Were the Moors truly black back in the day?

by PETApitaS

Whenever I look up pictures of Berbers, they all appear to be slightly darker than normal Arabs, but clearly not black.

Roma_Victrix

For starters, the Moors were a North African, Afro-Asiatic-speaking peoples (a language group that includes Semitic languages as well) who had only limited contact and trade activity with black sub-Saharan populations living further south, such as those along the Niger River running through southern Mali. Modern-day Berbers are a rather diverse bunch, with some who are black, or brown, or as white as any southern European. There are a few medieval depictions of Moors as being dark-skinned, but from what I've seen the vast majority seem to depict them as white and light-skinned as their Christian Spanish compatriots. The only difference between the two are often the dress and headgear to distinguish Christians and Muslims in these illuminated manuscript illustrations. For instance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ChristianAndMuslimPlayingChess.JPG

In the image above we see a Christian and Muslim playing chess. It's an illustration from The Book of Games of Alfonso X, composed and illustrated in roughly 1285 AD.

There are also many depictions of Moors in the 13th-century Cantigas de Santa Maria. For instance, here's a group of Moors fighting a group of Spanish Christians, versus the second image where the army is composed of Spanish Christians leading the vanguard in the front and Muslim Moors serving as the rearguard. Notice how everyone is basically depicted as having the same pale white skin tone, but are distinguished by their dress and armor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MoorandChristianBattle.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reconquista4.jpg

The Berbers were partially descended from the more ancient Numidian tribes that surrounded the Carthaginian city-state in what is now Tunisia. Here's a Numidian silver coin (imitating Carthaginian symbolism with the horse and palm tree) minted with the depiction of their king Massinissa (r. 202-148 BC) wearing a diadem. This profile view of the king portrays him with a very Caucasian-looking Aquiline nose, facial features, and hair.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MASSINISSA_-MAA_23-_87000716.jpg