The history of African people is rich, comprehensive, inspiring, and often little known.
Where Africans The Knights Templar
Saint Maurice with his knightly standard
The Moors: Light of Europe’s Dark Age
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, as early as the Middle Ages and as late as the 17th century, the Moors were “commonly supposed to be black or very swarthy, and hence the word is often used for Negro.” Early in the eighth century, after a grim and extended resistance to the Arab invasions of North Africa, the Moors joined the triumphant surge of Islam.
Tarik ibn Ziyad: Chief of the Moors
In July 710, Tarik, with 400 foot soldiers and 100 horses, all Berbers, successfully carried out a mission in southern Iberia. Tarif, an important port city in southern Spain, is named after him. It is clear, however, that the conquest of Spain was undertaken upon the initiative of Tarik ibn Ziyad, who was in command of an army of at least 10,000 men.
In 711, the bold Tarik crossed the straits and disembarked near a rock promontory, which from that day since has borne his name - Djabal Tarik (“Tarik’s Mountain”), or Gibraltar. In August 711, Tarik won paramount victory over the opposing European army. On the eve of the battle, Tarik is alleged to have roused his troops with the following words:
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“My brethren, the enemy is before you, the sea is behind; whither would ye fly? Follow your general; I am resolved either to lose my life or to trample on the prostrate king of the Romans.”
Wasting no time to relish his victory, Tarik pushed on with his dashing and seemingly tireless Moorish cavalry to the Spanish city of Toledo. Within a month’s time, General Tarik ibn Ziyad had effectively terminated European dominance of the Iberian Peninsula. In the aftermath of these brilliant struggles, thousands of Moors flooded into the Iberian Peninsula. So eager were they to come that some are said to have floated over on tree-trunks. Tarik himself, at the conclusion of his illustrious military career, retired to the distant East, we are informed, to spread the teachings of Islam.
Saint Maurice: Knight of the Holy Lance
Of all the many black men in the history of Europe, few have excited the imagination more than Saint Maurice. He was a saint in an area then and now that has very few Black inhabitants. He was also a Black knight. Indeed, we could call him a knight in shining armor. He is no less than remarkable. The name Maurice is derived from Latin and means “like a Moor.” The Black Saint Maurice (the Knight of the Holy Lance) is regarded as the great patron saint of the Holy Roman Germanic Empire. He is also known, especially in Germany, as Saint Mauritius.
St. Maurice
The earliest version of the Maurice story, and the account upon which all later versions are based, is found in the writings of Bishop Euchenus of Lyons, who lived more than 1500 years ago. According to Eucherius, Saint Maurice was a high official in the Thebaid region of Southern Egypt - a very early center of Christianity. Specifically, Maurice was the commander of a Roman legion of Christian soldiers stationed in Africa. By the decree of Roman emperor Maximian, his contingent of 6,600 men was dispatched to Gaul and ordered to suppress a Christian uprising there. Maurice disobeyed the order. Subsequently, he and almost all of his troops were martyred when they chose to die rather than persecute Christians, renounce their faith and sacrifice to the gods of the Romans.
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The execution of the Theban Legion occurred in Switzerland near Aganaum (which later became Saint Maurice-en-Valais) on Sept. 22, either in the year 280 or 300. In the second half of the fourth century, the worship of St. Maurice spread over a broad area in Switzerland, northern Italy, Burgundy, and along the Rhine. The major cities of Tours, Angers, Lyons, Chalon-sur-Saone, and Dijon had churches dedicated to St. Maurice. By the epoch of Islamic Spain, the stature of St. Maurice had reached immense proportions. Charlemagne, the grandson of Charles Martel and the most distinguished representative of the Carolingian dynasty, attributed to St. Maurice the virtues of the perfect Christian warrior.
In token of victory, Charlemagne had the Lance of St. Maurice (a replica of the holy lance reputed to have pierced the side of Christ) carried before the Frankish army. Like the general populace, which strongly relied on St., In 962, Otto I chose Maurice as the title patron of the archbishopric of Magdeburg, Germany. By 1000 C.E. the worship of Maurice was only rivaled by St. George and St. Michael. After the second half of the 12th century, the emperors were appointed by the pope in front of the altar of St. Maurice, in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.
In Halle, Germany, a monastery with a school attached to it was founded and dedicated to St. Maurice in 1184. In 1240, a splendid Africoid statue of St. Maurice was placed in the majestic cathedral of Magdeburg - the first Gothic cathedral built on German soil. I was actually able to visit this cathedral and photograph the statue in 2010. Maurice as an African. The facial proportions show typical alterations in comparison with European physiognomy. The broad, rounded contours of the nose are recognizable although the tip has been broken off.
“The African features are emphasized by the surviving remains of the old polychrome. The skin is colored bluish black, the lips are red, and the dark pupils stand out clearly against the white of the eyeballs. Maurice was developed in the Baltic states, where merchants in Tallin and Riga adopted his iconography. The House of the Black Heads of Riga, for instance, possessed a polychromed wooden statuette of St. Maurice. Their seal bore the distinct image of a Moor’s head.
In 1479, Ernest built several castles, one of which he named after St. Maurice - the Moritzburg. Under a banner emblazoned with the image of a Black St. Maurice, the political and religious leaders of the Holy Roman Empire battled the Slavs. The cult of St. Maurice reached its most lavish heights under Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), who established a pilgrimage at Halle in honor of the Black saint.
