Beidane or Bidān, also spelled Baydan or Beydan (Arabic: بيضان), is an Arabic term[note 1] used in Mauritania to refer to lighter-skinned or "white Moors", in contrast to the term Haratine, which refers to those with a darker complexion or "black Moors". The Beidane, who are of mixed Arab and Berber ancestry, represent 30% of Mauritania's population.[1][2] The language of the Beidane is Hassaniya Arabic. Al-Bidān (which literally translates to "Land of the whites") is an endonym used within Mauritania and Western Sahara by the Bidān people to refer to themselves. The name used by outsiders to refer to the Beydane is Moors from which the country of Mauritania derives its name from the Latin designation of their inhabitants (Mauri) as the Bidan form the majority of the population.[citation needed]
"Moor" is not the term for a specific ethnic group, but rather the term used by the European Christians in reference to the Arab populations that hailed from North Africa in the medieval period and took control of parts of Malta, Sicily, Portugal, Spain, and the southern part of France. Another term used in reference to Arabs at this time was "Saracen". This was largely used to refer to the peoples of the entire Arab Islamic empire, mostly by Italians and other Europeans to the north. The term largely fell out of use after the Middle Ages.[citation needed]
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