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The Golden Age of the Moor
This work examines the debt owed by Europe to the Moors for the Renaissance and the significant role played by the African in the Muslim invasions of the Iberian peninsula. While it focuses mainly on Spain and Portugal, it also examines the races and roots of the original North African before the later ethnic mix of the blackamoors and tawny Moors in the medieval period. The study ranges from the Moor in the literature of Cervantes and Shakespeare to his profound influence upon Europe's university system and the diffusion via this system of the ancient and medieval sciences. The Moors are shown to affect not only European mathematics and map-making, agriculture and architecture, but their markets, their music and their machines. The ethnicity of the Moor is re-examined, as is his unique contribution, both as creator and conduit, to the first seminal phase of the industrial revolution.
474 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
About the author
Ivan Van Sertima
18 books239 followersDr. Ivan Van Sertima was born in Guyana, South America. He was educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University) and the Rutgers Graduate School and held degrees in African Studies and Anthropology. From 1957-1959 he served as a Press and Broadcasting Officer in the Guyana Information Services. During the decade of the 1960s he broadcast weekly from Britain to Africa and the Caribbean.
He was a literary critic, a linguist, and an anthropologist who made a name in all three fields.
As a literary critic, he is the author of Caribbean Writers, a collection of critical essays on the Caribbean novel. He is also the author of several major literary reviews published in Denmark, India, Britain and the United States. He was honored for his work in this field by being asked by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature from 1976-1980. He was honored as an historian of world repute by being asked to join UNESCO's International Commission for Rewriting the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind.
As a linguist, published essays on the dialect of the Sea Islands off the Georgia Coast. He also compiled the Swahili Dictionary of Legal Terms, based on his field work in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1967.
He is the author of They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, which was published by Random House in 1977 and is presently in its twenty-ninth printing. It was published in French in 1981 and in the same year, was awarded the Clarence L. Holte Prize, a prize awarded every two years “for a work of excellence in literature and the humanities relating to the cultural heritage of Africa and the African diaspora.”
He also authored Early America Revisited, a book that has enriched the study of a wide range of subjects, from archaeology to anthropology, and has resulted in profound changes in the reordering of historical priorities and pedagogy.
Professor of African Studies at Rutgers University, Dr. Van Sertima was also Visiting Professor at Princeton University. He was the Editor of the Journal of African Civilizations, which he founded in 1979 and has published several major anthologies which have influenced the development of multicultural curriculum in the United States. These anthologies include Blacks in Science: ancient and modern, Black Women in Antiquity, Egypt Revisited, Egypt: Child of Africa, Nile Valley Civilizations (out of print), African Presence in the Art of the Americas (due 2007), African Presence in Early Asia (co-edited with Runoko Rashidi), African Presence in Early Europe, African Presence in Early America, Great African Thinkers, Great Black Leaders: ancient and modern and Golden Age of the Moor.
As an acclaimed poet, his work graces the pages of River and the Wall, 1953 and has been published in English and German. As an essayist, his major pieces were published in Talk That Talk, 1989, Future Directions for African and African American Content in the School Curriculum, 1986, Enigma of Values, 1979, and in Black Life and Culture in the United States, 1971.
Dr. Van Sertima has lectured at more than 100 universities in the United States and has also lectured in Canada, the Caribbean, South America and Europe. In 1991 Dr. Van Sertima defended his highly controversial thesis on the African presence in pre-Columbian America before the Smithsonian. In 1994 they published his address in Race, Discourse and the Origin of the Americas: A New World View of 1492.
He also appeared before a Congressional Committee on July 7, 1987 to challenge the Columbus myth. This landmark presentation before Congress was illuminating and brilliantly presented in the name of all peoples of color across the world.
He was a literary critic, a linguist, and an anthropologist who made a name in all three fields.
As a literary critic, he is the author of Caribbean Writers, a collection of critical essays on the Caribbean novel. He is also the author of several major literary reviews published in Denmark, India, Britain and the United States. He was honored for his work in this field by being asked by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature from 1976-1980. He was honored as an historian of world repute by being asked to join UNESCO's International Commission for Rewriting the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind.
As a linguist, published essays on the dialect of the Sea Islands off the Georgia Coast. He also compiled the Swahili Dictionary of Legal Terms, based on his field work in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1967.
He is the author of They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, which was published by Random House in 1977 and is presently in its twenty-ninth printing. It was published in French in 1981 and in the same year, was awarded the Clarence L. Holte Prize, a prize awarded every two years “for a work of excellence in literature and the humanities relating to the cultural heritage of Africa and the African diaspora.”
He also authored Early America Revisited, a book that has enriched the study of a wide range of subjects, from archaeology to anthropology, and has resulted in profound changes in the reordering of historical priorities and pedagogy.
