Moors

Moors (Latin Mauri), a mixture of people, mostly derived from Arabs and Berbers inhabiting northern Africa. Following the Arab conquest of the Berbers in the 7th century ad, mixture and intermarriage was prevalent between the two groups. As a people the Moors traveled northward and conquered Spain. They also inhabited Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania.

The term Moors remains ambiguous. Some authorities consider the Moors equivalent to the Berbers; others restrict the name to an admixture of Arab ancestry and refer to as Moors only the more settled Arabic-speaking population of the towns. In European history the term is applied loosely to the inhabitants of the Barbary states under Ottoman rule. The term lives in the names of the two countries, Morocco and Mauritania.