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Moorish History Celebrating The Moorish Art, History and Culture. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statutes that might otherwise be infringing. federal law 17 USC § 107.
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Murakush Society is a Moorish Historical Society, dedicated to preserving and celebrating the History, Heritage and Culture of the Moors. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976: Allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. We typically report all viewpoints on each topic. This often requires us to use copyrighted material in our website’s essays. This use may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is made available on a no-charge basis for educational and discussion purposes only. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in U.S. (We cite U.S. law because over 90% of our site visitors are from the U.S. Similar laws exist in other countries). They all state something similar to the following: Allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

Mastinas (Mastigas) — Moorish Ruler of Mauretania CaesariensisProcopius of Caesarea records Mastinas as one of the major...
10/12/2026

Mastinas (Mastigas) — Moorish Ruler of Mauretania Caesariensis

Procopius of Caesarea records Mastinas as one of the major Moorish rulers of 6th-century North Africa. In one passage, Procopius says Mastinas and Iaudas had planned to drive Ortaïas and the Moors under him from the land “where they had dwelt from of old.” In another, he describes Mastigas as controlling almost all of Mauretania Caesariensis, except the Roman-held city of Caesarea. Scholars generally treat Mastinas and Mastigas as the same ruler or as manuscript variants of the same name.

That makes Mastinas a significant Moorish power in northern Algeria, ruling in the former Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis.

📍 Modern location: broadly northern Algeria, with Caesarea corresponding to modern Cherchell, west of Algiers.

Sources: Procopius of Caesarea, Wars IV.13.19 and IV.20.31.

Massonas — 6th-Century Moorish RulerProcopius of Caesarea identifies Massonas as a Moorish ruler and the son of Mephania...
10/12/2026

Massonas — 6th-Century Moorish Ruler

Procopius of Caesarea identifies Massonas as a Moorish ruler and the son of Mephanias. His conflict with Iaudas, ruler of the Moors of Aurasium, was deeply personal.

Procopius says Massonas and Ortaïas urged the Roman commander Solomon to attack Iaudas because Iaudas had treacherously killed Mephanias, even though Mephanias was his own father-in-law.

That made Massonas not simply a Roman ally, but a Moorish ruler pursuing a blood feud against another Moorish ruler.

Source: Procopius of Caesarea, Wars IV.13.19.

For the visual reconstruction, Massonas is shown with equipment consistent with ancient North African and 6th-century Moorish evidence: wrapped headcloth, heavy mantle, small round caetra-type shield, two throwing spears, straight sword, light cavalry equipment, and little or no body armor.

His exact territory is not directly stated by Procopius. Modern scholarship has tentatively associated his sphere with the Nemencha Mountains and the southeastern Aurès frontier, broadly around modern Tébessa–Khenchela in eastern Algeria. That location should be understood as a scholarly reconstruction, not a direct statement from the ancient text.

Iaudas — Moorish Ruler of AurasiumProcopius of Caesarea identifies Iaudas as ruler of the Moors of Aurasium, the Aurès M...
10/12/2026

Iaudas — Moorish Ruler of Aurasium

Procopius of Caesarea identifies Iaudas as ruler of the Moors of Aurasium, the Aurès Mountains of modern northeastern Algeria, especially the present Batna–Khenchela region extending toward northern Biskra.

Procopius describes Iaudas as “the finest and most warlike of all the Moors.” He was a major 6th-century Moorish power in Numidia and commanded large forces from the mountainous Aurasian stronghold.

His conflict was not only with the Romans. Procopius says the Moorish rulers Massonas and Ortaïas urged the Roman commander Solomon to attack Iaudas because of their personal enmity toward him. Massonas had a blood grievance: his father Mephanias, who was also Iaudas’s father-in-law, had allegedly been treacherously killed by Iaudas.

Ortaïas had a separate dispute with Iaudas. Procopius says Iaudas and Mastinas, another Moorish ruler in Mauretania, had planned to drive Ortaïas and all the Moors under his rule from the land “where they had dwelt from of old.” That helps explain why Ortaïas sided with Solomon and the Romans against another Moorish ruler.

So the conflict around Aurasium was not simply Romans versus Moors. Procopius describes a landscape of multiple Moorish rulers with their own territories, rivalries and alliances:

Iaudas — ruler of the Moors of Aurasium
Ortaïas — Moorish ruler west/beyond Aurasium and Roman ally
Massonas — Moorish ruler with a family vendetta against Iaudas
Mastinas — Moorish ruler in Mauretania allied with Iaudas against Ortaïas

When Solomon advanced toward Aurasium, Iaudas avoided fighting on the open plain and prepared his defense in the mountains. Procopius describes Aurasium as extremely difficult to access, with high plains, springs, fertile land and fortresses—terrain well suited to Iaudas’s resistance.

Modern location:
📍 Aurès Mountains, Algeria — chiefly Batna and Khenchela provinces, extending toward northern Biskra.

Sources: Procopius of Caesarea, Vandalic War / Wars, Book IV, especially IV.13–20.