Professor of African Studies at Rutgers University, Dr. Van Sertima was also Visiting Professor at Princeton University. He was the Editor of the Journal of African Civilizations, which he founded in 1979 and has published several major anthologies which have influenced the development of multicultural curriculum in the United States. These anthologies include Blacks in Science: ancient and modern, Black Women in Antiquity, Egypt Revisited, Egypt: Child of Africa, Nile Valley Civilizations (out of print), African Presence in the Art of the Americas (due 2007), African Presence in Early Asia (co-edited with Runoko Rashidi), African Presence in Early Europe, African Presence in Early America, Great African Thinkers, Great Black Leaders: ancient and modern and Golden Age of the Moor.
As an acclaimed poet, his work graces the pages of River and the Wall, 1953 and has been published in English and German. As an essayist, his major pieces were published in Talk That Talk, 1989, Future Directions for African and African American Content in the School Curriculum, 1986, Enigma of Values, 1979, and in Black Life and Culture in the United States, 1971.
Dr. Van Sertima has lectured at more than 100 universities in the United States and has also lectured in Canada, the Caribbean, South America and Europe. In 1991 Dr. Van Sertima defended his highly controversial thesis on the African presence in pre-Columbian America before the Smithsonian. In 1994 they published his address in Race, Discourse and the Origin of the Americas: A New World View of 1492.
He also appeared before a Congressional Committee on July 7, 1987 to challenge the Columbus myth. This landmark presentation before Congress was illuminating and brilliantly presented in the name of all peoples of color across the world.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 31, 2013
There are a number of books available which cover the civilization of Al-Andalus (Moorish Spain). At its height this land was said to be more admired by its neighbours, more comfortable to live in and hosted the most modern cities in Europe.
This work provides the reader with a wealth of information on this period of Spanish history. Not only does it focus on the ethnicity and origins of the Moors, but their contribution to European Civilization is also described in detail. The contributors have presented very detailed discussions of the subject together with fairly extensive references, notes and bibliographies which shows just how well researched it is!
For those wishing to learn about the influence that Africa has had on Medieval Europe this is well worth reading!
This work provides the reader with a wealth of information on this period of Spanish history. Not only does it focus on the ethnicity and origins of the Moors, but their contribution to European Civilization is also described in detail. The contributors have presented very detailed discussions of the subject together with fairly extensive references, notes and bibliographies which shows just how well researched it is!
For those wishing to learn about the influence that Africa has had on Medieval Europe this is well worth reading!
December 28, 2008
Van Sertima and others like him work hard to turn up the forgotten African figures in history. They are sometimes called crackpots, while those who babble about “Western Civilization” (a vague concept invented in the nineteenth century, and since shown to be essentially a hoax) are treated as scholars.
March 7, 2010
This is another book I read before I traveled to Spain. Reading this book made it clear to me why there was so much Moorish influence in some of the architecture in Spain which I often wondere why did I not learn about the Moors in school.
October 11, 2016
Changed my world view
September 19, 2008
Well written and well researched! Be prepared to be challenged. It shatters much of the eurocentric mythology that is still taught to most Americans as 'history'. Upon reading The Golden Age of the Moor, you quickly begins to sense the crumbling of ahistorical 19th century worldview of European Hegemony which relies on the idea of continential and cultural isolationism between Africa, Europe and Asia, and cross culturatl exchange was limited to "civilization" flowing from Europe to Africa and the East.
The Golden Age of the Moor is a must read for those interested in Medival Europe and the future Global events that would usher in the Colonalism, Renaissance and the Rise of Capitalism. I have studied in North Africa and travelled as well Europe, I can say that the Moor is no stranger nor is s/he a fictional character to Europeans. In modern Morrocco the cultural distinction between Arab and Tuareg is not raced based--the skin complexion of BOTH ethnic groups are blue-black, fair-skinned and anything in-between. Their spiritual practices have roots include a FULL spectrum of Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Greco-Roman and Ancient Indigenous African. So be mindful of anyone, even while famous historians, who would suggest Arab, Muslim or Moor means ONLY fair-skinned bedouins. It would be COMPLETELY false and cultural bias; their assertions do not withstand the cultural reality or the human experience within Europe, Asia or Africa that are can be found in PRIMARY sources.
The Golden Age of the Moor is a must read for those interested in Medival Europe and the future Global events that would usher in the Colonalism, Renaissance and the Rise of Capitalism. I have studied in North Africa and travelled as well Europe, I can say that the Moor is no stranger nor is s/he a fictional character to Europeans. In modern Morrocco the cultural distinction between Arab and Tuareg is not raced based--the skin complexion of BOTH ethnic groups are blue-black, fair-skinned and anything in-between. Their spiritual practices have roots include a FULL spectrum of Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Greco-Roman and Ancient Indigenous African. So be mindful of anyone, even while famous historians, who would suggest Arab, Muslim or Moor means ONLY fair-skinned bedouins. It would be COMPLETELY false and cultural bias; their assertions do not withstand the cultural reality or the human experience within Europe, Asia or Africa that are can be found in PRIMARY sources.
December 23, 2010
Fantastic book. People should read information about the Moors of Spain, Black Africans, and people predating the Middle Passage.
October 20, 2009
the history of the Moors
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews