Africans and secondarily as a derogatory and ironic term by northern Portuguese to refer to the inhabitants of the southern parts of the country (Lisbon, Alentejo, and Algarve). However, this designation has gained more acceptance in the south.
In the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, many modern Filipinos call the large, local Muslim minority concentrated in Mindanao and other southern islands "Moros". The word is a catch-all term, as "Moro" may come from several distinct ethno-linguistic groups such as the Maranao people. The term was introduced by Spanish colonisers, and has since been appropriated by Filipino Muslims as an endonym, with many self-identifying as members of the "Bangsamoro" "Moro Nation".
Mowri
Mowri (Persian: مُوری) also Romanized as Mouri or Moori are a sub-group of Dorikan tribe, who they themselves are a sub-branch of Haft Lang side of Bakhtiari people.
Morè (clan)
The Morey / More () is a Maratha clan found largely in the Indian state of Maharashtra that claims to have descended from the Somavanshi kings, the Morès of the Kashmir Region. Some from the Morey clan claim descent from the Mauryan Dynasty of Patna (Bihar), which ruled over the Maurya Empire, located in present-day India. The Maurya Empire and many Morè, claim rulers such as Chandragupt Maurya and Ashoka.
Benedict the Moor
Benedict the Moor, O.F.M., (, 1526 – April 4, 1589) was an Italian Franciscan friar in Sicily who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Lutheran churches. Born of African slaves in San Fratello, he was freed at birth and became known for his charity. As a young man he joined a Franciscan-affiliated hermit group, of which he became the leader. In 1564 he was sent to the Franciscan friary in Palermo, where he continued good works.
Mamores
Ten of the ranges are classified as Munros; from west to east these are:The main backbone of the Mamores stretches from Meall a' Chaorainn, a subsidiary top of Mullach nan Coirean, at the western end of the ridge, to Sgòr Eilde Beag, a top of Binnein Mòr some 10 km to the east. Three narrow arêtes run north from the main ridge connecting to the summits of Sgurr a' Mhàim, An Gearanach and Binnein Mòr. Beyond the eastern end of the ridge are two steep outlying peaks: Binnein Beag and Sgurr Eilde Mòr. Sandwiched between the remote upper section of Glen Nevis, and Lochs Eilde Mòr and Eilde Beag, these two peaks are the remotest in the Mamores.
Morrison (surname)
Secondly, there is the commercially promoted myth that the origin of the name Morrison in Scotland somehow involves Vikings. The myth suggests the Morrisons came from the Isle of Lewis and are of Viking origin.[9] This myth joins other Scottish fabrications such as Hector Boece’s (c1465-c1536) Historia Gentis Scotorum (History of the Scottish People), James Macpherson’s (1736-1796) Ossian "discovery" and the imposter Sobieski brothers (really John and Charles Allen) Vestiarium Scoticum who passed themselves off as grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie.[10]. Not only is the viking association an invention, so also is the proposition the name originated in Lewis.[11] The name Morrison as shown in the historical records was already in northern England and the Scottish lowlands two hundred years before some families on Lewis saw the opportunity to adopt a new name.
[1] See George F Black (1946), p 612.
Victor Maurus
Victor the Moor (in Latin: Victor Maurus) (born 3rd century in Mauretania; died ca. 303 in Milan) was a native of Mauretania and a Christian martyr, according to tradition, and is venerated as a saint. Victor, born into a Christian family, was a soldier in the Roman Praetorian Guard. After he had destroyed some pagan altars, he was arrested, tortured, and killed around 303.
Les Moëres
De Moeren (Dutch) or Les Moëres (French) are a marshy region in the Westhoek, politically divided between the French-Belgian border. At one time the area was inhabited by the Gallic people known as the Morini; they are believed to have lent their name to the territory.
Praetorian prefecture of Africa
When the Romans landed in Africa, the Moors maintained a neutral stance, but after the quick Roman victories, most of their tribes pledged loyalty to the Empire. The most significant tribes were the Leuathae in Tripolitania, and the Frexi in Byzacena. The Frexi and their allies were led by Antalas, while other tribes in the area followed Cutzinas. The Aurasii (the tribes of the Aurès Mountains) in Numidia were ruled by Iaudas, and the Mauretanian Moors were led by Mastigas and Masuna.
