The Moorish Invasion of Spain

• In 711 C.E., the Moors invaded Visigoth, Christian Hispania.
• Under their leader, an African Berber general named Tariq ibn-Ziyad, they brought most of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule in an eight-year campaign.
• They attempted to move northeast across the Pyrenees Mountains but were defeated by the Frank, Charles Martel, at the Battle of Tours in 732 C.E.
• The Moorish state suffered civil conflict around 750 C.E.
• The Moors ruled in the Iberian peninsula, except for areas in the northwest (such as Asturias, where they were stopped at the battle of Covadonga) and the largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees, and in North Africa for several decades.
• Though the number of "Moors" remained small, they gained large numbers of converts.
• The Moor’s invasion of Spain, from the point of view of Christians in Europe, was always regarded as an act of aggression.
• However, the actual story of the invasion is more complex.
• The Visigoth King, Roderic had raped the daughter of one of his Counts, Julian who, in secret, approached the Moors and pledged support in the event of an invasion.
• Jewish advisers also accompanied the invading force.
• There is also evidence that some territory was gained peacefully through treaties that enlisted the "cooperation of local administrators and inhabitants."
• Constable reproduces a "Muslim-Christian Treaty" of 713 in which the ruler of Tudmir and his people are promised protection and religious freedom in return for an annual tribute and loyalty to the Sultan.
• With the fall of the Ummayad caliphate, the period of small city-states, or taifa, began.

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