THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN CLASSICAL ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS

Shem Hotep ("I go in peace").



THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN CLASSICAL ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS

The story of the African presence in early Asia is as fascinating as it is obscure. We now know, based on recent scientific studies of DNA, that modern humanity originated in Africa, that African people are the world's original people, and that all modern humans can ultimately trace their ancestral roots back to Africa. Were it not for the primordial migrations of early African people, humanity would have remained physically Africoid, and the rest of the world outside of the African continent absent of human life. Since the first modern humans in Asia were of African birth, the African presence in ancient Asia can therefore be demonstrated through the history of the Black populations that have inhabited the Asian land mass within the span of modern humanity. But not only were African people the first inhabitants of Asia. There is abundant evidence to show that Black people within documented historical periods created, nurtured or influenced some of ancient Asia's most important and enduring classical civilizations. This includes the Sumerian civilization of early Iraq, the Indus Valley civilization and the civilizations of Angkor and Champa in Southeast Asia.

For well over a century, Western historians, ethnologists, anthropologists, archaeologists and other such specialists have generally and often arbitrarily used such terms as Negroid, Proto-Negroid, Proto-Australoid, Negritic and Negrito in labeling populations in Asia with Africoid phenotypes and African cultural traits and historical traditions. The has especially been the case with Black populations in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Far East Asia. In Southwest Asia, on the other hand, terms like Hamites, Eurafricans, Mediterraneans and the Brown Race have commonly been employed in denoting clearly discernible Black populations. In this work, we have chosen to reject such deliberately confusing nomenclature as obsolete and invalid, unscientific and racially motivated, and it is our intention to comprehensively explore the full impact and extent of the African presence in the human cultures and classical civilizations of early Asia.

In summation, in brief, we contend that the history of the African presence in Asia, including the African presence in classical Asian civilization, is one of the most significant, challenging and least written about aspects of the global African experience, and that even today, after an entire series of holocausts and calamities, the African presence in Asia may exceed three hundred million people. The works of historians and scholars like W.E.B. DuBois, Drusilla Dunjee Houston, Joel A. Rogers, John G. Jackson, Cheikh Anta Diop, Chancellor James Williams and others have stressed this for years. We intend to continue to energetically carry this work forward.


William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author, and editor.


DRUSILLA DUNJEE HOUSTON (1876-1941)


Joel Augustus Rogers (September 6, 1880 — March 26, 1966)


Sakanouye Tamura Maro


THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN THE ANCIENT FAR EAST

Although the island nation of Japan is assumed by many to have been historically composed of an essentially homogenous population, the accumulated evidence places the matter in a vastly different light. A Japanese proverb states that: "For a Samurai to be brave, he must have a bit of Black blood." Another recording of the proverb is: "Half the blood in one's veins must be Black to make a good Samurai." Sakanouye Tamura Maro, a Black man, became the first Shogun of Japan.

In China, an Africoid presence is visible from remote antiquity. The Shang, for example, China's first dynasts, are described as having "black and oily skin." The famous Chinese sage Lao-Tze was "black in complexion."

Funan is the name given by Chinese historians to the earliest kingdom of Southeast Asia. Their records expressly state that, "For the complexion of men, they consider black the most beautiful. In all the kingdoms of the southern region, it is the same."

The first kingdom in Vietnam was the Kingdom of Lin-yi. Its inhabitants possessed "black skin, eyes deep in the orbit, nose turned up, hair frizzy at a period when they were not yet subject to foreign domination and preserved the purity of this type."

The fate of the Black kingdoms and the Black people of Far East Asia must be tied to increased pressure from non-Africoid peoples pushing down from northern Asia. Indeed, the subject of what might be called "Black and Yellow racial and cultural relations in both ancient and modern times" is so critical that it must be developed as a special area of study. It is of particular importance to African and African-oriented scholars and historians.

SOURCE:


African Presence In Early Asia, Edited by Runoko Rashidi & Ivan Van Sertima



Ati of the Philippines.

The Ati is a Negrito ethnic group in Panay, which is located in the Visayas (Islands of Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, Leyte, Samar, Panay, Masbate, Negros and Guimaras), the central portion of the Philippine archipelago. They are genetically-related to other Negrito ethnic groups in the Philippines such as the Aeta of Luzon, the Batak of Palawan, and the Mamanwa of Mindanao.




