Moors

an Arabic people, now occupying the Barbary states. They were originally Arabs, but they have absorbed various elements. The Moors entered Europe from Africa by way of Spain. They were turned back by Charles Martel at the battle of Tours, 732. They were Mohammedans, speaking the Arabic language. They built cities in Spain and established extensive irrigation systems. They were for a time dominant, but the native Spaniard gained the ascendancy and began a system or repression in some respects reminding the reader of the agitation against the Huguenots in France. Ferdinand crushed the military power of the Moors in 1492. In 1610 the last of them were expelled, leaving Spain the poorer in learning as well as in industrial respects. See Alhambra; Arabs; Arithmetic