Alhambra is still a major tourist attraction and is a reminder of how influential Muslim presence in Iberia was. Urban Dictionary: moor Beginning in the Renaissance, Moor and blackamoor were also used to describe any person with dark skin. Another major impact the Moors had was their architecture which stayed behind even after they were gone. In this course, we'll read William Shakespeare's Othello and discuss the play from a variety of perspectives. and immigrants were considered low-class. Moor came to mean anyone who was Muslim or had dark skin; occasionally, Europeans would distinguish between blackamoors and white Moors.. It can also be used in verb form: the act of othering is the act of making someone an other, which is precisely what happens to Othello. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Act 5 Scene 2 by Josiah Boydell, 1803. (In Shakespeares time, the port city of Venice was ethnically diverse, and the Moors represented a growing interchange between Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.) 7.55. Why were moors originally depicted as black by Europeans? The term "Moor" came from the country named Mauritania, but it generally referred to all North Africans and West Africans and, for some people, all Muslims and non-whites. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. She loves him and is faithful to him. During the War of Cyprus, the Turkish army invaded Cyprus, which led to a response from Spanish and Venetian fleets that ultimately led to the downfall of the Turks. Othello has been played World authority on Shakespeare. To summarize, Moors were treated with fear and mistrust by the English during this period due to a lack of knowledge, cultural and religious tensions. Moors - Wikipedia William Shakespeare and Othello Background The most influential writer in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Othello: A Brief Production History | Shakespeare's Staging Create an account to start this course today. Today, the term Moor is used to designate the predominant Arab-Amazigh ethnic group in Mauritania (which makes up more than two-thirds of the countrys population) and the small Arab-Amazigh minority in Mali. In William Shakespeare's Othello, racism is certainly featured throughout the play. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. Othello- Historical Context - Litchapter.com hero. Also, according to SparkNotes, the word Moor today refers to Islamic Arabic people who moved from Northern Africa to Spain during the eighth century. The 16th century scholar Leo Africanus (c. 1494-1554) identified the Moors ( Mauri) as the native Berber inhabitants of the former Roman Africa Province ( Roman Africans ). It brings with it connotations of discrimination and of being valued as less than one who is not an other. What is are the functions of diverse organisms? Clearly, he has been taught to think of his race as a negative attribute. (PDF) SHAKESPEARE IN BLACK AND WHITE A Contextualization of Moorish Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? To make the islands of the Venetian lagoon fit for habitation, Venices early settlers needed to drain areas of the lagoon, dig canals and shore up the banks to prepare them for building on. that time made no distinction between Africans from North Africa Iago also uses plant images to explain his own role in the action of the play. Santiago is thought to have fought in a mythical battle that expelled the Moors from Spain and Catholics in Latin America celebrate him as a saint for this reason. Throughout the play, he is set apart from the rest of the characters with labels and remarks that constantly point out his race. Here Iago is drawing attention to Othello's racial otherness by calling him ''an old black ram'' and is being rude beyond that as ''tupping'' here means ''having sex with.''. As the original Islamic empire expanded across Africa and Asia they began to rule over a majority of non-Muslims. Jealous of Othellos success and envious of Cassio, Iago plots Othellos downfall by falsely implicating Othellos wife, Desdemona, and Cassio in a love affair. Although Othello is a Moor, and although we often assume he is from Africa, he never names his birthplace in the play. 1 The first record of a performance of Othello is an entry in the Accounts Book of Master of the Revels Edmund Tilney noting that on 1 November 1604 "the King's Majesty's players . Othello the Moor of Venice. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Of mixed Arab, Spanish, and Amazigh (Berber) origins, the Moors created the Islamic Andalusian civilization and subsequently settled as refugees in the Maghreb (in the region of North Africa) between the 11th and 17th centuries. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. 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He was incredibly influential in Russian literature and poetry but was not connected to the Moors of Spain or North Africa. He is often referred not by his name but by the color of his skin and his religious background, such as "the Moor" and "black Othello." The casting of Othello, in the play Othello by William Shakespeare, as a black person portrays visual sign of the otherness as widely held by the Elizabethans. Africans (or Moors, as they called them then.) English people of Who were the Moors and Venetians in Othello? In Shakespeares time, Moors could be from Africa, but they could also be from the Middle East, or even Spain. PDF The Moor as a Muslim in William Shakespeare's Othello - Sciendo o Othello was based on a short story in a collection of 100 domestic stories in the book Hecatommithi , written by the Italian writer Cinthio Giambattista Giraldi ( 1504 - 1574 ) . maintained that the Latin word "Maurus" was a synonym for "Niger". "Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective . 332 lessons. B how were the moors treated throughout history Moors were often judged lowly due to their culture, dress standards, customs and behaviours. Nathan Murphy received his B.A. The Moors were known as monstrous and savage in Elizabethan England. Means Black in Greek.