Friday 12 July 2013

Ancient Man and His First Civilizations

The Berbers-Tuareg-Moors of North Africa (All of these terms are actually foreign designations, and offensive to the people) Iberia (Spain and Portugal) The Iberian Peninsula because of its close proximity to Africa, has been inhabited for at least 1,000,000 years. At about 45,000 B.C. the Khoisan type African “Grimaldi,” became the first “Modern Man” to enter Europe; as he crossed the Gibraltar straits and started his journey across Europe. (Europe and Africa are NOW separated by 7.7 nautical miles - during glacial periods it was much less). During the Neolithic expansion, various megalithic cultures developed in Iberia. An open seas navigation culture from the east Mediterranean, probably from Crete, called the Cardium culture, also extended its influence to the eastern coasts of Iberia, possibly as early as the 5th millennium B.C. In the Chalcolithic or Copper Age (c. 3000 B.C. in Iberia) a series of complex cultures developed, which would give rise to the first civilizations in Iberia and to extensive exchange networks reaching to the Baltic, the Middle East and North Africa. At about 2150 B.C. the Bell Beaker culture intruded into Chalcolithic Iberia, being of Celtic origin. Around 1100 B.C. Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day Cádiz) near Tartessos. In the 8th century B.C. the first Whites arrived, the Greeks established colonies such as Emporion (modern Empúries), these were founded along the Mediterranean coast on the East, leaving the south coast to the Phoenicians. The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, after the river Iber (Ebro). In the 6th century B.C. the Phoenician Carthaginians arrived in Iberia while struggling with the Greeks for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (Latin name of modern day Cartagena). In 219 B.C. the first Roman troops invaded the Iberian Peninsula, this during the Second Punic war against the Carthaginians. After two centuries of war with the Celtic and Iberian tribes, and also the Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian colonies, Rome annexed it under Augustus, resulting in the creation of the province of Hispania. It was divided into Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior during the late Roman Republic, and during the Roman Empire, it was divided into Hispania Taraconensis in the northeast, Hispania Baetica in the south and Lusitania in the southwest. In the early 5th century A.D. new Whites invaded, these were Germanic tribes from Eastern Europe, namely the Suevi, the Vandals (Silingi and Hasdingi) and their allies, the Sarmatian Alans. Only the kingdom of the Suevi (Quadi and Marcomanni) would endure after the arrival of another wave of Germanic invaders - The Visigoths; who had earlier established their own kingdom with its capital at Toulouse France. They slowly extended their authority into Hispania, displacing the Vandals and Alans. The Visigoths, subsequently conquered all of the Iberian peninsula and expelled or partially integrated the Vandals and the Alans. The Visigoths eventually conquered the Suevi kingdom and its capital city Bracara (modern day Braga) in 584-585 A.D. They would also conquer the province of the Byzantine Empire Spania, in the south of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands. The Moors White historians, in their bid to make ancient Europeans seem White, have chosen to ignore the “obvious” relationships that must have existed between Berbers and the people of iberia. When Grimaldi crossed the Gibraltar straits to enter Europe, all of his kind did not follow. When Humans move to new territories “Most” stay behind in the old territory, and they “maintain” their relationships; there is always back and forth travel for trade and communication. It is against this backdrop that the Berber invasion of Iberia must be viewed. The Berbers did not enter Iberia as destroyers, they entered as builders! Thus, after Muhammad’s Islamic army took Egypt in 640 A.D. and then went on to conquer all of North Africa. The Berbers no-doubt saw this new Black army as an opportunity; so rather than fight, the Berbers joined forces with the Islamic army. In 711 A.D. A Berber army led by general Tariq ibn Ziyad, invaded Iberia (Spain) and overthrew the White Visigoths (Western Goths): Who were one of two main branches of the Goths, an east Germanic tribe, who over the period of only one hundred years, had migrated from eastern Europe, thru Greece, thru Italy, and finally down into the Iberian peninsula. In Iberia (Spain and Portugal), the Berbers, now known as