Note 274 — BOOK V THE RISE AND COLLAPSE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (continued 3)

The spread and the vitality of the place-name “Rome” were even greater than the vogue of the title “Cæsar.” All the countries which had formed part of the Eastern and Western divisions of the Roman Empire (excepting the ephemeral extension of Roman rule over Mesopotamia) were known to the Saracens, the Arabs, the Berbers as “Rum,” and their peoples as “Rumis,” “Rumas.” And this name was applied without, in all cases, carrying with it the signification of “Christian” or “Christendom.” Thus the Spanish Moors were, and their descendants are, styled by the Moroccan Moors and the Algerians and Tunisians: “Rumas.” When expelled from Spain most of them took service under the Sharifian Emperors of Morocco, and brought with them a European knowledge of fire-arms. Thus you are told in Algeria that “Romans” (i.e. Spanish Moors) conquered the Upper Niger basin for Morocco in the seventeenth century; their descendants remain there till to-day between Jenné and Timbuktu, still known to the French as “Roumas.” Some Spanish Moors even penetrated to the coast of eastern equatorial Africa and carried the name of “Rome” into the fierce expulsion of the Portuguese from those parts which was begun by the Omani Arabs.—H. H. J.