FAQ

The Moors were a jihadist coalition established in the eighth century to conquer Western Europe. After generations of wars to conquer and colonize the Catholic regions of North Africa, the Arabs did not have enough troops in the front lines to invade Europe. They recruited from other tribes in North Africa to fill their ranks. The largest source of troops were the Berbers (nomadic tribes), and the Goths who had settled in Africa after rampaging southward through Europe from Germany. The Moors invaded Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. The main advance was stopped by the Franks in Gaul in 722. People in the occupied regions offered sporadic resistance which accelerated after Charlemagne drove the Moors out of their defensive positions in the Pyrenes Mountains, although complete liberation would take hundreds of years. The Jihad lasted for eight centuries until the last Moorish troops retreated from Granada in 1492. Since most of the Moors (except the fair-skinned Goths) had dark complexions, the name Moor has been applied to dark-skinned people, even if they were not real Moors.