The Malaysian Negrito

Orang Asli (lit, "original peoples" or "aboriginal peoples" in Malay) is a general term used for any indigenous groups that are found in Peninsular Malaysia. They are divided into three main tribal groups – Semang (negrito), Senoi, and Proto-Malay (Aboriginal Malay). The Orang Asli are further divided into 18 sub-ethnic group according to their different languages and customs. The Negritos are usually found in the northern region of the peninsula, the Senois in the central region, and the Proto-Malay in the southern region.







The Ayome and The Papuans of NewGuinea.



The Melanesians of the Pacific.

The Color of Woman and Man.

Shem Hotep ("I go in peace").


Alice Marie Coachman.
Alice Marie Coachman (born November 9, 1923 in Albany, Georgia) is an American former athlete. She specialized in high jump, and was the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

Coachman dominated the AAU outdoor high jump championship from 1939 through 1948, but was unable to compete in the Olympic Games as they were cancelled in 1940 and 1944 because of World War II.

In the high jump finals of the 1948 Summer Olympics, Coachman leaped 1.68 m (5 ft 6⅛ in) on her first try. Her nearest rival, Great Britain's Dorothy Tyler, matched Coachman's jump, but only on her second try. Coachman was the only American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948.

Coachman also excelled in the indoor and outdoor 50 m dash and the outdoor 100 m dash. Representing Tuskegee Institute, Coachman also ran on the national champion 4 x 4 100-meter relay team in 1941 and 1942. Coachman is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, inducted in 1998 during the sorority's international conference.




Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December, 1923 in Thieytou, Diourbel Region - 7 February, 1986 in Dakar) was an Afrocentric historian, anthropologist, physicist and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture.
The Color of Man.

It is generally conceded in most scholarly circles, that mankind originated in Africa. This makes the African man the father, and the African woman the mother of mankind.
By necessity, the earliest people were ethnically homogeneous and Negroid. Gloger's Law, which would also appear to be applicable to human beings, lays it down that warm-blooded animals evolving in a warm humid climate will secrete a black pigment (eumelanin). Hence, if mankind originated in the tropics around the latitude of the great lakes, he was bound to have brown pigmentation from the start and it was by differentiation in other climates that the original stock later split into different races.

According to Cheikh Anta Diop, "the color black acts as a protection of the organism. If man was first born in Africa and had not been black, he would not have survived. We know scientifically, that ultra-violet rays would have destroyed the human organism in the equatorial regions, if the organism had not been protected by black pigmentation, that is Melanin. That is obviously why man, first born in Africa was black. It is not something we need to be proud of, it is simply a fact."

The oldest known fossil remains, according to Dr. Louis Leakey, were found in the Olduvai Gorge region in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. These first "small" people were known as the "Twa", who worshipped the God Bes, a primitive human form of Horus I, being the earliest form of Ptah—the God of Gods.

We also find this same black God, Ptah, symbolized in the mystery system in Egypt. The Twa are said to have migrated the four thousand one hundred miles of the Nile river, establishing what was later to become the Egyptian civilization.

According to Manetho, the first dynasty was established by Menes (or Narmer), about 5500 B.C., when Menes conquered Lower Egypt, combining both Upper and Lower Egypt. This alliance of the red and white crowns of the two countries were joined, and Menes inherited the double diadem, becoming the first Pharaoh of the world.


Imhotep "Father of Medicine" (2980 B.C.)

Imhotep, called "God of Medicine," "Prince of Peace," and a "Type of Christ." Imhotep was worshipped as a god and healer from approximately 2850 B.C. to 525 B.C., and as a full deity from 525 B.C. to 550 A.D. Even kings and queens bowed at his throne. Imhotep lived during the Third Dynasty at the court of King Zoser. Imhotep was a known scribe, chief lector, priest, architect, astronomer and magician (medicine and magic were used together.) For 3000 years he was worshipped as a god in Greece and Rome. Early Christians worshipped him as the "Prince of Peace."
Imhotep was also a poet and philosopher. He urged contentment and preached cheerfulness. His proverbs contained a "philosophy of life." Imhotep coined the saying "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we shall die."

