Marrah Mountains

The Marrah Mountains or Marra Mountains or Fugo Marra (In fur language) or (Jebel Marra, Arabic: جبل مرة‎ bad mountains) is a range of volcanic peaks created by a massif that rises up to 3,000 m. It is located in the center of the Darfur region of Sudan, specifically within Dar Fur and neighboring areas. The highest point is Deriba Caldera. The upper reaches of the massif is a small area of temperate climate with high rainfall and permanent springs of water.

The last eruption occurred around 1500 BC. The centre of activity was Deriba Caldera, and involved caldera collapse following the eruption of pumice and pyroclastic flows which travelled over 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the volcano. The most prominent feature of the vast Jebel Marra volcanic field, located in the Darfur province of western Sudan, is the youthful Deriba caldera. The 5-km-wide, steep-walled caldera, located at the southern end of the volcanic field, was formed about 3500 years ago at the time of the eruption of voluminous airfall pumice and pyroclastic flows that traveled more than 30 km from the volcano. The Jebel Marra volcanic field covers a broad area of the Marra Mountains and contains early basaltic lava flows overlain by thick sequences of pyroclastic-flow deposits. The northern part of the volcanic field displays trachytic lava plugs and spines forming residual inselbergs and young basaltic scoria cones and lava flows. Ash eruptions at Deriba caldera may have continued into early historical time (Burton and Wickers, 1966), and fumarolic activity has been observed on the flanks of a small pyroclastic cone within the caldera.

Marrano

Marranos were originally Jews living in Iberia who converted or were forced to convert to Christianity, some of whom may have continued to practice Judaism in secret. The term came into later use in 1492 with the Castilian Alhambra Decree, reversing protections originally in the Treaty of Granada (1491).

The converts were also known as cristianos nuevos (Spanish) or cristãos-novos (Portuguese), meaning "New Christians", or conversos (converted ones). In Hebrew the terms anusim ("forced ones") and Zera Yisrael ("seed of [the people of] Israel") are sometimes used.

Etymology

The term marrano derives from Arabic مُحَرّمٌ muḥarram; meaning "forbidden, anathematized". Marrano in 15th-century Spanish first meant "dirty", "unclean", "swine", "pig", from the ritual prohibition against eating pork, practiced by both Jews and Muslims.

In Portuguese the word marrano (from Spanish) generally refers to "crypto-Jews", although it also means a type of swine (dialectally), "filthy" or "dirty" (sujo), and "outcast" (maldito, excomungado); while the related terms marrão [mɐˈʁɐ̃w] and marrancho [mɐˈʁɐ̃ʃu] mean only the animal: "pig" or "swine".