Ever heard of the Saracen people?

[Adisa]

I have been reading a book titled, The Discovery of Freedom.  I have enjoyed reading this book and continue to learn a great deal being exposed to the information contained in this book.  There was a particular chapter that referred to a group of people called the Saracens.  It spoke of the freedoms the Saracens not only enjoyed but also encouraged.  

 

As I continued to read about the Saracens and some of the things they accomplished, I began to get confused.  I became confused because some of the things this group of people accomplished, I learned were accomplished by a different group of people identified as Moors.  I continued to read, and I knew I had to do some searching about the Saracen people when I read that after converting to Christianity, Saracens were then called Moriscos.  The reason being, I also learned that once Moors converted to Christianity, they too were then identified as Moriscos.

 

In my search I discovered an article written by Ellen M. Harrell Cantrell, titled The Moors of Spain.  This is what I found in her writings about two groups of people.  .

      "Like a match dropped on oil, this appeal to mankind for spiritual and temporal authority, fired the fanaticism of the Arabs, and like a mighty conflagration they swept over the northern states of Africa, and formed a new and powerful empire which took the name Saracen.  This is by mediaeval Christian authors supposed to be derived from Sarai, the wife of Abraham, by others from the Arab saraca (to steal), or from the Hebrew srak (poor), but the opinion which now prevails is that it came from the Greek sareknoi (eastern people), from which the Romans derived their word Saraceni.  As they spread over Morocco, then called Mauritania, they took the name of Moors, from mauri, meaning dark.  While the Arabs or Saracen conquerors invaded Spain, they were, naturally enough, called Moors, so that in Spanish history the terms Arab, Saracens and Moors are synonymous.”

 

Interesting information, I will continue to seek out more.  As I typed this post, my eyes continue to find, “sareknoi (eastern people).  Eastern people?  This brings more questions to me such as what exactly does this imply?  How far east?  Anyone else find this interesting or have interesting information to fit this puzzle together?   

 

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/eagle/congress/cantrell.html

[Adisa]

Palawan is an island in the province of the Philippines, inhabited by the Manguianes people.  In the book titled "The Inhabitants of the Phillipines" it is considered that the Manguianes people numbered about 4000 in the year 1887.  The book also indicated that these people seemed to be oppressed by Moors.  It is suggested that the first people to migrate to Palawan and other islands in this area were pushed to these islands by the Han People of South China.  The people were described as "little dark people."  These people were found to have a non formal form of government, an alphabet and a system of trading with sea-borne merchants. 

The people in the area now considered to be relative to the ancient little dark people are known as the Aeta, Ayta or Agta and the Batak people.  One Spanish explorer observered the Aeta as having both iron tools and weapons.

[Clifford Black]

These small groups of people are vanishing all over the planet!

B.

[Adisa]

Yes Dr. B, these people are being displaced much like other animals that rely on the forests and woodlands to exist.  Some of the progeny are also sadly becoming accustomed to civilization.  I was kind of surprised to read this information basically because many of those who hold claim to being moors usually voice feeling oppressed.   

[Adisa]

The Cagots (pronounced: [ka.ɡo]) were a persecuted and despised minority found in the west of France and northern Spain: the Navarrese Pyrenees, Basque provinces, Béarn, Aragón, Gascony and Brittany. Their name has differed by province and the local language: Cagots, Gézitains, Gahets, and Gafets in Gascony; Agotes, Agotac, and Gafos in Basque country; Capots in Anjou and Languedoc; and Cacons, Cahets, Caqueux, and Caquins in Brittany. Evidence of the group exists back as far as AD 1000.^[1]

The origins of both the term "Cagots" (and "Agotes", "Capots", "Caqueux", etc.) and the Cagots themselves are uncertain. It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths, and the name Cagot derives from caas (dog) and "Goth". Yet in opposition to this etymology is the fact that the word "cagot" is first found in this form no earlier than the year 1542. 16th-century French historian Pierre de Marca, in his Histoire de Béarn, propounds the reverse – that the word signifies "hunters of the Goths", and that the Cagots were descendants of the Saracens.