When the Egyptians crossed the Mediterranean, becoming the foundation of the Greek culture, Imhotep's teachings were absorbed there. Yet, as the Greeks were determined to assert that they were the originators of everything, Imhotep was forgotten for thousands of years and a legendary figure, Hippocrates, who came 2000 years after him became known as the Father of Medicine.

It is Imhotep says Sir William Osler, who was the real Father of Medicine. "The first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity." Imhotep diagnosed and treated over 200 diseases, 15 diseases of the abdomen, 11 of the bladder, 10 of the rectum, 29 of the eyes, and 18 of the skin, hair, nails and tongue. Imhotep treated tuberculosis, gallstones, appendicitis, gout and arthritis. He also performed surgery and practiced some dentistry. Imhotep extracted medicine from plants. He also knew the position and function of the vital organs and circulation of the blood system. The Encyclopedia Britannica says, "The evidence afforded by Egyptian and Greek texts support the view that Imhotep's reputation was very respected in early times...His prestige increased with the lapse of centuries and his temples in Greek times were the centers of medical teachings."

James Henry Breasted says of Imhotep:


James Henry Breasted (August 27, 1865 – December 2, 1935) was an American archaeologist and historian.

In priestly wisdom, in magic, in the formulation of wise proverbs; in medicine and architecture; this remarkable figure of Zoser's reign left so notable a reputation that his name was never forgotten. He was the patron spirit of the later scribes, to whom they regularly poured out a libation from the water-jug of their writing outfit before beginning their work. The people sang of his proverbs centuries later, and 2500 years after his death, he had become a god of medicine in whom Greeks, who call him Imouthes, recognized their own Asklepios. A temple was erected to him near the Serapeum at Memphis, and at the present day, every museum possesses a bronze statue or two of the apotheosized wise man, the proverb maker, physician, and architect of Zoser.




Queen Hatshepsut (1500 B.C.)

About 1500 years before the birth of Christ, one finds the beginning of Hatshepsut's reign as one of the brightest in Egyptian history, proving that a woman can be a strong and effective ruler. She was according to Egyptologist, James Henry Breasted, "The first great woman in history of whom we are informed."

Her father, Thothmes I, was highly impressed with the efficiency of his daughter, and appointed her manager, and co-ruler of his kingdom.

Before the King died, he married Hatshepsut to her half-brother, Thothmes II. His reign lasted only thirteen years. After his death, Hatshepsut was to rule only in the name of Thothmes III, until he was old enough to rule alone.

Hatshepsut was not satisfied to rule in the name of Thothmes III.

Hatshepsut dressed herself in the most sacred of the Pharaoh's clothing, mounted the throne, and proclaimed herself Pharaoh of Egypt. She ruled Egypt for twenty-one years. She also moved to strengthen the position of Egypt within Africa by making peace with the tribes of Kush (or Nubia) and sending missions to the nations along the East African coast, as far south as Punt (present day Somalia). One of Hatshepsut's crowning achievements was dispatching a mission to a kingdom in Asia (now India).

Hatshepsut died suddenly and mysteriously. Some historians say that Thothmes III, had her murdered.

After her death, Thothmes III, tried unsuccessfully to destroy all memory of Hatshepsut in Egypt. Her temple still remains in the Valley of the Kings, once the ancient city of Thebes, known today as Deir el Bahri, and Hatshepsut comes down to us as one of the most outstanding women of all time.



Queen Tiye (1415-1340 B.C.)

This celebrated Nubian queen was the beloved and honored wife of Amen-Hetep III, who was one of the world's mightiest Pharaohs and conquerors.
King Amen-Hetep III, had a very deep and unusual affection for Queen Tiye. In addition to the usual titles of a King's wife, Tiye is described as "Royal" daughter and "Royal" sister, when she was neither the daughter or the sister of a king, but of parents who were not of royal lineage.

The full queenly titles which Tiye held in common with the great heiress princesses of Egypt, were bestowed on her by Amen-Hetep III, and were honorary.

Although Tiye was a girl of common birth, she was a person of very strong character. Evident from records, she was a beautiful young Black queen. A woman of great intellect, ability, and a powerful influence. She shared the crown with her husband as though she had been its lineal heiress. Queen Tiye had such an important part in the affairs of Egypt, that foreign diplomats often appealed directly to her in matters affecting certain international relations.

