A Morisco army’s descendants survive as Mali’s marginalized Arma people

Evidence

There is still in Mali a small remnant of the descendants of the largely Morisco army that had marched south with Jaudar. Nowadays they have fallen on hard times. In Arabic one name for an harquebusier was rami, of which the plural is arma. The word in the first place in Arabic signified “archer,” but as frequently happens with military terminology, an old name was reused for a later technological innovation. In modern times in statistical lists, “Arma” is however a label attached to a particular ethnic group, the descendants of the families founded by the men who marched with Jaudar. Once a dominant military aristocracy on the whole bend of the Niger, they are now a small, marginalized remnant who keep themselves to themselves. A sad human monument to a curious Morisco adventure. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1604

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the etymology of ‘Arma’ — from ‘harquebusier’ via reuse of the old word for ‘archer’ as a new gun-name.
• SHARE: A very specific bit of West African ethnonym etymology — a connection to military-technology terminology drift — that a particular linguist/historian friend would love.
• STORYSTEM: A narrative seed: the forgotten Morisco soldiers’ lineage now a marginalized ethnic remnant — a ‘sad human monument’ — could anchor a story about the long afterlife of a single military expedition.