Moorish connection...Morocco

The Berber who constitute the bulk of the Moroccan link according to “morocco” the official publication of the Moroccan ministry of information – owe their name to the Romans “Antiquity knew them as Libyans, Numidians, Getulians, Phoenicians and called them Mahur, hence maur and Moro(Moors)”.

According to this publication some came from the middle and near East. Others say they are from Egypt or Himiyar in South Arabia. These theories find their best arguments in details of craftsmanship and customs and above all in that beautiful Berber architecture.

Three main groups are present in morocco; the Sanhaja, some settled in the middle Atlas, like the Zaiyan mountaineers, and “Qsurtans” – country folk living in peculiar walled villages in Southern Morocco; others great camel-driver wanderers, who since the 3rd century have become masters of Saharan Morocco; the Masmuda, Sedentary peasants and craftsmen, stockbreeders who occupy a part of the Atlas and Rif areas; the Zenata horsemen migrants, came from the wasteland and tablelands of eastern Morocco. Robert Rezette says in his book: “the western Sahara and the frontiers of Morocco” (pp.27-29)

“Humanly speaking there are three great ethnic groups co-existing in the Spanish Sahara without any of them having a centre of interest there…..the three ethnic groups (Tekna, Reguibat, Moorish) speak “harsanya”, a dialect close to literary Arabic………

“in the far south of the Spanish Sahara the same people predominate as in Mauritania- the Moors(30,000 approximately in Rio de Oro and 800,000 in Mauritania) are a mixture of Berber, Arab and black, some of them of very mixed blood, others very pure strains such as the Arab tribe of the Ouled Delim, for example.”

Morocco is also the birth place of the theologian traveller Ibn Battuta (Mohamed Ibn Abdullah) (1304-1369) who visited Serendib or Sri Lanka to make a pilgrimage to Adam’s Peak, the holy mountain. As he says in his “Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354”; since reaching this land, I have had but one desire to visit the blessed foot of Adam…..there are two tracks on the mountain leading to the foot, on called Baba track and other Mama track, meaning Adam and Eve……the blessed footprint, the foot of our father Adam, is on a lofty black rock in wide plateau. The blessed foot sank into the rock far enough to leave its impression hollowed out.”

Ibn battuta makes extensive references to the serendib or Sri Lanka in his Travelogue, describing his visits here in detail. He was born in Tangier, Morocco, was a Qadi (Judge) and theologian. He belonged to the Berber tribe of the Luwata.