Question by Museum!: What is the distinction between “Berber” and “Moor”?
I’m not sure what the difference is if there is one.
So the Imazighen (Berbers), were a different group and arrived to Magreb later than the Moors? Is that correct?
OK, so “Moor” indicates “Arab”?
Best answer:
Answer by Alex R
Moors were Muslim crusaders that invaded the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages and were pressing towards the rest of Europe until they were driven back by Charles The Hammer Martel in France. Berbers were a group of Muslims that inhabited the coasts of Algeria and Tunisia after the Moors had moved through towards the Western Sahara and the Iberian Peninsula.
Add your own answer in the comments!
- the Berbers are the people who inhabited the Sahara long before the arrival of the Moors (Arabs)…
Moors are not distinct or self-defined people, but the appellation was applied by medieval and early modern Europeans primarily to Berbers, but also Arabs, and Muslim Iberians and West Africans from Mali and Niger who had been absorbed into the Almoravid dynasty. As early as 1911, mainstream scholars observed that “The term ‘Moors’ has no real ethnological value.
Speakers of European languages have historically designated a number of ethnic groups “Moors”. In modern Iberia, the term continues to be associated with those of Moroccan ethnicity living in Europe. Some consider it pejorative and racist. Moor is sometimes used in a wider context to describe any person from North Africa.
Berbers are a GENETIC group spread throughout North Africa. Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley… they PRE-DATE History and the term “Berber” comes into usage at the end of the Roman Empire.