Our Islamic Roots (Part 2 of 2)
by Valerie Dixon B.Ed, MBA

Let us now explore more of our Islamic Heritage. A town in the parish of St. Thomas is Yallahs. This is a corruption of y'Allah meaning 'Oh Allah (God)'. The Moors were Muslims and were the highly educated Black people who ruled Spain for over 800 years. Arabic was the language of the Moors. Islam swept through all Europe, from the Danube to the Pyrenees. Their civilization was destroyed and they were expelled from Spain by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and some of the Moors were sent to Jamaica as slaves when Spain owned Jamaica (1494 - 1655). When the British captured Jamaica from Spain in 1655, the Moors in the Eastern part of the island (where St. Thomas is located) fled into the hills and became the Windward Maroons.

The Leeward Maroons in Accompong, (St. Elizabeth) to this day still have great reverence for their Jumuah Hole. Jumuah is the name given to Friday afternoon congregational prayers. Muslims are asked to establish a place where they can come together and where both the learned and the ignorant can discuss spiritual and non-spiritual issues. Cudjoe must have been a Muslim because he established such a place at Accompong and called it Jumuah Hole. Their history is rich, but many Maroons, it appears, don't care to know this. After all, who needs history when you can have casino gambling?

These words we take for granted, but they are Arabic - sofa, duckunoo and bacra, (Bacra Maasa). Dr. Afroz is researching 'bullah', because it is so close to 'mullah' which means 'teacher'. Pet names such as Sallah, Juba, Tacka, Tubal, and Coobah that are still in existence are all Arabic names. Many households don't cook on Fridays, this is an Islamic custom. Some of us still take off our shoes before entering our houses, this also is an Islamic custom. Washing of the feet before going to bed, washing your hands and face and passing your wet hands through your hair (men mainly do this) are all Islamic customs. Being scrupulously clean is an Islamic thing. One of the first things to be destroyed in Spain when the Moors were routed, was the Public Baths.

Remanants of Islamic technology are still around us. Much of what is called Spanish architecture is architecture that is influenced by the Moors. It was the Moors who introduced the waterwheel and the system of aqueducts for irrigation all over Europe. Windmills began in Islamic culture - in Iran. Stanley Lane Poole in his book The Story of the Moors in Spain, says "Spain both before and after the fall of the Moors has never equaled these technologies." All these technologies traveled to the West Indies when Arab Egyptians were lured to the West Indies to establish the first sugar plantations. (Source: Islamic Technology - An Illustrated History by Ahmad Y. al-Hassan and Donald R. Hill who is with UNESCO). Aqueducts are on the UWI campus and along highway 2000. Waterwheels were plentiful when sugar was king. A waterwheel is at the Tryall Hotel (once a sugar plantation) The Flat Bridge is an exact replica of a bridge built by the Moors in the 12th century in Spain and is still in use today. Look at what the Flat Bridge has withstood, built at a time when there was no Cement Company.

Who were the Moors? Dr. Sultana Afroz gives full and clear definitions in her paper "From Moors to Maroonage". But briefly, the word Moor comes from Latin 'mauri' and Greek 'mauros' which means black. The word is never used beyond the boundaries of Africa. Hence, a Moor being an African is a Black person. In the paper she quotes historian John G. Jackson, a harsh critic of the Moors, as he laments that… "The decline and fall of the Moorish Empire was a great setback to modern civilization. Had this great African civilization been allowed to survive, the world would have been five hundred years more advanced than it is today".

Dr. Afroz, I think you are being very unreasonable. As a change agent, you need to understand (and again I quote from Sahakian) "why things are the way they are before you can change them. When things have been done a certain way over time, there is probably a reason for it." I now come full circle. Education in Jamaica is not about the upliftment of Black people. Educated people cannot be manipulated to vote one way or the other, or vote against their wishes, educated people are seldom classified as 'cheap labour'.

To rewrite our history books and put truth into our curriculum is to upset the status quo. Our people have to be kept illiterate, otherwise they will feel good about themselves when they can read about the Moors and if they are literate and numerate then they are going to command and demand higher wages. The Jamaican people must continue to therefore fight and kill each other because they are mostly Black and most people know, despite all you are trying to teach us Dr. Afroz, that anything that is Black 'nuh good'.

Dr. Afroz, although we do not see 'eye to eye' on religious matters, you are my friend. I thank you for opening my eyes to Jamaica's Islamic Heritage, but I must admit that as a foreigner, you may not get the respect and recognition that you deserve. I can only beseech you to defend and protect your work because "when accomplishing anything of significance, you will offend people and make enemies. These people can do nothing but cause you grief. Concentration of power and authority will vigorously resist attempts at change". (Sahakian's Due Diligence Tips)

Five hundred years from now our children may still be learning about the Incas, the Aztecs, the Slave Trade, European History and all things white and beautiful. The Moors may never be found in their history books because the more things change the more they remain the same.

NEW JAMAICAN Vol.1