Queen Tiye was a full-blooded African. Her son, Akhenaton and his wife, Nefertiti are the parents of King Tutankhamen, who is also known as "King Tut."

As a symbol of the love Amen-Hetep III, had for Queen Tiye, he declared that so she was treated in life as his equal, she would be depicted in death. At the time of her death, she was given a full "Royal" burial.

The Destruction of African Civilization

Shem Hotep ("I go in peace").



The Destruction of African Civilization
A great deal of information about the culture of Africa has been lost because of the destruction of ancient records. Great libraries in several African cities were burned, looted, and their treasures stolen. The library in Thebes was destroyed by an invading Assyrian army in 661 B.C. [John G. Jackson]

The Land of the Blacks, as it was referred to, was a vast and big world, two million square miles, not limited to the southern region. The Ethiopian Empire once extended from the Mediterranean at the north and southward, to the source of the Nile. Egypt, it should be pointed out, was the northeastern region of ancient Ethiopia.

The six cataracts of the Nile were the great watermarks in the heartland of the Blacks from whence African culture spread over the continent. This northern sector had been the object of world attention from the earliest times. Interestingly, the ancients referred to Egyptians and Nubians as Ethiopians. Nubians were later called 'negroes" by Westerners.


Rameses II
It was during the period of Rameses II's reign, about 1400 B.C.E., that the racial composition of the Egyptian Dynasties began to change. Rameses II, moved his capital city from Luxor to Memphis, then finally to the Delta region, in order to keep a constant vigilance over the Assyrian and Palestinian wars that he had involvement in.

The African domination of Egypt began to diminish. The infiltration of Asian, Libyan, and other non-Black races in Egypt caused an insurrection that led to the outbreak of a civil war that lasted for 25 years. The war had turned and the non-Africans became empowered, with the Hyksos becoming the Pharaohs of Egypt.

During this same period of time, a number of other major events were transpiring around the world, many of which included Africans: Egypt was in a state of total decline; a Libyan by the name of Osorkon I ruled the throne; the "Third Golden Age" of Egypt had come to an end; large groups of people fled Egypt; Nubians retreated back southward; and many of the Africans took to the seas.

There is a natural ocean current that flows from the West Coast of Africa to the Americas (the Caribbean, South America, Mexico, etc.). It has been recorded that Africans were the first known "gods of the Olmecs" in Mexico (1400–1300 B.C.). African sculptures, pyramids, and large colossal heads still exist in Mexico that support reports of Mexican and African relationships in the early Americas.


Egyptian Philosophy

From the time of Pharaoh of the Third Dynasty to Pharaoh Khufu of Cheops of the Fourth Dynasty (builder of the great pyramids of Giza), we can see the superior intellect of these ancient African people. Their understanding of mathematics and knowledge of the heavens and the sun with relationship to the stars is astonishing. These people had studied astronomy in Egypt and the lands south of Punt for thousands of years. This is evidenced by the monuments that remain such as the Great Sphinx of Giza, the half human animal figure that dates back to the ancients of the ancients.

Kemet or Ta-merry was the center of learning. People from all over the Mediterranean came to study in their Mystery Schools. The Greek philosophers were students or had some contact with the students of the Egyptian institutions of learning. The Greeks who learned the ancient teachings of science, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, masonry, etc. were considered enemies of the state of Athens and were imprisoned exiled, or put to death.

There is in existence, a list of alleged Greek philosophers, who were regarded as undesirables in the Greek State in which they were citizens. These philosophers continued accepting their source of wisdom and knowledge from Egypt (Kemet), at the risk of physical injury to themselves. They were men who kept the records in their heads, and operated in deep secrecy in fear of the state (Greece).

Any Greek citizen that embraced foreign ideology was considered a criminal and a "teacher of an alien philosophy." This charge was lodged against Socrates, Aristotle, and others in the Greek government. It was Socrates who was put into prison and later sentenced to death by the same people who now claim his teachings as their own. All Egyptian temples carried inscriptions on the outside addressed to the Neophytes (initiates). And among them was the injunction "Know Thyself." Socrates copied these words from the Egyptian temples, but was not the author.