Moors, created a highly advanced civilization and culture, famous for it’s art, architecture, and centers of learning. While having rule over Spain: The Berbers, who themselves fifty years earlier had been forced to accept Islam, now sometimes forced the inhabitants of Iberia to do the same. Though the number of original “Moors” remained small, many native Iberian inhabitants converted to Islam. According to Ronald Segal, some 5.6 million of Iberia’s 7 million inhabitants were Muslim by 1200 A.D, virtually all of them native inhabitants. According to historian Richard A. Fletcher, the number of Arabs who settled in Iberia was very small. There were about 900,000 Berbers and about 90,000 Arabs in Iberia. (More history below). Muslim Spain and European Culture Dean Derhak When you think of European culture, one of the first things that may come to your mind is the renaissance. Many of the roots of European culture can be traced back to that glorious time of art, science, commerce and architecture. But did you know that long before the renaissance there was a place of humanistic beauty in Muslim Spain? Not only was it artistic, scientific and commercial, but it also exhibited incredible tolerance, imagination and poetry. Moors, as the Spaniards call the Muslims, populated Spain for nearly 700 years. As you’ll see, it was their civilization that enlightened Europe and brought it out of the dark ages to usher in the renaissance. Many of their cultural and intellectual influences still live with us today. Way back during the eighth century, Europe was still knee-deep in the Medieval period. That’s not the only thing they were knee-deep in. In his book, “The Day The Universe Changed,” the historian James Burke describes how the typical European townspeople lived: “The inhabitants threw all their refuse into the drains in the center of the narrow streets. The stench must have been overwhelming, though it appears to have gone virtually unnoticed. Mixed with excrement and urine would be the soiled reeds and straw used to cover the dirt floors. This squalid society was organized under a feudal system and had little that would resemble a commercial economy. Along with other restrictions, the Catholic Church forbade the lending of money - which didn’t help get things booming much. “Anti-Semitism, previously rare, began to increase. Money lending, which was forbidden by the Church, was permitted under Jewish law.” (Burke, 1985, p. 32) Jews worked to develop a currency although they were heavily persecuted for it. Medieval Europe was a miserable lot, which ran high in illiteracy, superstition, barbarism and filth. During this same time, Arabs entered Europe from the South. ABD AL-RAHMAN I, a survivor of a family of caliphs of the Arab empire, reached Spain in the mid-700’s. He became the first Caliph of Al-Andalus, the Moorish part of Spain, which occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula. He also set up the UMAYYAD Dynasty that ruled Al-Andalus for over three-hundred years. (Grolier, History of Spain). Al Andalus means, “the land of the Vandals,” from which comes the modern name Andalusia At first, the land resembled the rest of Europe in all its squalor. But within two-hundred years the Moors had turned Al-Andalus into a bastion of culture, commerce and beauty. “Irrigation systems imported from Syria and Arabia turned the dry plains… into an agricultural cornucopia. Olives and wheat had always grown there. The Arabs added pomegranates, oranges, lemons, aubergines, artichokes, cumin, coriander, bananas, almonds, pams, henna, woad, madder, saffron, sugar-cane, cotton, rice, figs, grapes, peaches, apricots and rice.” (Burke, 1985, p. 37) By the beginning of the ninth century, Moorish Spain was the gem of Europe with its capital city, Cordova. With the establishment of Abdurrahman III - “the great caliphate of Cordova” - came the golden age of Al-Andalus. Cordova, in southern Spain, was the intellectual center of Europe. At a time when London was a tiny mud-hut village that “could not boast of a single streetlamp” (Digest, 1973, p. 622), in Cordova “there were half a million inhabitants, living in 113,000 houses. There were 700 mosques and 300 public baths spread throughout the city and its twenty-one suburbs. The streets were paved and lit.” (Burke, 1985, p. 38) The houses had marble balconies for summer and hot-air ducts under the mosaic floors for the winter. They were adorned with gardens with artificial fountains and orchards”. (Digest, 1973, p. 622) “Paper, a material still unknown to the west, was everywhere. There were bookshops and more than seventy libraries.” (Burke, 