After learning that a tumblr called Medieval PoC (a blog dedicated to showing Non-Caucasian people in Medieval times) is
an ideologically driven, revisionist, thoroughly presentist, and sensationalist crime against history that can't even get the definition of "mediaeval" right, and has been caught out making severe stuff-ups (if not outright falsehoods - such as Beethoven being black , while also reversing the burden of proof), quite often in service of said ideology.
as one reddit user posted, i have decided to ask this question here.
Weere there any Sub-Saharan Africans present in Medieval Europe, at any point in said era? Why would they be there? How would they get there? If there were any, weren't they usually in the coastal regions closer to Africa? And wouldn't they be traders?
I imagine North Africans had a larger presence, being closer and all, but what about Sub-Saharan Africans?
Thank you for your time.
Both the Moors and the Ottomans made use of sub-saharan slaves. These people were sometimes made into slave warriors or freed and worked for their former masters.
So you would see black Africans, referred to as Moors by the Europeans and as Zanj by the Ottomans both as slaves and free men in Spain and the Balkans.
See for example this painting of the reconquisita depiciting the Battle of San Esteban de Gormaz, 917, created during the reign of Alfonso X, 1252-1284 - note the Moorish soldier in the top right corner, clearly a Sub-Saharan African.
hi! you may be interested in this recent related post, which includes links to several others. note that responses refer to more people than just Sub-Saharans
