Black Manta

Black Manta

Friday, March 1, 2013

He who writes History


Tariq  ibn  Ziyad
the conqueror of Spain



Tariq, the great African chief of the Moors 
was made general of the Arab army and subjugated Spain increasing Moorish holdings northward into the Iberian Penisular. The Arabs and Africans of North Africa joined forces after bitter conflict. But now trade, commerce and the islamic faith connected the Moors and Arabs into one of the most powerful global forces of that era (beating the Romans and the Persians). 

The Moors were African warrior scholars and part of the Islamic Empire, and Tariq ibn Ziyad was it's brightest commander. A brilliant general, a man of faith and unwavering determination. 

Tariq gathered his troops at Gibraltar (which means the mountain of Tariq) then landed on the Spanish coast with his Moorish warriors, 300 Arabs and 7000 native African Moors. Then he ordered the ships to be burned! When asked why, Tariq said "We will conquer or perish" And in their first engagement with the Visigoths upon landing, Tariq  killed the Visigoth Lord Theodore Meir.



 The next wave of Goths came with Rodriquez and his 80,000 men. The Moors and Arabs were superior in the art of mobile warfare. they were superb horsemen and had mastered the art of rapid enveloping movements. There was no contest. Even though the Muslims were outnumbered, the Visigoths were cut to pieces. Rodriquez was slain in battle with all his men. From there Tariq and his Black army swept into Spain and defeated the Visigoths in successive stages. 



The bloodiest battle was at Guadalete. This time Tariq faced 100,000 Goths. With his 7,000 Moors and 5,000  Berber reinforcements (Barbary pirates of Africa). Tariq annihilated the Visigoth King Roderick and drowned him in the river Barbate. Tariq divided his small army into four divisions and three of his lieutenants were sent to take Cordova, Malaga and Granada. Tariq himself at the head of his army took Toledo, the capital of Spain. The Moors were unstoppable, and Visigothic  Spain ceased to be. The few Visigoths left fled to the caves of the Cantabrian mountains.



Tariq stood King in Africa and Spain
(Chief in Morocco and Governor of Spain)

The Moors brought art, science and culture. They built palaces where African monarchs ruled. They built gardens, hospitals mosques and libraries, well paved streets with sidewalks, public baths in the hundreds when cleanliness in Europe was considered a sin. This was the beginning of the Golden age of Islam. The oppressed masses of Jews and white serfs (slaves) of Spain hailed Tariq as their liberator. Serfdom's were abolished and fair wages were instituted. Taxes were reduced to a fifth of the produce and anyone who accepted Islam was relieved of servitude. A large number of Spaniards became Muslim to escape  the oppression of their former masters. The religious minorities the Jews and Christians, received the protection of the state and were allowed participation at the highest levels of government. The Moors enlightened Europe and brought it out of the dark ages that ushered in the renaissance.


The Moors ruled Spain, Southern France and much of Scotland and Northern Africa during the middle ages for 700 years.
two thirds of the Spanish peninsula was renamed by the Moors as Al-Andalus
(Spain, Portugal,Gibraltar, and France)


on a comic note, the Bronze Tiger has fought with and against the Jewish Superhero team the Hayoth. It's a lot of untold stories to be told on Ben's solo exploits. 

OA1 presents
Operation: Iron Tiger



















26 comments:

  1. Interesting bit of info there. Out of a hunch on the type of info I'd find, I Googled the Middle Ages and found that Wikipedia did a poor job mentioning this within the Middle Ages account. I believe I had to click on 'Al-Andalus' to get the word 'Moor', which Wiki simply dubs as 'Muslims', being a generic name for Moor. I had to click 'Moor' to see the actual distinction of the term, which then proves that it would probably have made sense to use it instead of Muslims when actually referring to the historical accounts of Moors.

    Tariq only got bout 2 brief mentions on the Al-Andalus page, the larger being- 'the Berber commander Tariq ibn-Ziyad led a small force that landed at Gibraltar on April 30, 711, ostensibly to intervene in a Visigothic civil war. After a decisive victory over King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete on July 19, 711, Tariq ibn-Ziyad, joined by Arab governor Musa ibn Nusayr of Ifriqiya, brought most of the Visigothic Kingdom under Muslim occupation in a seven-year campaign. They crossed the Pyrenees and occupied Visigothic Septimania in southern France.'

    It's also no surprise that Wikipedia classified the conquests of the early Middle Ages as 'barbaric' while the other exploits such as the Crusades during the so called 'High Middle Ages' evade such a term and instead were deemed to have merely been quote- 'military attempts, by western European Christians, to regain control of the Middle Eastern Holy Land from the Muslims.'

    I'm sure I'll come across much better accounts of such information when I get to the Moors in proper research. Nice post.

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    1. Musa ibn Nusayr didn't join Tariq until a year after Tariq had taken Spain. The two were friends until Musa couldn't claim victory of Spain for himself.