1985, p. 38). This rich and sophisticated society took a tolerant view towards other faiths. Tolerance was unheard of in the rest of Europe. But in Moorish Spain, “thousands of Jews and Christians lived in peace and harmony with their Muslim overlords.” (Burke, 1985, p. 38) The society had a literary rather than religious base. Economically their prosperity was unparalleled for centuries. The aristocracy promoted private land ownership and encouraged Jews in banking. There was little or no Muslim prostelyting. Instead, non-believers simply paid an extra tax! In another of James Burke’s works titled “Connections,” he describes how the Moors thawed out Europe from the Dark Ages. “But the event that must have done more for the intellectual and scientific revival of Europe was the fall of Toledo in Spain to the Christians, in 1105.” In Toledo the Arabs had huge libraries containing the lost (to Christian Europe) works of the Greeks and Romans along with Arab philosophy and mathematics. “The Spanish libraries were opened, revealing a store of classics and Arab works that staggered Christian Europeans.” (Burke, 1978, p. 123) The intellectual plunder of Toledo brought the scholars of northern Europe like moths to a candle. The Christians set up a giant translating program in Toledo. Using the Jews as interpreters, they translated the Arabic books into Latin. These books included “most of the major works of Greek science and philosophy… along with many original Arab works of scholarship.” (Digest, p. 622) “The intellectual community which the northern scholars found in Spain was so far superior to what they had at home that it left a lasting jealousy of Arab culture, which was to color Western opinions for centuries” (Burke, 1985, p. 41) “The subjects covered by the texts included medicine, astrology, astronomy pharmacology, psychology, physiology, zoology, biology, botany, mineralogy, optics, chemistry, physics, mathematics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, music, meteorology, geography, mechanics, hydrostatics, navigation and history.” (Burke, 1985, p. 42) These works alone however, didn’t kindle the fire that would lead to the renaissance. They added to Europe’s knowledge, but much of it was unappreciated without a change in the way Europeans viewed the world. Beginning of the End In Iberia, many of the ousted White nobles took refuge in the unconquered north Asturian highlands. From there they aimed to reconquer their lands from the Moors: this war of reconquest is known as the Reconquista. It began in about 900 A.D. when a small Christian enclave of Visigoths in northwestern Spain, named Asturias; initiated conflicts between Christians and Muslims. Soon after, Christian states based in the north and west slowly; in fits and starts, began a process of expansion and reconquest of Iberia over the next several hundred years. The end for the Moors came on January 2, 1492: the leader of the last Moorish City “Granada” (located in southern Spain) - surrendered to armies of a recently united Christian Spain (after the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile). This ended the 800 year reign of the Moors in Iberia. The Surrender of Granada By some historical accounts: In 1491, Muhammad XII was summoned by Ferdinand and Isabella to surrender the city of Granada, and on his refusal it was besieged by the Castilians. Eventually, on 2 January, 1492, Granada was surrendered. In most sumptuous attire the royal procession moved from Santa Fe to a place a little more than a mile from Granada, where Ferdinand took up his position by the banks of the Genil. A private letter written by an eyewitness to the bishop of León only six days after the event recorded the scene. With the royal banners and the cross of Christ plainly visible on the red walls of the Alhambra: …the Moorish sultan with about eighty or a hundred on horseback very well dressed went forth to kiss the hand of their Highnesses. According to the final capitulation agreement both Isabel and Ferdinand will decline the offer and the key to Granada will pass into Spanish hands without Muhammad XII having to kiss the hands of Los Royes, as the Spanish royal couple became known. Muhammad XII indomitable mother insisted on sparing his son this final humiliation. The Moorish sultan was received with much love and courtesy and there they handed over to him his son, who had been a hostage from the time of his capture, and as they stood there, there came about four hundred captives, of this who were in the enclosure, with the cross and a solemn procession singing the Te Deum Laudamus, and their