THE MUSLIM CONQUEST

In the spring of 711, a mainly Berber expeditionary force commanded by Tariq ibn Ziyad, a subordinate of the Umayyad governor of North Africa, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and landed in Baetica. On hearing the news Rodrigo, the Visigothic king (710–11), who was campaigning far to the north, summoned his host to assemble at Cordoba and hastened south. Tariq awaited Rodrigo near Algeciras, and the two armies eventually met, probably in July 711, in southern Baetica somewhere in the vicinity of Medina-Sidonia. In the fateful battle that followed, Tariq's forces were overwhelmingly victorious. Rodrigo was killed – either in the battle itself or soon afterwards – along with most of his noble entourage and household troops. Tariq thereupon rapidly advanced into the heart of the peninsula, encountering little opposition. In 712, the Umayyad governor, Musa ibn Nusayr, realising the scale of Tariq's success, himself crossed the strait to take personal command, bringing another army with him. Toledo was quickly occupied, its Visigothic count and most of the inhabitants having fled. By 716 Musa, his son Abd al-Aziz and Tariq between them had subdued virtually all core strategic and population centres in Visigothic Iberia. Though one or two cities had to be reduced by siege, resistance was uncoordinated and ultimately ineffectual.

Why the Visigothic kingdom was overwhelmed so swiftly is not easy to explain. The most detailed sources that survive are all Muslim; but they are essentially anecdotal, and none was written before the tenth century.