The Ummayad Emirate

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Ummayad conquest of Hispania

The Byzantine Empire, weakened by its wars with Persia and the alienation of its Coptic Christian and Jewish populations, lost Syria and Egypt between 636 and 640 to the nascent Ummayad Caliphate, which then invaded Libya. The Byzantines managed to hold Carthage until almost the end of the 7th century, but the establishment of the Muslim military headquarters at Kairouan in 670 marked the beginning of the Islamic conquest of the Maghreb.

From there Sidi Uqbah led an expedition to Morocco in 680-682. Uqbah was killed on the return journey, and it was not until 705 that the caliph al-Walid appointed a new governor, Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr. Mūsā annexed the entirety of North Africa as far as Tangier, leaving his general Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād to administer and Islamize the Berbers. Only Ceuta remained in Christian hands, being supplied from the Iberian Peninsula by the visig0th king Witiza.

On the death of Witiza, his dispossessed family appealed to the Muslims, ceded Ceuta, and enabled Ṭāriq to land in Spain with a Berber army. On hearing the news, Roderick, who had succeeded Witiza as king of the Visigoths, hastened southward, and Ṭāriq called on Mūsā for reinforcements. Roderick was killed in battle near Arcos de la Frontera (Cadiz) on July 23, 711. Ṭāriq at once marched on Ṭulayṭulah(Toledo) and occupied it, probably while the family of Witiza was still negotiating with Mūsā and the caliph. Mūsā himself brought another army, reduced Merida, the last stronghold of the followers of Roderick, entered Toledo and Saraqusṭah (Zaragoza), and perhaps crossed the northern Meseta, forcing the Visigoths to submit or flee.

When the caliph summoned Mūsā to return to the Umayyad capital at Damascus, Mūsā left his son Abd al-Aziz to govern Al-Andalus from Ishbīliyah (Sevilla). Both Mūsā and Ṭāriq were accused of misappropriation and died in obscurity in the East. Abd al-Aziz was murdered, and the caliphs appointed a succession of governors. The capital was moved to Cordoba, and the three sons of Witiza were restored to the “royal estates” but not to royal power. Pelayo, a follower of Roderick, established himself in a strong position in the Asturias (718–737). After an unsuccessful attempt to subdue him, in which Pelayo won a small but significant battle at Covadonga, he was left alone.

The Muslim governors carried their advance into gothic Gaul, settling Berbers in the Pyrenees, and penetrated deep into France. A Muslim army was defeated by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours (732), but significant raids into Frankish territory would continue for the next decade. Muslim expansion north of the Pyrenees would come to a halt largely because of the great rebellion of the Berbers which erupted throughout North Africa in 739. This uprising spread to Spain, and the governor of Al-Andalus requested assistance from Damascus. The caliph dispatched an army from Syria under Balj ibn Bishr, which suppressed the Berbers in North Africa before embarking from Ceuta to Spain. Balj put down the rebellion in Spain, seized power in Córdoba (742), and executed the governor, only to be killed in combat shortly thereafter. These troubles enabled Alfonso I of the Asturias to briefly assert himself in Galicia and the Meseta, but he lacked the resources to occupy them permanently.

A new governor temporarily pacified Al-Andalus, but the Umayyad caliphate was on the verge of collapse. Caliph Hishām ibn Abd al-Malik had kept the factional tensions between northern (Qays) and southern (Kalb) Arab tribes in check, but those simmering feuds turned into open conflicts after his death in 743. Meanwhile, many non-Arab Muslims (mawali) had gravitated toward Hahimiyyah, an explicitly anti-Umayyad sect, and in 747 Abu Muslim launched a major uprising against the Umayyad caliph Marwān II.

Abu Muslim’s armies propelled the Abbasids to power in 749, and the defeat of Marwān II at the Battle of the Great Zāb River in 750 marked the end of the Umayyad caliphate. During this time, Spain was governed by Yusuf al-Fihrī, an experienced general who had established himself at Narbonne, and al-Sumail, Yusuf’s Syrian lieutenant, who held Zaragoza and the northeast frontier. While the Abbasids worked to exterminate the remnants of the Umayyad line, the grandson of Hishām ibn Abd al-Malik, Abd al-Rahman I, fled to North Africa.