highnesses dismounted to adore the Cross to the accompaniment of the tears and reverential devotion of the crowd, not least of the Cardinal and Master of Santiago and the Duke of Cadiz and all the other grandees and gentlemen and people who stood there, and there was no one who did not weep abundantly with pleasure giving thanks to Our Lord for what they saw, for they could not keep back the tears; and the Moorish sultan and the Moors who were with him for their part could not disguise the sadness and pain they felt for the joy of the Christians, and certainly with much reason on account of their loss, for Granada is the most distinguished and chief thing in the world… Christopher Columbus seems to have been present; he refers to the surrender on the first page of his Diario de las Derrotas y Caminos: After your Highnesses ended the war of the Moors who reigned in Europe, and finished the war of the great city of Granada, where this present year [1492] on the 2nd January I saw the royal banners of Your Highnesses planted by force of arms on the towers of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of the said city, I saw the Moorish sultan issue from the gates of the said city, and kiss the royal hands of Your Highnesses… Exile Legend has it that as the royal party moved south toward exile, they reached a rocky prominence which gave a last view of the city. Muhammad XII reined in his horse and, surveying for the last time the Alhambra and the green valley that spread below, burst into tears. When his mother approached him she said: “Weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man”. The spot from which Muhammad XII looked for the last time on Granada is known as “the Moor’s last sigh” (el último suspiro del Moro). (it’s probably not true - as we know, White people DO tend to lie). Muhammad XII was given an estate in Láujar de Andarax, Las Alpujarras, a mountainous area between the Sierra Nevada and the Mediterranean Sea, but he soon crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to Fez, Morocco. The Spanish royal secretary Fernando de Zafra mentions in his letter of 9 December 1492 that Muhammad XII and his followers leave Andarax which left one month to go to Tlemcen, where he stayed little longer. He left in September or October 1492. He explained that his wife died in Andarax is that it is buried in Mondújar. The remaining Muslims and Turkish Khazar Jews (not Hebrews) of Iberia were forced to leave Iberia or die; or convert to Roman Catholic Christianity. Many of the Khazar Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal immigrated to Holland, where they set up the Dutch West Indies Company, a prime mover in the Atlantic slave trade. Ironically, eight months after the last Moorish city fell: it was in the nearby town of Palos, on the evening of August 3, 1492. That Christopher Columbus would depart from Palos on his journey to the Americas. One result of which, would be the Spanish and Portuguese Atlantic Slave trade. The story of Black slavery in the Americas, of course begins with Christopher Columbus. It is alleged that his voyage to the Americas was not financed by Queen Isabella, but rather by the Khazar Jew Luis de Santangelo, who supposedly advanced the sum of 17,000 ducats to finance the voyage. Columbus was accompanied by five ‘Maranos’ (Jews who had forsworn their religion and supposedly became Catholics) Luis de Torres - the interpreter, Marco - the surgeon, Bemal - the physician, Alonzo de la Calle and Gabriel Sanchez, and a Black navigator, Pedro Alonso Niño (1468 – 1505). It is not known if Pedro Alonso Niño was a Moor or a native Gaul of Iberia. While in the Americas, it was Gabriel Sanchez, who convinced Columbus to capture 500 American Indians and sell them as slaves in Seville, Spain. moment in White history: It was duly commemorated in the Coat of Arms and Flags of many former kingdoms of the Moors. (The identity of the four defeated Moor kings, depicted on the Coat of Arms is unknown). Meanwhile in Egypt: 935 A.D. ushered in the Ikhshidid dynasty of Muhammad ibn Tughj, a Turk from Uzbekistan in Central Asia. But the Ikhshidid dynasty was usurped by their Abyssinian slave tutor named Kafur; he ruled Egypt with the caliphate’s sanction until his death in 968 A.D. Kafur wisely forsook White Turkish troops, and instead used Berbers as the mainstay of his army. The Berbers have since fallen on hard times, even to losing their identity; for today, as is the case with all of the ancient Blacks, the mixed-race people, and even the Whites, now call themselves Berbers.

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