Moors
In the meantime, Spanish and Portuguese expeditions westward from the New World spread Christianity to India, the Malay peninsula, Indonesia, and the Philippines. By 1521, the ships of Magellan had reached that island archipelago, which they named "Las Islas Filipinas", after Philip II of Spain. In Mindanao, the Spaniards named the kris-bearing people as Moros or 'Moors'. Today this ethnic group in Mindanao, who are generally Filipino Muslim, are called "Moros".
Morong, Bataan
Folkloric tradition alludes the etymology of the name Moron comes from the Spaniard's mishearing of the phrase "mga Moro umurong" when they asked they local people the name of their village. The historical accuracy of this etymology is questionable, however, since early Filipinos could not have known or used the term Moro as it were the Spaniards who have started using the term to refer to Filipino Moslems, a spanish term for the moslem Moorish conquerors of 8th century Spain.
Moors
Within the context of Portuguese colonization, in Sri Lanka (Portuguese Ceylon), Muslims of Arab origin are called "Ceylon Moors", not to be confused with "Indian Moors" of Sri Lanka (see Sri Lankan Moors). Sri Lankan Moors (a combination of "Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors") make up 12% of the population. The Ceylon Moors (unlike the Indian Moors) are descendants of Arab traders who settled there in the mid-6th century. When the Portuguese arrived in the early 16th century, they labelled all the Muslims in the island as Moors as they saw some of them resembling the Moors in North Africa. The Sri Lankan government continues to identify the Muslims in Sri Lanka as "Sri Lankan Moors", sub-categorised into "Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors".
Azores
Africans, Moors, Jews, Scots, Germans, Italians, French, Spanish, Flemish and Portuguese all migrated to the Azores.
Moura, Queensland
In 1854 Charles Marshall named his leased pastoral selection "Moura". There are two theories regarding the origin of the name. One is that it is named after Moura in Portugal where he served in the British Army during the Peninsular Wars. The other is that it is an Aboriginal word meaning "native camp dog".
Indian Moors
The 1911 Census separated the Tamils into Ceylon Tamils and Indian Tamils and the Moors into Ceylon Moors and Indian Moors. This was due to the influx of Indian Labourers, that comprised both Moors and Tamils, in to the plantation regions of Sri Lanka, who had to be distinguished separately.
Novallas
The Moors, surely the creators of the town which is now Novallas, remained here until 1610 (date of the expulsion of the Moors of Aragon). De la época musulmana proviene granp arte de la magnífica red de acequias que abastecen las huertas del pueblo y la estructura urbana en su parte más Antigua. A big part of superb network of irrigation ditches supplying the orchards of the village and the urban structure in its oldest part where created during the Muslim domination period. Probably, the church was first a mosque and the castle has its origin in a Muslim stronghold.
Moir (surname)
Moir ([MOY-er]) is a surname of Scottish origin, and is part of the Clan Gordon of the Scottish Lowlands. The name in its present form dates from the 14th century, and means "brave, renowned, mighty" in the Scots Gaelic dialect. Four generations of Moirs were active members of the Burgesses & Guild Brethren of Glasgow, 1751-1846.
John Moore (1595?–1657)
John Moore is descended from the Ancient Family of de la Moor/Moore of Moorhayes in the parish of Cullompton in Devonshire, where they resided from at least 1120 AD.
Mouros
According to Galician, Asturian and Portuguese mythology, the Mouros are a race of supernatural beings which inhabited the lands of Galicia, Asturias and Portugal since the beginning of time. For unknown reasons they were forced to take refuge under the earth, and now they are usually seen by people in the surroundings of "castros" and long barrows. The Mouros work with gold, silver and gem stones with which they make up enormous treasures that are protected by cuélebres.
