Moor
a native of the N. coast of Africa, which formed the ancient Mauritania, now represented by the countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli.
In 709 the Arabs conquered Mauritania, and converted the people to Mohammed. anism. The conquerors and the conquered amalgamated together, and in 711 an army of this mixed populatión, under Arab leaders, crossed at the Straits of Gibraltar, and began the conquest of the Spanish peninsula. This they speedily effected, with the exception of the mountainous districts of Asturias and Galicia. When almost the whole of the rest of Europe was sunk in ignorance and barbarism, learning and the arts flourished among the Moors in Spain.
About the middle of the 11th century, many of the local governors established themselves as independent potentates.
The wars that followed so weakened the power of the Moors that the Christians rose against them under Alfonso, "the battler," and took Castile, with its capital, Toledo. Their progress was for a time checked; but subsequently they continued to extend their conquests till the