Friday, March 03, 2006

Something Moorish


Leave some for me, or you ain't having any of this lovely masala chaa I'm making. Mmmm... I can almost taste the lovely aroma of the spices as the chaa comes to the boil...

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmnnn?! you can keep the biccees... just save me some cha please. (",)

Anonymous said...

ps. "I can almost taste the lovely aroma of the spices as the chaa comes to the boil..."

that's just cruel... (",)

msingh said...

If I may say so myself, this is indeed a lovely cup of tea steaming with flavours that I'm having, the spices are just right. Bliss.

(satvinder, me try to be cruel, never!, although telling you my lame jokes might be considered as being cruel).

Anonymous said...

"If I may say so myself, this is indeed a lovely cup of tea steaming with flavours that I'm having, the spices are just right. Bliss."

ok now that's definately cruel. speaking of cha...

http://satvinder.blog.com/594486/#cmts

Anonymous said...

You are so right ss ji, the wonders of food that makes slaves of us all (commenting wise ;))

p.s. These food posts should be banned...I was almost beginning to concentrate on my work when I remembered hwo long it's been since i got an update on Msingh ji and now this food post, shall drag me back to the cafetaria....damn it! :P

Anonymous said...

waheguru... the jokes just get "better" and "better"

msingh said...

sikhi seeker, I hope you managed to get to work after your visit to the cafeteria. How are we going to implement the food posts ban?

ss, I was using the term as in 'not able to stop eating'. I also find cashew nuts to be very moorish.

satvinder, I'm under no illusion as to the quality of my puns, lol!

Waheguru

Anonymous said...

cashew - bless you... God, you guys are simly "nuts". Well if you can't beat them, join them (",)

msingh said...

ik singh I'm glad you managed to go to India, good to hear from you. I will check out your new site soon.

satvinder I hope you meant "simply nits", and not "slimy nuts"...

ss, talking of getting battered, did you see the fight when Joe Calzaghe gave Jeff Lacy a real battering?

Anonymous said...

ha ha... yeah I meant sim[P]ly nuts!! I don't think you guys are slimy at all. lol (",)

re: the time of my post... that when we got back from HK's birthday "party". lots of madness... and my cake actually well nearly worked out.

Prabhu Singh said...

I was thinking of the moores too.

msingh said...

prabhu do you mean moores of Dorset the people who manufacture biscuits? (I had to look it up on the internet because despite the photo, I'm no connoisseur of biscuits).

And I like the bit about the subject of your PhD!

Waheguru

Prabhu Singh said...

Woops, I mean I was thinking of the Moors, the people who conquered Spain.

msingh said...

Gives an indication of my knowledhe of history. Note to self, here's what I found / learn about the Moors:

"When the Romans entered West Africa in 46 B.C., they saw Africans and called them Maures, from the Greek adjective Mauros, meaning dark or black. It is from Mauros and the Latin term Marues that the word Moor is derived. Since the inhabitants of North Africa were black, the Romans and later the Europeans called them Moors. It is no coincidence that the land inhabited by the Moors was called Mauritania and Morocco, meaning "Land of the Blacks."

In the beginning of the seventh century, the Arab prophet, Muhammad, began to preach the word of Islam. Consumed with religious fervor, the Arabs sought to spread Islam and conquer the world. By 708, the Arabs had overrun North Africa. Consequently, Moors in large numbers accepted Arabic as the national language and converted to their conqueror's religion, Islam. Interestingly, hundreds of years later, Africans who had been enslaved by Europeans would again convert to their conqueror's religion, Christianity.

After the fall of the Roman Empire (fifth century), Spain was held by a barbaric white tribe, the Visigoths. Though they were Christians, their brand of Christianity was cruel and unjust. For this reason, Spain's Jews, serfs, and slaves looked favorably upon the arrival of a new civilization in which they would be able to live free of persecution.

Tarik, a great African chief, was given the rank of general in the Arab army and sent to raid Spain. On April 30, 711, Tarik landed on the Spanish Coast with 7,000 troops. His troops consisted of 300 Arabs and 6,700 native Africans (Moors). An ancient source, Ibn Husayn (ca. 950, recorded that these troops were "Sudanese", an Arabic word for Black people.

The Moors were unstoppable, and Visigothic Spain ceased to be. The few resisting Visigoths fled to the caves of the Cantabrian Mountains. Later in the century, the cave dwellers would venture out of the Cantabrian Mountains and reclaim parts of northern Spain.

The Moors of Africa were the real conquerors. When the Arabs arrived, the hardest part of the job had been done. Instead of treating the Moors fairly, the Arab chiefs assigned themselves the most fertile regions. The dissatisfied Moors were not long in coming to blows with the Arabs. (The History of Spain by Louis Bertrand and Sir Charles Petrie - published by Eyre & Spottiswood, London, 1945, page 36). Ultimately, the Moors acquired two-thirds of the peninsula, which they named Al-Andulus.

Al -Andulus was obliged to pay tribute to the Arab Caliph (King) of Damascus. As Al-Andulus acquired its own identity, its bond with the Caliph began to weaken. In 756, Al-Andulus proclaimed itself an independent state. Thus, its only links to the Arabs would be the Islamic faith and the Arabic language. The Moorish architectural remains in Cordoba, Seville, and Granada prove conclusively that these cities were more prosperous and artistically more brilliant than any Christian cities in Europe at the time. The Moors of Al-Andulus held the torch of leaning and civilization when the rest of Europe was plunged in barbaric ignorance.

If Moorish Spain had been an accomplishment of the Arabs it would have been called Arab or Arabic Spain. Instead it bears the name of its creators, the Moors, i.e., Moorish Spain. Moorish culture was black in origin, bright in Achievement, and powerful in its influence on the rest of Europe."

By YVONNE CLARK
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/moors_arabs.html

msingh said...

ss, I've thrown away the packet, but I think they were made in Germany.

Hope this helps.

Waheguru