Beidane

"Moor" is not a term for any specific ethnic group, but rather it denotes an antiquated Christian European term (used in the West) to historically refer to peoples hailing from North Africa and West Asia (or, more generally, for Muslim Europeans who adopted Islam during the Middle Ages. For hundreds of years, Arabs and Berbers (from the Maghreb and the Levant) controlled parts of Malta, Sicily, Portugal, Spain, and France. Saracen refers to a medieval-era term used to designate Arabs, Berbers, and, more generally, Muslims. Medieval Christian Europeans used “Saracen” to the peoples of the Islamic “East.” Following the Middle Ages, the term largely fell out of use.

Societal hierarchy

The Beidane people comprise roughly 30 percent of the population, making them the largest ethnic minority. Haratines (Black Moors) make up roughly 40 percent of the population and constitute the ethnic plurality. The remaining 30 percent are "Sub-Saharan Mauritanians," according to the 2023 CIA World Factbook entry on Mauritania.

Within Mauritanian society, there remains minority control of the country, with the Beidane (white Moors) controlling the national economy as well as a significant majority of the state including but not limited to the government, military, and the police forces.

Since there is no ethnicity data on the Mauritanian census, the government has reported that the majority of the population (the 70% consisting of Beidane and Haratine peoples) as Maure, which means "speaker of Hassaniya Arabic." However, while most Beidane peoples would associate themselves with the term, the majority of Haratines would distance themselves from the term as they consider themselves a separate ethnic group. Haratines are almost exclusively of black African origin, but are closely aligned with the Moorish population in terms of language and culture. According to Amnesty International "they have lost virtually every aspect of their African origins except their skin color." Their Moorish culture and their language are the result of generations of enslavement. They are thus referred to as "black Moors" to differentiate them from the "white Moors" who enslaved them, and from black Mauritanians who have not been enslaved by the Moors.