The Egyptian Mystery system was also a secret order. Membership was gained by initiation and a pledge of secrecy. The teachings were graded and delivered orally by the Neophyte; and under these circumstances of secrecy, the Egyptians developed secret systems of writing and teachings, and forbade their initiates from writing what they had learned. After nearly five thousand years of prohibition against the Greeks, they were permitted to enter Egypt for the purpose of their education. First through the Persian invasion and secondly through the invasion of Alexander the Great. The Greeks made the best of their chance to learn all they could about Egyptian culture. After the invasion of Alexander, the royal temples and libraries were plundered and pillaged, and Aristotle's school converted the library of Alexandria into a research center.

"It is Imhotep," said Sir William Osler of John Hopkins University, "who was the real father of medicine. The first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity." Imhotep, a multi-level genius, called "God of Medicine, Prince of Peace, and a type of Christ." If Imhotep designed the first "step pyramid" in approximately 2680 B.C. (and he did), how did Pythagoras develop the so-called "Pythagorean Theorem," the formula for the triangle, when he lived 540 B.C., 2100 years after the pyramid was built?

The teachings were solely of the indigenous Africans of the Mystery System commonly in use along the Nile Valley and Great Lakes regions of Northern, Eastern, and Central Africa.


Religion and Science of the Africans

Religion has been defined as a "propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man," which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and human life. Humans are believed to have evolved through three states of beliefs.

The Age of Magic
The Age of Religion
The Age of Science
For thousands of years before religion was known, man believed in the principles of magic, and strove to put them into practice in his daily life.

In the book Africa Origins of the Major Western Religions, Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan writes:

Paganism, Voodooism, Witchcraft, Fetishism, Black Magic, Obyah, and Oledamare are just a mere sampling of the many names relegated to a few of the righteously sacred religions of solely traditional indigenous African origin. Approximately 750,000 B.C.E., and possibly before this date, the indigenous African people, the so-called Bantus, Bushmen, Pygmies, Hottentots, Negroes, and others bearing such labels of inferiority, have been honoring a 'superior force' or being prior to the recording of history.

The "Twa" (referred to as pygmies), recorded as being the first inhabitants of the world, had the earliest mode of worship recognizable in propitiation of the superhuman power.

What then is the foundation of African Spirituality? Our ancestors believed that man must place the utmost importance in the quest to "know thyself," as the deification of man was highly regarded. The Egyptians (Africans) taught that the soul of man, if liberated from the body, could become God-like. According to this concept, they also held that man would be among the Gods in his lifetime on earth and attain what was called the "Beautific Vision," (changed to "saints" in Christendom).

In Africa spirituality, the name ascribed to God, depended mainly on where in Egypt (Africa) a person lived. Those living in Thebes referred to God as "Ra," in Memphis as "Amon or Amen," and in Nubia as "Ptah." African spirituality was simply a holistic approach to life, possessing no one train of thought to dominate the mind. African spirituality was based on the Osirian doctrine and the principles of Maat. In brief, the central principle of Maat is that the Gods serve humanity as humanity serves the Gods. Maat is divine harmony. It is built upon, and reflection of understanding the celestial realm.

Christian on Christian crime. (Spanish Inquisition)

Shem Hotep ("I go in peace").


Christianity: Christendom

All of the research gathered on the very difficult subject of Christianity leads one to believe that the foundation of this religion had its origin in ancient Africa with the Twa people of Central Africa 40,000 years ago or longer. These ancient people embraced the same mythological story of a savior being crucified, as is the case of Joshua ben-Pendara, whose name was changed by the Greeks to Jesus Christ.

Joshua ben-Pendara or Jesus, was a native African who was educated in the Egyptian Mystery Schools according to the Mystery System. Moses was educated in the same schools, and in the same manner.

Research also concludes that the concept of Christianity is very similar, if not copied from the Egyptian Mystery System. According to the late A. Powell Davies,

"Originally, it was the earth itself that was the goddess, virginal again with every spring. Her son was the fruit of the earth, born only to die, and in dying, to be implanted once more in the earth, as the seed that would renew the cycle. This was the 'vegetation myth' from which the 'Savior-God' and the 'Mater Dolorosa' was drawn, soon to be elaborated.