      What was really disturbing was that right to this day the western world, America and others try to hide, cover up and denote that Tariq Ziyad was a full blooded African Moor from Morocco. I had to search and dig all over the place for good information. The easiest source wikipedia went with an Arab picture of Tariq and soft information. Wiki actually is bordering on lies.

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  2. So... this guy should kick Aric's ass and claim the X-O armor? I'd buy that!

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    1. Aric is a Visigoth, but I think he's on the side of the Angels. And anyway, I want that X-0 Armor for myself. I hear it's precious.

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  3. Very cool history lesson right here Omega. Damn cool! I dig history myself, but this was really informative, and could easily segway into a new project you already seem to be working on, Project: Iron Tiger. How cool would it be, to maybe imply, or even out-right state that Ben Turner is a direct descendant of Tariq? I smell what the OmegaAgent's cooking, and it smells fucking delicious. Looking very forward to what comes next;)

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  4. My man Dale. Stankonia my friend, the place where all funky things come. But no. Tiger of Tamura has established the boodline; but wait! Smell what the agent is cooking. There are no tigers native to Africa, but Ben's war paint is ceremonial African tiger stripes (this is from the comics). So I got to thinking, the stripes are from where from who? Doing this research I found out that the Jews found refuge from the Goths in Morocco and were instramental in the new economic system set up in Spain after Tariq took it. Ben operated with the Hayoth on secret missions for awhile. The Arabs eventually turned on the Africans in a terrible way. the Tiger and Rustam also had some dealings and a certain flaming scimatar is now in American hands. A new Onslaught is being formed and my story telling muse went crazy. So yessss I am working on some things (then again I might not finish it who knows). But it's always cool when you uncover an OA plot scheme.

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  5. Too true. Looking forward to what's next;)

    Oh also on a somewhat related note, Shlomo said you weren't too happy about the whole Sportmaster/Black Manta fight. I can see why since, the Sportmaster basically won that one;)

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  6. Nice - love this post. So much I didn't know, but feels like the tales not finished with yet and you're building forward at some thin'. Looking forward to seeing what you have in store dude.

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    1. Thankx Dan, I got alot of things in mind, even a whole new theme. I might need to post something to let you guys know I'm still in the game.

      Until the Tiger strikes...

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  7. Your approach of tying history and the comic book world together was beautifully put together and I say they should "with a post like this" allow you to piece together a Bronze Tiger series based off these facts.

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    1. Arkenius, what's up man. And that's exactly what I think as well. What I hear a lot is, there is nothing we can do with the Bronze Tiger. He's just a karate guy with no super powers. But martial arts is directly related to super powers.

      Another thing that I see and hear is, we want to keep things in our fantasy world, kinda realistic. Basically saying what has Black people done in the real world that can realistically transfer into the comic world. I'm paraphrasing of course. But that is what it boils down to. So in my posting I make some of the connections for the readers.

      Oh....one of the things I found out during the research on Tariq is that he's represented in the video game Assassins Creed, but as an Arab not as an African Moor. How about that? But on every history based Arab site I visited, Tariq is not pictured and barely mentioned. For one of the most important Historical figures in their conquest and building of an empire why is that? They didn't want to lie about who the man was. But on an Asian Moorish site (yep Asian Moor) it's talked about an explained. Go figure.

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  8. tarik Tariq ibn Ziyad is not arabic is berber

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  9. and the berber is the people of the north africa they are not black are white

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  10. I am a filmmaker doing research for a movie about the Moors and Tariq in particular. Where can I find more information on the subject? I wish you had published your references; genetic studies show very little of African genetic material in modern day Iberians so I need to find more research.

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    1. You can start with "Golden Age Of The Moor" by Ivan Van Sertima and "The Story Of The Moors In Spain" by Stanley Lane-Pool

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    2. the moors are not black the are moroccan of today stop blackwashing every thing if the internet goes down all your fake histry will be done

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  12. I've got a serious shock when i looked at the third picture and i could see muslims with "espingardas" in XIII century, being these weapons from XV century onwards. This is not serious, completely not.

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  13. I am a black women from America I bought this picture of this particular moor 30 years and gave it to my father because he was the spitting image of him. I never new this man portrayed was a real historical figure wow!I feel like a daughter of great king truthfully I always did��

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    1. fist of all that picture was made by a guy and its not true hahaha this is blackwashing history . north africa was never black you history stealers

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  14. Who do I contact for permission/rights to use one of the Moor warrior pictures on this blog in a book I am writing?

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    1. the moors are not black and they never would stop stealing history the moors are moroccan and the empires are moroccan dynasties of amazigh origine

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  15. Part of your text states " The Moors ruled Spain, Southern France and much of Scotland and Northern Africa." I am fairly certain the Moors did not rule Scotland. That is an amusing error though.

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    1. all pf this is fake tou guys stiling history the moors are moroccan of today and they never were black if you want to apretiat someting go to west africa

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