Battle of Danes Moor
The Battle of Danes Moor (or 'Dunsmoor') occurred between the Danes and the Saxons in 914 on Danes Moor between Culworth and Edgecote, north-east of Banbury, Oxfordshire, at a crossing of a tributary of the River Cherwell.
Moors
"Moreno" can mean "dark-skinned" in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and the Philippines. Also in Spanish, "morapio" is a humorous name for "wine", especially that which has not been "baptized" or mixed with water, i.e., pure unadulterated wine. Among Spanish speakers, "moro" came to have a broader meaning, applied to both Filipino Moros from Mindanao, and the moriscos of Granada. "Moro" refers to all things dark, as in "Moor", "moreno", etc. It was also used as a nickname; for instance, the Milanese Duke Ludovico Sforza was called "Il Moro" because of his dark complexion.
In Portugal, "mouro" (feminine," moura") may refer to supernatural beings known as enchanted "moura", where "moor" implies 'alien' and 'non-Christian'. These beings were siren-like fairies with golden or reddish hair and a fair face. They were believed to have magical properties. From this root, the name moor is applied to unbaptized children, meaning not Christian. In Basque, "mairu" means moor and also refers to a mythical people.
Nicholas de Moels
His parentage is unknown. His surname appears to derive from the Norman manor of Meulles in Calvados, south-west of Orbec, in the Diocese of Lisieux. Devonshire historian Tristram Risdon (d.1640) stated that he ""descended of an ancient lineage in this shire"" but provided no further detail. One of the many tenants of Devonshire baron Baldwin de Meulles (died 1090), a Domesday Book tenant in chief, was a certain "Roger de Moles", who held from him at least the two manors or estates of Lew Trenchard and Waddlescot / Warson. Later, in 1242 as recorded in the Book of Fees, these lands were held by a certain "John de Molis" from John de Courtenay, feudal baron of Okehampton, who had inherited much of the land formerly held by Baldwin, including Okehampton Castle. This John de Molis, perhaps a brother of Nicholas, would also hold Lashbrook, Dornaford, Exbourn and Highampton, which had been held by a Roger de Molis in 1086.
Sri Lankan Moors
Some scholars hold the view that the Sri Lankan Moors are descended from the Marakkar, Mappilas, Memons and Pathans of South India.
Molly Maguires
The Molly Maguires were also active in Liverpool, England, where many Irish people settled in the 19th century, and many more passed through Liverpool on their way to the United States or Canada. The Mollies are first mentioned in Liverpool in an article in "The Liverpool Mercury" newspaper on 10 May 1853. The newspaper reported that, "a regular faction fight took place in Marybone amongst the Irish residents in that district. About 200 men and women assembled, who were divided into four parties – the 'Molly Maguires', the 'Kellys', the 'Fitzpatricks' and the 'Murphys' – the greater number of whom were armed with sticks and stones. The three latter sections were opposed to the 'Molly Maguires' and the belligerents were engaged in hot conflict for about half an hour, when the guardians of the peace interfered."
Indian Moors
With the beginning of the Sri Lankan Censuses by the British administration, population and ethnicity was conducted using the term "Nationality" until 1901. The Census Reports classified the population into seven groups viz. Europeans, Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Malays, Veddahs and others. From the 1911 onwards "Nationality" was replaced with the word "race" and it had recognition in all official and unofficial records. At the 1881 Census, Moors numbered 184,500 which increased to 228,000 in the 1901 Census.
Moriori
Based on the writing of Percy Smith and Elsdon Best from the late 19th century, theories grew up that the Māori had displaced a more primitive pre-Māori population of Moriori (sometimes described as a small-statured, dark-skinned race of possible Melanesian origin), in mainland New Zealand – and that the Chatham Island Moriori were the last remnant of this earlier race. These theories also had the advantage – from the view of the European settlers – of undermining the notion of the Māori as the indigenous people of New Zealand, making them just one in a progression of waves of migration and conquest by increasingly more civilised and technically able peoples. This in turn was used to justify racist stereotyping, colonisation, and conquest by cultural "superiors". However, the hypothesis of a racially distinct pre-Māori Moriori people was examined and rejected by a number of historians, anthropologists and ethnologists, among them, anthropologist H.D. Skinner in 1923, ethnologist Roger Duff in the 1940s, and historian and ethnographer Arthur Thomson in 1959, as well as Michael King in "Moriori: A People Rediscovered" in 2000 and James Belich and K.R. Howe in "".