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From the early 16th century, and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, hangs a magnificent painting by Lucas Granach, the elder of St. Maurice, resplendent as a knight in shining armor. In the Alta Pinakothek in Munich hangs the painting by Matthias Grunewald of St. Maurice and St. Erasmus in heaven. Grunewald was the greatest painter of the German Renaissance. And in the Gemaldegalerie in Berlin is the painting by Hans Baldung Grien of St. Maurice under the banner flag of the German imperial eagle on one side, a painting of the adoration of the magi (with a Black king, the youngest of the three magi), in the center, and St. George and the dragon on the opposite side. I have seen and photographed all four of these magnificent art objects.
Between 1523 and 1540, people from throughout the empire journeyed to Halle to worship the relics of St. Maurice. The existence of nearly 300 major images of the Black St. Maurice have been catalogued, and even today the veneration of St. Maurice continues.
The "Black" King in the Art of the European Renaissance
One of the most fascinating aspects of the African presence in Europe is the wide collection of images of the Black Magus/King in European art. Although sometimes identified as a Moor, he is not a Muslim. Such paintings adorn the galleries and museums throughout Europe and the United States. These are wonderful images of the wise and distinguished African king who followed a star and came to pay homage and provide rich treasures to the Christ child in the time of Herod in the manger in Bethlehem as described in the Gospel of Matthew.
Black magi adoration
The appearance of the Black king in European art appears at least by the 14th century and probably earlier. The Moors were a fixture in Europe at this time. By the 15th and 16th centuries, thousands of paintings depicting the Adoration of the Black Magus or King had been made. The Black magus is the youngest of the three kings and traditionally he is said to come from Ethiopia. He is sometimes called a Moor and he is, interestingly enough, the king who stands farthest away from the Christ child. His name is Balthazar and his present to the Christ child is the gift of myrrh. Sometimes, particularly in the Dutch world, another of the kings is identified as Black.
Sir Morien: Knight of King Arthur’s Round Table
Few documents portray the ethnicity of the Moors in medieval Europe with more passion, boldness and clarity than Morien. Morien is a metrical romance rendered into English prose from the medieval Dutch version of the Lancelot. Morien is the adventure of a splendidly heroic Moorish knight (possibly a Christian convert), supposed to have lived during the days of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Morien is described as follows:
“He was all black, even as I tell ye: his head, his body, and his hands were all black, saving only his teeth. His shield and his armour were even those of a Moor, and black as a raven.”
(The original “knights” of England were "Black" , including the knights of King Arthur’s Round Table. That’s why they were called “knights” - after the night or darkness of their skin. ) Initially in the adventure, Morien is simply called “the Moor.” He first challenges, then battles, and finally wins the unqualified respect admiration of Sir Lancelot. In addition, Morien is extremely forthright and articulate. Sir Gawain, whose life was saved on the battlefield by Sir Morien, is stated to have “harkened, and smiled at the black knight’s speech.”
It is noted that Morien was as “black as pitch; that was the fashion of his land - Moors are black as burnt brands. But in all that men would praise in a knight was he fair, after his kind. Though he were black, what was he the worse?” And again: “his teeth were white as chalk, otherwise was he altogether black.” “Morien, who was black of face and limb” was a great warrior, and it is said that: “His blows were so mighty; did a spear fly towards him, to harm him, it troubled him no whit, but he smote it in twain as if it were a reed; naught might endure before him.
Ultimately, and ironically, Morien came to personify all of the finest virtues of the knights of medieval Europe.
Decline and Diaspora
In Iberia, Christian pressures on the Moors grew irresistible. Finally, in 1492, Granada, the last important Muslim stronghold in al-Andalus, was taken by the soldiers of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and the Moors were expelled from Spain. In 1496, to appease Isabella, King Manuel of Portugal announced a royal decree banishing the Moors from that portion of the peninsula. The Spanish king Philip III expelled the remaining Moors by a special decree issued in 1609. Fully 3,500,000 Moors, or Moriscos, as their descendants were called, left Spain between 1492 and 1610.
An estimated million Moors settled in France. Others moved into Holland. A very curious story in the Netherlands is that of Zwarte Piet (Black Peter). By some accounts Zwarte Piet, the companion to Sinterklaas (Santa Claus), was a Moorish orphan boy whom Sinterklaas adopted and trained as his assistant. By 1507, there were numerous Moors at the court of King James IV of Scotland. One of them was called Helenor in the Court Accounts, possibly Ellen More. There were at least two other Black women of the royal court who held positions of some status, and they are stated as having had maidservants dress them in expensive gowns.
| Name | Role | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Tarik ibn Ziyad | Moorish General | Led the conquest of Spain in 711 |
| Saint Maurice | Black Knight, Patron Saint | Commander of the Theban Legion, symbol of Christian warrior virtues |
| Morien | Moorish Knight | Character in Arthurian legend, embodies knightly virtues |
Ancient United Knights and Daughters of Africa
The Ancient United Knights and Daughters of Africa was an African American fraternal organization, founded in 1908 by William Herbert Fields (1856-1929). Membership was limited to African Americans between the age of twelve and fifty-five and all members were provided with a death benefit certificate worth between $75 to $125 (around $1,400 to $2,300 today) that their family would receive after their death. This benefit reflects their motto-”prompt payment of sick and death claims”-printed clearly on the Official Program for the 22nd Annual Grand Council Session in 1929 in our collection.
This practical motto is listed below a loftier description stating that the organization “educates boys to be men, girls to be women and both to be moral and pure. It satisfies the conscience, eases the mind, banishes the burden of manhood, and gives old age a chair of comfort and contentment.” According to the 1927 proceedings, the three cardinal principles of the order were “Racial Unity, Uprightness, and Reciprocity.”
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