Word Finder - moorish

definition

Boggy, marshy; like a moor.

The roof of the nave is of Moorish plaster work.

The cathedral occupies the site of a Moorish mosque built in 914.

Close by stands a large royal palace, Moorish in style.

At an earlier period Arab and Moorish influence is no less apparent.

It is dominated by a large and picturesque Moorish castle.

It must not be confused with the Moorish " fez," which is skull-shaped.

It was the key of Murcia during the Moorish wars, and was frequently taken and retaken.

In the middle ages it was a prosperous Moorish trading-station.

To the visitor from Europe the attraction of Tunis lies in the native city, where, in the Rue al Jezira, along which runs electric trams, he can see hundreds of camels in the morning bearing charcoal to market; where he may witness the motley life of the bazaars, or, by the Bab-Jedid, watch the snake-charmers and listen to the Moorish storytellers.

The Dar-el-Bey contains numerous rooms beautifully decorated in the Moorish style of the 18th century; and the judgment hall has a domed roof adorned with the delicate arabesque plaster-work known as Nuksh hadida.

North-east of the Palais de Justice, which like the Sadiki College is built in the Moorish style, rises the great dome, surrounded by smaller cupolas, of the largest mosque in the city, that named after Sidi Mahrez, a renowned saint of the 5th century of the Mahommedan era, whose tomb makes it a sancutary for debtors.

About a mile and a quarter from the Bab Bu Saadun, the north-west gate of the city, is the ancient palace called the Bardo, remarkable for the "lion court," a terrace to which access is gained by a flight of steps guarded by marble lions, and for some apartments in the Moorish style.

Its chief buildings are the cathedral, originally a mosque, and the ruined castle, which is the chief among many interesting relics of Moorish rule.

Under Moorish rule (c. 713-1489) it was one of the three most important cities in the kingdom of Granada, with an extensive trade, and a population estimated at 50,000.

An old Moorish minaret has been turned into a clock tower.

Palma underwent considerable change in the 19th century, and the fine old-world Moorish character of the place suffered accordingly.

Alcaraz, which gives its name to the mountain range already mentioned, is a picturesque old town with the ruins of a Moorish castle, and a fine Roman aqueduct; pop. (1900) 45 01.

It is free from Moorish idioms, and, like Galician and Portuguese, it often retains the original Latin f which Castilian changes into h.

The forms Vandalusia and Vandalitia are undoubtedly ancient; many authorities, however, maintain that the name is derived from the Moorish Andalus or Andalosh, " Land of the West."

It is impossible to estimate the influence of the elder conquerors, Greek, Carthaginian and Roman; but there are clear traces of Moorish blood, with a less well-defined Jewish and gipsy strain.

The men are tall, handsome and well-made, and the women are among the most beautiful in Spain; while the dark complexion and hair of both sexes, and their peculiar dialect of Spanish, so distasteful to pure Castilians, are indisputable evidence of Moorish descent.

Third in importance of the towns on the Moorish coast, unimpeded by bar or serious rocks, the roadstead is exposed to the north-west winds.

The northern part of the kingdom, which was first freed from Moorish rule, is called Old Castile (Castilla la Vieja); the southern, acquired later, is called New Castile (Castilla la Nueva).

In Spain, under Moorish dominion, most of the important works of that period were composed in Arabic, and the influence of Arabic writers both on language and method may be seen in contemporaneous Hebrew compositions.

The principal buildings include the Greek Orthodox cathedral, finished in 1864 after the model of the church of St Isaac at St Petersburg; the Armenian church, in a mixed Gothic and Renaissance style, consecrated in 1875; a handsome new Jesuit church, and a new synagogue in Moorish style, built in 1877.

In the middle ages Baeza was a flourishing Moorish city, said to contain 50,000 inhabitants; but it was sacked in 1239 by Ferdinand III.

The influence of Moorish art is perceptible.

A cotton chemise, and a white manta wrapped in Moorish fashion over head and body, constitute the dress of the women; a cotton shirt and trousers that of the men.

Under Moorish rule, and up to the expulsion of the Moriscoes in 1609, it was the headquarters of a flourishing trade, and in modern times its industries have revived.

Palm-groves, churches with bluetiled cupolas, and houses with flat roofs and view-turrets (miradores) to some extent preserve the Moorish character of the town.

There are extensive orange-groves, watered by the irrigation canal of Castellon, which is a good example of Moorish engineering skill.

It is manifested in their poetry and music even more than in their admirable costumes and in the good taste which has preserved the Roman or Moorish forms of their domestic pottery.

The native dances, slow but not ungraceful, and more restrained than those of Andalusia or the south of France, are obviously Moorish in origin, and depend for their main effects on the movement of the arms and body.

The Moors introduced many improvements, especially in the system of irrigation; the characteristic Portuguese wells with their perpetual chains or buckets are of Moorish invention, and retain their Moorish name of noras.

Skilful copies of Moorish metal-work may be purchased in the goldsmiths' and silversmiths' shops of.

Its inhabitants, surrounded by Moorish or Spanish enemies and distracted by civil war, derived such rudiments of civilization as they possessed from Arabic or Leonese sources.

Count Henry ruled as a vassal of Alphonso VI., whose Galician marches were thus secured against any sudden Moorish raid.

Alphonso was occupied in almost incessant border fighting against his Christian or Moorish neighbours.

Ferdinand was his son-in-law, and was probably disposed to leniency by the imminence of a Moorish invasion in which Portugal could render useful assistance.

At the beginning of his reign the religious fervour which had sustained the Almoravide dynasty was rapidly subsiding; in Portugal independent Moorish chiefs ruled over cities and petty states, ignoring the central government; in Africa the Almohades were destroying the remnants of the Almoravide power.

The Moorish garrisons of Palmella, Cintra and Almada soon capitulated, and in 1158 Alcacer do Sal, one of the chief centres of Moorish commerce, was taken by storm.

The monarchy owed its triumph to its championship of national interests, to the support of the municipalities and military orders, and to the prestige gained by the royal armies in the Moorish and Castilian wars.

There are some houses in the Moorish style and a mosque among the ruins bears date 636 A.H.

It is surrounded by ancient walls, and was formerly dominated by a Moorish castle, now in ruins.

After 711 it rose to some importance as a Moorish fortress and trading station, and was renamed Wad Ash, " Water of Life."

A dismantled castle, the Castillo de San Cristobal, overlooks the city, which contains four Moorish towers rising conspicuously above its modern streets.

Under its ancient name of Urci, Almeria was one of the chief Spanish harbours after the final conquest of Spain by the Romans in 19 B.C. It reached the summit of its prosperity in the middle ages, as the foremost seaport of the Moorish kingdom of Granada.

The territory was once densely wooded, and is said to derive its name from the Moorish Aldarra, " the place thick with trees"; but almost all the forests have been destroyed for fuel.

Its older parts, Moorish in many features and with narrow irregular streets, contrast with the modern parts, which have broad streets and squares, and many fine public buildings - theatre, town hall, hospitals, courts of justice and a bridge over the Sangonera.

Alicante was the Roman Lucentum; but, despite its antiquity, it has few Roman or Moorish remains.