Moorhouse (surname)
Moorhouse is a surname. Originating with Vikings in Normandy France. It was carried to England in 1066 when Norseman helped William the Conquerer seize the English Crown. As reward they were given lands in Lancashire.
Mourne (barony)
Mourne (named after the Múrna) is a barony in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies in the south-east of the county, with the Irish Sea to its east. It is bordered by two other baronies: Iveagh Upper, Lower Half and Iveagh Upper, Upper Half to the north and west. Mourne gets its name from the "Múrna" (Old Irish: "Mughdorna"), a people who hail originally from a territory of the same name in modern County Monaghan.
Jeremiah Morrow
Morrow was born near Gettysburg in the Province of Pennsylvania. He was of Scots-Irish descent, his Irish grandfather, also Jeremiah Morrow, had come to America from County Londonderry, and was descended from 17th century Scottish settlers. He moved to the Northwest Territory in 1795. He lived at the mouth of the Little Miami River for a short time before moving to what is now Warren County. As a member of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, he sought the services of a minister of his denomination soon after settling in the region, and he was one of the original elders of the Mill Creek congregation when it was organized shortly before 1800.
Goans
The native Muslims are small in number and are popularly known as "Moir" although Muhamedan was the word used in Portuguese to identify them, they are descendants of Mughals and Arab tradesmen. ().
Moros y Cristianos (food)
"Moros y cristianos" means “Moors and Christians”. "Moors" refers to the black beans, and "Christians" to the white rice. The name of the dish is a reference to the African Muslim governance (early 8th century) of the Iberian Peninsula and subsequent Reconquista (15th century) in which Spanish Christians led by wealthy families in the north of Spain forced the Moors from the south of Spain into Africa.
Charge (heraldry)
Moors—or more frequently their heads, often crowned—appear with some frequency in medieval European heraldry. The term ascribed to them in Anglo-Norman is "maure", though they are also sometimes called "moore", "blackmoor", "negro" or occasionally "savage". Maures appear in European heraldry from at least as early as the 13th century, and some have been attested as early as the 11th century in Italy, where they have persisted in the local heraldry and vexillology well into modern times in Corsica and Sardinia. Armigers bearing moors or moors' heads may have adopted them for any of several reasons, to include symbolizing military victories in the Crusades, as a pun on the bearer's name in the canting arms of Morese, Negri, Saraceni, etc., or in the case of Frederick II, possibly to demonstrate the reach of his empire. Even the arms of Pope Benedict XVI feature a moor's head, crowned and collared red. Nevertheless, the use of moors (and particularly their heads) as a heraldic symbol has been deprecated in modern North America, where racial stereotypes have been influenced by a history of Trans-Atlantic slave trade and racial segregation, and applicants to the College of Arms of the Society for Creative Anachronism are urged to use them delicately to avoid creating offensive images.
Enchanted Moura
Moura is a homonym word with two distinct roots and meanings; one from Celtic *MRVOS, the other from Latin maurus.
The word "moura", (moira, maura) (medieval: mora) feminine of "mouro", is thought to originate from the Celtic *MRVOS and the indo-european "mr-tuos" that originated in Latin the word "mortuus" and in Portuguese/Galician the word morto (dead). Some authors think that the mouras are the deceased.
Wallace Fard Muhammad
Awakened already to a consciousness of race discrimination, these migrants from the South came into contact with militant movements among northern Negroes. Practically none of them had been in the North prior to the collapse of the Marcus Garvey movement. A few of them had come under the influence of the Moorish-American cult which succeeded it. The effect of both these movements upon the future members of the Nation of Islam was largely indirect. Garvey taught the Negroes that their homeland was Ethiopia. The Noble Drew Ali, the prophet of the Moorish-Americans, proclaimed that these people were "descendants of Morrocans".