After making his way to Spain in 755, Abd al-Rahman surveyed the political landscape, and he expertly played the rival factions of Al-Andalus against each other. Backed by a mercenary army, he eventually gathered enough strength to challenge Yusuf for supremacy. In May 756 ʿAbd al-Raḥmān defeated Yusuf’s forces outside Córdoba, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān chose that city as the capital of the Spanish Umayyad emirate (caliphate from 929).

Who was Tariq ibn Ziyad?

Who was Tariq ibn Ziyad?

Al-Andalus History

Tariq ibn Ziyad was a Muslim general who led the Islamic conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711-718 A.D. He is considered to be one of the most important military commanders in Iberian history. Under the orders of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I he led a large army from the north coast of Morocco, consolidating his troops at a large hill now known as Gibraltar. The name “Gibraltar” is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Tāriq (جبل طارق), meaning “mountain of Tariq” named after him.

Most medieval historians give little or no information about Tariq’s origins or nationality. Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam, Ibn al-Athir, Al-Tabari and Ibn Khaldun[2] do not say anything, and have been followed in this by modern works such as the Encyclopedia of Islam and Cambridge History of Islam. There are three different accounts given by a few Arabic histories which all seem to date from between 400 and 500 years after Tariq’s time.

Most historians, Arab and Spanish, seem to agree that he was a slave of the emir of Ifriqiya (North Africa), Musa bin Nusayr, who gave him his freedom and appointed him a general in his army. But his descendants centuries later denied he had ever been Musa’s slave. The earliest reference to him seems to be in the Mozarab Chronicle, written in Latin in 754, which although written within living memory of the conquest of Spain, refers to him erroneously as Taric Abuzara.

Musa bin Nusayr appointed Tariq governor of Tangiers after its conquest in 710-711,[13] but an unconquered Visigothic outpost remained nearby at Ceuta, a stronghold commanded by a nobleman named Julian.

After Roderic came to power in Spain, Julian had, as was the custom, sent his daughter to the court of the Visigothic king to receive an education. It is said that Roderic raped her, and that Julian was so incensed he resolved to have the Arabs bring down the Visigothic kingdom. Accordingly he entered into a treaty with Tariq (Musa having returned to Qayrawan) to secretly convey the Muslim army across the Straits of Gibraltar, as he owned a number of merchant ships and had his own forts on the Spanish mainland.

About April 29 711, the army of Tariq, composed of recent converts to Islam, was landed at Gibraltar by Julian.[14](the name Gibraltar is derived from the Arabic name Jabal at Tariq, which means mountain of Tariq).

Tariq’s army contained about 7000 men, and Musa is said to have sent an additional 5000 reinforcements.[15] Roderic, to meet the threat, assembled an army said to number 100,000.[16] Most of the army was commanded by, and loyal to, the sons of Wittiza, whom Roderic had brutally deposed.[17] Tariq won a decisive victory when the Visigothic king, Roderic, was defeated and killed on July 19 at the Battle of Guadalete.

On the advice of Julian, Tariq split his army into various divisions which went on to capture Cordoba, Granada and other places, while he remained at the head of the division which captured Toledo and Guadalajara. Tariq was de facto governor of Hispania until the arrival of Musa a year later.

Both Tariq and Musa were simultaneously ordered back to Damascus by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I in 714, where they spent the rest of their lives.[18]

In the many Arabic histories written about the conquest of Spain, there is a definite division of opinion regarding the relationship between Tariq and Musa bin Nusayr. Some relate episodes of anger and envy on the part of Musa, that his freedman had conquered an entire country. Others do not mention, or play down, any such bad blood.

The most extreme episode is in the earliest Arabic history, that of Ibn Abd al-Hakam (9th century). He stated that Musa was so angry with Tariq that he imprisoned him, and was going to execute him, were it not for the intervention of Mugith ar-Rumi, a freedman of the caliph Al-Walid I. It was for this reason that the caliph recalled Tariq and Musa.[19] And in the Akhbār majmūa (11th century) it states that after Musa arrived in Spain and met up with Tariq, Tariq dismounted from his horse as a sign of respect, but Musa struck him on the head with his horsewhip.[20]

On the other hand, another early historian al-Baladhuri (9th century) merely states that Musa wrote Tariq a “severe letter” and that the two were later reconciled.[21]