I've been playing Crusader Kings, and I've found that when the AI Muslims don't conquer most of Europe, the Reconquista happens quite swiftly, with much of the peninsula being put under the rule of Arab Christians. That led me to think- were there any prominent Arab Christians in Spain and Portugal pre-1492? Was there an Arab Christian nobility? If so, why not?
After looking up "Moorish" and some other articles on Wikipedia, I decided that one of the things is that back in the Middle Ages (and thus prior to the expulsion of not only the Moors but non-Spaniard/Portuguese Catholics like the Marranos and Moriscos), it was kind of hard to define just what a "Moor" was, anyways. It wasn't exactly a defined race, and there were all kinds of different cultures running around cosmopolitan Andalusia and the parts around.
This also brought me think about racism- was there such a thing in the Middle Ages? I don't think it existed as we know it, other than the big exception for hatred of the Jewish people. From my generalized point of view, it appears that back in medieval times, people saw all other peoples as either 1) people that should be fought, conquered, or killed; 2) converted or killed; 3) have trade done with for a quick buck; and that's all I can think of. And since it was quite the cutthroat time, people in the next county over were just as able to do that as some folk with skin tanner than yours the next continent over, hell, more. So there wasn't time to think of non-whites as bad. Not to mention that "racism" probably was more of a hatred for people who spoke a different language than you or believed in God differently, not people who just looked different. I'm sure there was a general European idea of non-whites as either uncultured barbarians (why else would Prester John be white?), or as infidel hordes (like the Saracens next door), but would the Europeans instantly reject non-whites who converted to their religion and culture? I'm not so sure.
After looking up "Moorish" and some other articles on Wikipedia, I decided that one of the things is that back in the Middle Ages (and thus prior to the expulsion of not only the Moors but non-Spaniard/Portuguese Catholics like the Marranos and Moriscos), it was kind of hard to define just what a "Moor" was, anyways. It wasn't exactly a defined race, and there were all kinds of different cultures running around cosmopolitan Andalusia and the parts around.
This also brought me think about racism- was there such a thing in the Middle Ages? I don't think it existed as we know it, other than the big exception for hatred of the Jewish people. From my generalized point of view, it appears that back in medieval times, people saw all other peoples as either 1) people that should be fought, conquered, or killed; 2) converted or killed; 3) have trade done with for a quick buck; and that's all I can think of. And since it was quite the cutthroat time, people in the next county over were just as able to do that as some folk with skin tanner than yours the next continent over, hell, more. So there wasn't time to think of non-whites as bad. Not to mention that "racism" probably was more of a hatred for people who spoke a different language than you or believed in God differently, not people who just looked different. I'm sure there was a general European idea of non-whites as either uncultured barbarians (why else would Prester John be white?), or as infidel hordes (like the Saracens next door), but would the Europeans instantly reject non-whites who converted to their religion and culture? I'm not so sure.