Ortaïas — Moorish Ruler in the Age of ProcopiusProcopius of Caesarea identifies Ortaïas as a 6th-century ruler of Mooris...
10/12/2026

Ortaïas — Moorish Ruler in the Age of Procopius

Procopius of Caesarea identifies Ortaïas as a 6th-century ruler of Moorish peoples living beyond the region west of Aurasium, the Aurès Mountains of modern Algeria. He was one of several Moorish rulers active during the Byzantine wars in North Africa and allied with the Romans against Iaudas, ruler of the Moors of Aurasium.

Procopius says Ortaïas ruled “other nations of the Moors” and adds something especially important about his source:

“I myself heard this man say…”

He then reports Ortaïas describing a distant people beyond the desert as:

“not black-skinned like the Moors, but very white in body and fair-haired.”

Greek:

οὐχ ὥσπερ οἱ Μαυρούσιοι μελανόχροοι, ἀλλὰ λευκοί τε λίαν τὰ σώματα καὶ τὰς κόμας ξανθοί

The comparison is explicit: Maurousioi = Moors, and Procopius contrasts them with people he describes as very white-bodied and fair-haired.

The image of Ortaïas is an artistic reconstruction; no surviving portrait or individual physical description of him is known. The reconstruction is based on his identification as a Moorish ruler in the same passage where Procopius describes the Moors as black-skinned.

Source: Procopius of Caesarea, History of the Wars, IV.13.28–29, Vandalic War.

Procopius of Caesarea — 6th-Century Description of the MoorsIn Wars IV.13.28–29, Procopius of Caesarea records a stateme...
10/12/2026

Procopius of Caesarea — 6th-Century Description of the Moors

In Wars IV.13.28–29, Procopius of Caesarea records a statement he says he personally heard from Ortaïas, a ruler of Moorish peoples associated with the region of Aurasium, the Aurès Mountains of modern Algeria.

Ortaïas described a distant people beyond a long desert and contrasted their appearance with that of the Moors. Procopius preserves the comparison in Greek:

“οὐχ ὥσπερ οἱ Μαυρούσιοι μελανόχροοι, ἀλλὰ λευκοί τε λίαν τὰ σώματα καὶ τὰς κόμας ξανθοί”

Meaning:

“not black-skinned like the Moors, but very white in body and fair-haired.”

The important point is the structure of the comparison. Procopius uses Μαυρούσιοι (Maurousioi) for the Moors and μελανόχροοι (melanochrooi) for their complexion, contrasting them with people he calls very white-bodied and fair-haired.

This was written in the 6th century, in the context of Byzantine warfare and politics in Roman North Africa, not through modern racial or geographic categories.

Source: Procopius of Caesarea, History of the Wars, IV.13.28–29, Vandalic War.

🇲🇽 THE EAGLE MAN OF CACAXTLA, MEXICO — 700–800 CE🏛️ Ancient Indigenous Art of MesoamericaThis remarkable pre-Columbian m...
10/11/2026

🇲🇽 THE EAGLE MAN OF CACAXTLA, MEXICO — 700–800 CE

🏛️ Ancient Indigenous Art of Mesoamerica

This remarkable pre-Columbian mural, known as the Hombre Águila (Eagle Man), depicts a black-colored man wearing elaborate eagle regalia, including a bird-shaped headdress, feathered wings, and eagle-claw footwear.

The figure stands upon a feathered serpent while holding a ceremonial serpent-shaped object, surrounded by colorful symbols associated with ancient Mesoamerican religious and political traditions.

📍 LOCATION: South wall, Portico of Building A, Cacaxtla, Nativitas, Tlaxcala, Mexico.

📜 TIME PERIOD: Epiclassic, approximately 700–800 CE — centuries before European colonization.

🏺 PEOPLE & CULTURE: Cacaxtla is traditionally associated with the Olmeca-Xicalanca, an Indigenous population connected to the Puebla–Tlaxcala region of central Mexico. The site’s murals also reflect artistic influences from the Maya world.

THE BLACK FIGURE

The surviving original artwork unmistakably depicts the man’s exposed face, arms, and legs in black pigment.

The artwork provides important visual evidence of how dark-colored human figures were represented in ancient Indigenous Mexican civilization.

📚 SOURCES:

* Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), Zona Arqueológica de Cacaxtla-Xochitécatl.
* Enrique Vela, “Murales del Edificio A, Cacaxtla, Tlaxcala,” Arqueología Mexicana, special issue 96, pp. 60–61.

🏛️ CACAXTLA, MEXICO — A BLACK-COLORED FIGURE WITH LONG, ORNAMENTED HAIRThis remarkable pre-Columbian mural comes from th...
10/11/2026

🏛️ CACAXTLA, MEXICO — A BLACK-COLORED FIGURE WITH LONG, ORNAMENTED HAIR

This remarkable pre-Columbian mural comes from the South Doorjamb of Building A at Cacaxtla, an archaeological site in present-day Nativitas, Tlaxcala, Mexico, southeast of Mexico City.

Dating to the Epiclassic period (approximately 650–900 CE), Cacaxtla preserves some of ancient Mesoamerica’s most striking painted human figures.