Castle of Moura
The construction of the Moorish walls began in the middle of the 11th century and lasted to 12th century, probably over a castro dating to the Iron Age settlement. The site successively occupied by the Romans, the Visigoths and Muslims, who turned the town into the capital of the Al-Manijah province.
Moors
The Inquisition was aimed mostly at Jews and Muslims who had overtly converted to Christianity but were thought to be practicing their faiths secretly. They were respectively called "marranos" and "moriscos". However, in 1567 King Philip II directed Moriscos to give up their Arabic names and traditional dress, and prohibited the use of Arabic. In reaction, there was a Morisco uprising in the Alpujarras from 1568 to 1571. In the years from 1609 to 1614, the government expelled Moriscos. The historian Henri Lapeyre estimated that this affected 300,000 out of an estimated total of 8 million inhabitants.
Roger Duff
Duff brought proof through his scientific papers of the existence of Moa-hunters as an early and distinct form of Māori culture. He developed and defended one of three major theories as to the origins of the Polynesian people: he believed, on the basis mainly on the physical differences, that the ancestors of the Polynesians could not have come from Asia via the Melanesian island. His main idea was that they had moved south from the area around Taiwan, through the Micronesian islands (mainly coral attols) to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. From here they radiated out into the Pacific through Tahiti and the Society Islands: north and east to Hawaii; east and south to reach the Marquesas and Easter Island, and south and to the West to New Zealand.
Moors
Although a Christian and pagan Berber rebellion pushed out the Arabs temporarily, the Romanized urban population preferred the Arabs to the Berbers and welcomed a renewed and final conquest that left northern Africa in Muslim hands by 698. Over the next decades, the Berber and urban populations of northern Africa gradually converted to Islam, although for separate reasons. The Arabic language was also adopted. Initially, the Arabs required only vassalage from the local inhabitants rather than assimilation, a process which took a considerable time. The groups that inhabited the Maghreb following this process became known collectively as Moors. Although the Berbers would later expel the Arabs from the Maghreb and form temporarily independent states, that effort failed to dislodge the usage of the collective term.
Moxo
The Mojeños, also known as Moxeños, Moxos, or Mojos, are an indigenous people of Bolivia. They lived in south central Beni Department, on both banks of the Mamore River, and on the marshy plains to its west, known as the Llanos de Mojos. The Mamore is a tributary to the Madeira River in northern Bolivia.
Moors
The term "Moors" refers primarily to the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and Malta during the Middle Ages. The Moors initially were the indigenous Maghrebine Berbers. The name was later also applied to Arabs.
Murray of Aberscross
Despite their name, this Murray family were not part of the Clan Murray in Atholl but were in fact a sept of the Clan Sutherland, whose chiefs were the Earls of Sutherland. The Earls of Sutherland were originally a family named "de Moravia", meaning "of Moray" or "of Murray" and shared a common ancestor with the chiefs of the Clan Murray in Atholl. According to historian George Harvey Johnston, all of the different families of Moray or Murray were all apparently descended from the Morays of Bothwell (ancestors of the Murrays of Atholl), but the connecting lines are now lost and the origin of each family is a matter of conjecture or dispute. The same historian also states that the Earls of Sutherland and all their cadets were descended from Moray of Bothwell. The Murrays of Aberscross or Aberscors seem to have arrived in Sutherland in 1198. Hugo or Hugh de Moravia was appointed as the first Lord of Sutherland and his son was the first Earl of Sutherland (d. 1284). In Hugo or Hugh's entourage were his cousins, or nephews, Richard de Moravia and Gilbert de Moravia who are said to have been the ancestors of the Murrays of Aberscross. Richard was a soldier who was famous for successfully defending the coast of Sutherland from the Vikings and Gilbert became Bishop of Caithness and Sutherland.
Palma de Mallorca
The arrival of the Moors in the Balearic Islands occurred at the beginning of the 8th century. During this period, the population developed an economy based on self-sufficiency and piracy, and even showed evidence of a relative hierarchy. The dominant groups took advantage of the Byzantine withdrawal due to Islamic expansion across the Mediterranean, to reinforce their domination upon the rest of the population, thus ensuring their power and the gradual abandonment of Imperial political structures.