The cycle of seasons on earth was viewed to be parallel with the coordinate cycle of the heavens. The concept of the Virgin goddess grew out of the constellation Virgo. Virgo rose in the eastern sky just when Sirius, the star from the east, was signaling the new birth of the Sun. The passage of the horizon line through Virgo was the conception of the Virgin from the Sun. The earth myth was thus blended with the sky myth and both with the memory of ancient heroes, real or legendary, and so came the saga of the Redeemer.

The cave, later to be associated with the birth of Jesus, was earlier the birthplace of Horus, who, when he was grown, would become Osiris, who must die for the salvation of his people. Isis was the Mater Dolorosa."

This ancient myth of the Africans was altered and officially was changed first by the Greeks, and later by the Romans who adopted the religion of the Africans and later changed it. This can best be described by what happened at the Nicene Council (in "Nice") which is now northwest Turkey.

The Nicene Council was held in 325 A.D., by Emperor Constantine to settle a dispute caused by the Arian views of the Trinity. Arius was a priest of Alexandria who believed that Christ is not of the same essence as God, but of similar substance. The Council adopted the so-called NICENE CREED, which declared that God and Christ as God are of one substance. The council also fixed the time of observing Easter, with a question of whether the Christian Easter should be on the same day as the Jewish Passover, or on Sunday. The Nicene Council is where African spirituality was altered to become an Arian religion, and later used to foster slavery and racism throughout the world.


Constantine I Emperor of the Roman Empire (27 February 272 – 22 May 337)


Africans in the Roman Empire
Many people are not aware of the African influence on the Roman Empire, and the Roman Church. Christianity had become the "State" religion in Rome, African spirituality was completely suppressed and the "Isis Sect" (Osiris, the Father; Horus, the Son; Isis, the Mother of the Son) was no longer practiced openly.

As Christianity came into focus, three African Popes emerged in church history, Pope Victor I; Pope Militiades; and Pope Gelasius. Pope Victor I, came to power in 168 A.D., at a time when the date of Easter was very controversial. The fact that Easter Day is always celebrated on a Sunday is due to the decision of Pope Victor I, the fourteenth in line after Saint Peter. The second African pope was Militiades, a Black priest who was elected the thirty-seventh pope in 311 A.D. Militiades was the first pope to have an official residence. It was under Pope Militiades' reign that Constantine was converted to Christianity. A split came about in the church after Constantine began intervening in church affairs. Militiades died in 314 A.D. and was the last pope to be buried in the famous Catacombs.

The third African pope was Gelasius, who was born in Rome to African parents. He received a superior education. In his youth, Gelasius was a member of the Roman clergy. As pope Gelasius arranged several rules for the clergy, including allowing the use of wine at the Holy Communion.

Galasius has been recognized as one of the most vigorous, resourceful popes in the 5th Century. His writings and sermons have been quoted down through the ages. Gelasius composed many hymns. He also arranged a standard Mass book. Gelasius died in 496 A.D.

It has been said that Rome fell because she threw her doors too wide open by permitting Africans to become State and Church dignitaries. The reality of the fall of Rome is that Roman power weakened when the strength and efficiency of the Roman army deteriorated. The prevailing thought about Africans has been that it was only through the colonizing and Christianizing of Africans that they could hope to become civilized. The facts contained in the records of history, which may be examined, prove that Africans had highly developed civilized nations long before Europe or the Christian church was born. The church today, for example, continues to observe ancient Egyptian (African) practices without their knowledge.


Spanish Inquisition

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition, was a tribunal established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the medieval inquisition which was under papal control. The Inquisition worked in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of recent converts, especially those Jews, Muslims and others coerced on pain of death to adopt the Christian religion. Various motives have been proposed for the monarchs' decision to fund the Inquisition, such as increasing political authority, weakening opposition, suppressing conversos, and profiting from confiscation of the property of convicted heretics. The new body was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy. It was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabella II.

Ferdinand II & V

King of Aragon, Sicily, Naples, and Valencia.


Isabella I of Castile.

Death tolls

The historian Hernando del Pulgar, contemporary of Ferdinand and Isabella, estimated that the Inquisition had burned at the stake 2,000 people and reconciled another 15,000 by 1490 (just one decade after the Inquisition began).

