Beidane or Bidān, also spelled Baydan or Beydan (Arabic: بيضان), is an Arabic term[note 1] used in Mauritania to refer to lighter-skinned or white Moors, in contrast to the term Haratine, which refers to those with a darker complexion or black moors. The beidane, who are of mixed Arab and Berber ancestry, represent 30% of Mauritania's population.[1][2] The language of the Beidane is Hassaniya Arabic. Al-Bidān (which literally translates to "Land of the whites") is an endonym used within Mauritania and Western Sahara by the Bidān people to refer to themselves. The name used by outsiders to refer to the Beydane is Moors from which the country of Mauritania derives its name from the Latin designation of their inhabitants (Mauri) as the Bidan form the majority of the population. [citation needed]
"Moor" is not the term for a specific ethnic group, but rather the term used by the European Christians in reference to the Arab populations that hailed from North Africa in the medieval period and took control of parts of Malta, Sicily, Portugal, Spain, and the southern part of France. Another term used in reference to Arabs at this time was "Saracen". This was largely used to refer to the peoples of the entire Arab Islamic empire, mostly by Italians and other Europeans to the north. The term largely fell out of use after the Middle Ages.[citation needed]
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^David Seddon (2013). A Political and Economic Dictionary of the Middle East. Routledge. p. 431. ISBN 978-1-135-35562-3.
Beidane or Bidān, also spelled Baydan or Beydan (Arabic: بيضان), is an Arabic term used in Mauritania to refer to lighter-skinned or white Moors, in contrast...
Mauritanians. They are sometimes referred to as "Black Moors", in contrast to Beidane, or "White Moors". The Haratin of Mauritania also primarily spoke Hassaniya...
population of Morocco, Arabized Berbers make up 24%, Berbers make up 21%, the Beidane make up 10%, and others make up 1%. The Arab population of Morocco is a...
above-mentioned ideas of Greater Morocco. Its main proponents were among the beidane (light-skinned) community. In 1957, the future first President of Mauritania...
Wolof Other languages French Ethnic groups 40% Haratin 30% Arab-Berber (Beidane) 30% Halpulaar, Fulani, Mande, and Wolof Religion Sunni Islam (official)...
Tuareg demographic in Azawad versus the Fulani, Songhai and Mauritanian (Beidane and Haratin) ethnicities present.[citation needed] During previous Tuareg...
Government discrimination, and demanded the overthrow of the "Beidane System" (Beidane is an Arabic language-appellation for the Arabophone Moorish elite)...
(lingua franca) Religion Predominantly Sunni Islam Related ethnic groups Beidane, Moroccans, other Maghrebi Arabs, other Arab-Berbers and Arabized Berbers...
estimate) Mauritania By ethnosocial group Haratin/Black Moors (40%), Beidane/White Moors (30%), Black Africans (30% including Fula, Soninke, Bambara...
White Moor may refer to: Beidane, an Arabic term for light-skinned people in Mauritania Harap Alb, a Romanian-language fairy tale Black Moor (disambiguation)...
the M'gharfa tribe of the Awlad Hassān, the aristocratic caste of the Beidane. Khnata bint Bakkar, daughter of the Grand Sheikh Bakkar of M'ghafra, was...
in the late 1670s by Sultan Moulay Ismail. As further explanation, the Beidane society was (before the 20th century) led by the armed aristocracy called...
of the Awlad Hassān caste among the Beidanes. The Awlad Hassān were the armed aristocratic caste of the Beidane people and her family of the Awlad Abdalla...
who speak Hassaniya Arabic and are sometimes referred to as Moors or Beidane. According to studies of Tuareg and Mauritanian jewellery, the latter are...
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