The artwork portrays a black-colored individual with long, knotted, loc-like hair, decorated with blue ornaments. The figure wears elaborate ceremonial clothing, including jaguar-patterned garments, and appears against a vibrant turquoise background.

WHO WERE THE PEOPLE OF CACAXTLA?

Cacaxtla is traditionally associated with the Olmeca-Xicalanca, a population mentioned in later Indigenous historical traditions and associated with the Puebla–Tlaxcala region. Their precise relationship to the site’s inhabitants and mural painters remains debated.

The Olmeca-Xicalanca should not automatically be confused with the much earlier Gulf Coast Olmec civilization.

The figure’s dark coloration and distinctive hairstyle are important features of the original artwork.

📍 Location: Cacaxtla, Nativitas, Tlaxcala, Mexico
📜 Period: Epiclassic, c. 650–900 CE
🏺 Cultural association: Olmeca-Xicalanca (debated)
🎨 Artwork: South Doorjamb mural, Building A

1675–1676 — NIPMUC INDIANS EXPORTED TO JAMAICADuring King Philip’s War, Native people from New England were captured, so...
10/10/2026

1675–1676 — NIPMUC INDIANS EXPORTED TO JAMAICA

During King Philip’s War, Native people from New England were captured, sold, and shipped into the Caribbean slave trade.

Daniel Gookin recorded that Joseph of Hassanamesit, a Nipmuc man from what is now Grafton, Massachusetts, was:

“sold for a slave … and sent to Jamaica.”

A separate 1676 letter from Boston merchant Samuel Shrimpton states:

“I bought 9 … to send to Jamaica.”

Gookin also gave a period description of the Indians he knew in Massachusetts:

“Their skins are of a tawny colour, not unlike the tawny Moors in Africa … their hair is black … their eyes, black.”

In early modern color language, tawny meant brown, and Gookin explicitly compared their complexion to the “tawny Moors in Africa.”

These records show that New England Indians were not only enslaved locally—they were exported across the Atlantic world and sent into Caribbean plantation economies.

Sources:
Daniel Gookin, Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians (1677)
Daniel Gookin, Historical Collections of the Indians in New England (1674)
Samuel Shrimpton letter (1676)
Margaret Ellen Newell, Brethren by Nature

1675–1677 — NEW ENGLAND INDIANS SOLD AT FAIAL, AZORESMassachusetts colonial court records document the kidnapping of Nat...
10/10/2026

1675–1677 — NEW ENGLAND INDIANS SOLD AT FAIAL, AZORES

Massachusetts colonial court records document the kidnapping of Native men, women, and children and their sale at “Fyal” — Faial, in the Portuguese Azores.

One prosecution described “seventeen Indians men weomen & children” who were sent to Faial and sold there.

New England today refers to the six northeastern U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In the 1600s, however, Native communities and colonial activity extended across a broader northeastern region. The Faial trafficking episode involved eastern Native people connected to Wabanaki and Mi’kmaq territories, including areas that today fall within Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

Period writers also described Native complexion. William Wood wrote in New England’s Prospect (1634) of a Black African being “blacker than themselves,” placing New England Indians within a darker complexion range. Other early descriptions use terms such as tawny, swarthy, olive, black-haired, and black-eyed.

For Mi’kmaq/Souriquois people, Marc Lescarbot described them as “of an olive colour, or rather tawny colour”—with tawny meaning brown in early modern color language.

Sources: Records of the Court of Assistants of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay; William Wood, New England’s Prospect (1634); Margaret Ellen Newell, Brethren by Nature; Marc Lescarbot’s early Acadian accounts.

…

1675 — NEW ENGLAND INDIANS SHIPPED TO CÁDIZ, SPAINDuring King Philip’s War, Plymouth Colony records document 178 Native ...
10/10/2026

1675 — NEW ENGLAND INDIANS SHIPPED TO CÁDIZ, SPAIN

During King Philip’s War, Plymouth Colony records document 178 Native captives being shipped across the Atlantic to Cádiz, Spain.

The primary colonial record is preserved in the Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 5, pp. 173–174.

Contemporary English descriptions also show that New England Indians were understood as dark-complexioned. In 1634, William Wood described an African “Black-more” as being “blacker than themselves” when comparing him with New England Indians in New England’s Prospect.

Then in 1675, Captain Thomas Hamilton, writing to the Admiralty Board about Indian captives used as galley laborers, described them as:

“as good if not better then the Moorish Slaves.”

That quote comes from Hamilton’s December 16, 1675 letter to the Admiralty Board, preserved in British Admiralty records and cited by historian Margaret Ellen Newell in Brethren by Nature.

These sources document a broader Atlantic history in which Native people from New England were enslaved, exported overseas, and directly compared in contemporary records with Moorish slaves.

Sources:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 5, pp. 173–174
William Wood, New England’s Prospect (1634)
Capt. Thomas Hamilton to the Admiralty Board, Dec. 16, 1675
Margaret Ellen Newell, Brethren by Nature

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