Modern historians have begun to study the documentary records of the Inquisition. The archives of the Suprema, today held by the National Historical Archive of Spain (Archivo Histórico Nacional), conserves the annual relations of all processes between 1540 and 1700. This material provides information on about 44,674 judgements, the latter studied by Gustav Henningsen and Jaime Contreras. These 44,674 cases include 826 executions in persona and 778 in effigie. This material, however, is far from being complete - for example, the tribunal of Cuenca is entirely omitted, because no relaciones de causas from this tribunal has been found, and significant gaps concern some other tribunals (e.g. Valladolid). Many more cases not reported to Suprema are known from the other sources (e.g. no relaciones de causas from Cuenca has been found, but its original records has been preserved), but were not included in Contreras-Hennigsen's statistics for the methodological reasons. William Monter estimates 1000 executions between 1530–1630 and 250 between 1630-1730.

The archives of the Suprema only provide information surrounding the processes prior to 1560. To study the processes themselves, it is necessary to examine the archives of the local tribunals; however, the majority have been lost to the devastation of war, the ravages of time or other events. Pierre Dedieu has studied those of Toledo, where 12,000 were judged for offences related to heresy. Ricardo García Cárcel has analyzed those of the tribunal of Valencia. These authors' investigations find that the Inquisition was most active in the period between 1480 and 1530, and that during this period the percentage condemned to death was much more significant than in the years studied by Henningsen and Contreras. Henry Kamen gives the number of about 2,000 executions in persona in the whole Spain up to 1530.

García Cárcel estimates that the total number processed by the Inquisition throughout its history was approximately 150,000. Applying the percentages of executions that appeared in the trials of 1560-1700—about 2%—the approximate total would be about 3,000 put to death. Nevertheless, very probably this total should be raised keeping in mind the data provided by Dedieu and García Cárcel for the tribunals of Toledo and Valencia, respectively. It is likely that the total would be between 3,000 and 5,000 executed.

However, it is impossible to determine the precision of this total, and owing to the gaps in documentation, it is unlikely that the exact number will ever be known.

Inquisition Torture


The Iron Maiden

The name of this instrument seems to have originated from a sort of sarcophagus that had the face of a maiden carved on its front door, probably with the aim of making this horrible container look more refined. The inside of the sarcophagus was fitted with spikes designed to pierce different parts of the body, but miss the vital organs, so that the victim was kept alive, in an upright position.



The Branks

The Branks, or Scold's Bridle, is a sort of metal gag, which was principally used on scolding housewives. It was typically fashioned as a cage that locked onto the head, aided by a metal protrusion that fit into the mouth. This tongue-piece was often enhanced with spikes or a rowel (small spiked wheel) to discourage attempts to speak. They appear to have originated in Scotland in the 16th century and passed from there to England and thence to the Americas, although there is some evidence that a type of branks may have been used even earlier

Some were also fitted with a chain to permit securing the wearer in a public place. Ancient houses in Congleton, Cheshire had a hook fixed beside the fireplace to which the town gaoler could fix the community bridle if the wife nagged too much.

Occasionally a bell on a spring was added to herald the approach of the wearer. An example of this type is on display in the Torture Chamber of the Tower of London.

Branks were also used to silence witches to prevent them from chanting or reciting their magic spells.

In the Americas, the brankswere a type of humiliation punishment, while in medieval Europe, they were used more as a torture device.


The Spanish Spider

This simple tool was used on victims either ice cold or red hot. The number of prongs differed; four to six being the most popular. A person was lifted in the air using the spider. The prongs were attached to any sensitive part of the body, but wouldn’t necessarily cause death.


The Chair

The victim was strapped in the chair using tight leather straps. The initial pain of hundreds of sharp rusty spikes penetrating the flesh could always be increased by the torturer forcibly pressing the prisoner down or back against the spikes. A modern variation would send electric current through the chair, and thusly the electric chair was born.


The Rack

The rack was a well used torture device during the inquisition that simply stretched a person out until he/she “confessed” or broke/split.


The Headcrusher

Headcrushers exerted tremendous force on the head by means of a screw. This could be used to force a confession or as a means of execution. Examples of headcrushers can be seen in the Tower of London.


The Pear.

The pear was a well used torture device during the inquisition that simply was inserted in a person mouth, rectum, or vagaia and stretched until he/she “confessed” or broke/split.