1915 Sinhalese-Muslim riots
The native population of the island at this time was predominately Buddhist mostly from the ethnic group Sinhalese. There existed a Muslim minority known as the Moors. The Moor community consisted of two segments, the "Ceylon Moors" who originated from the Arab traders who settled in the Island about five or six centuries before and the "Indian Moors" who were at the time natives and residents of South India, who had come to Ceylon for trade. By 1915, the Ceylon Moors who had controlled trade in most parts of the island had been ousted by the Indian Moors. The 1911 Census indicates that Ceylon Moors numbered 232,927 and Indian Moors 33,527. Establishing themselves in rice importation, sale, and distribution, Indian Moors gained much wealth and established themselves across the country.
Moors Sports Club
Moors Sports Club was founded by members of Colombo Grand Mosque at New Moor Street in the Colombo neighbourhood of Pettah. Like most clubs founded during the colonial era it was founded on ethno-religious lines and catered to the minority Moorish community. The club later moved to its present location at Muttiah Road in the neighbourhood of Slave Island. Sir Razik Fareed laid the foundation stone for a Club House on 25 September 1936 and Governor Sir Edward Stubbs declared open the pavilion on 27 February 1937. The first inter-club match at the venue was between the Moors SC and Kalutara Town Club. In 1983 the first professional players were contracted with the advent of professional cricket and the Sri Lanka national cricket team gaining Test status. In addition to cricket, other sports offered include tennis and billiards.
List of Sri Lankan Moors
The Tamil term for Moors is "Sonakar", which is thought to be derived from the word "sunni". The Tamil term "Sonakar" along with the Sinhalese term "Yonaka", has been thought to have been derived from the term "Yona", a term originally applied to Greeks, but sometimes also Arabs.Native headmen of Ceylon - The Native headmen system was an integral part of the administration of the island of Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka) under the successive European colonial powers, namely the Portuguese Empire, the Dutch East India Company and the British Empire. Native headmen or leaders where appointed by the European colonial administrators to function as intermediates between the Europeans and the native populous. During different periods through this system these headmen functioned in military, policing, administrative and ceremonial capacities. They served as translators, revenue collectors and wielded quasi-judicial powers. Much of the system evolved and changed over time until some of the last vestiges of it were removed in the post-independent Ceylon.
Moors
The term has also been used in Europe in a broader, somewhat derogatory sense to refer to Muslims in general, especially those of Arab or Berber descent, whether living in Spain or North Africa. During the colonial era, the Portuguese introduced the names "Ceylon Moors" and "Indian Moors" in Sri Lanka, and the Bengali Muslims were also called Moors. In the Philippines, the longstanding Muslim community, which predates the arrival of the Spanish, now self-identifies as the "Moro people", an exonym introduced by Spanish colonizers due to their Muslim faith.
Clan Macrae
According to tradition, the Macraes were originally from Ireland and shared a common ancestry with the Mackenzies and Macleans. The Macraes were said to have originated from Clunes, which is located near the southern shore of the Beauly Firth, and was within the lordship of Lovat. Alexander Macrae stated that these traditions likely refer to a period sometime in the middle of the 13th century. According to John Macrae, after a violent dispute arose between the Macraes and more powerful Frasers of Lovat, three sons of the Macrae chief set off for new lands. One of the sons settled in Brahan, near Dingwall (later the site of Brahan Castle); another settled in Argyll; and the other settled in Kintail.
Mourne (barony)
Early genealogists would claim that they descend from Mughdhorn Dubh, a son of Colla Menn, however this has been rebuked as a politically-driven construct. Indeed Mugdorna is listed as being one of the territories conquered from the Ulaid by the Three Collas with Colla Menn taking possession of Mughdorna. The O'Hanratties are stated as having anciently possessed this territory. Francis John Byrne points out that the name Mugdorna, 'the slave folk', denotes their low-caste non-Gael origins and that they are the one people of the Airgíalla for whom no specific ethnic background is supplied.