Visigothic rule and its structures would be brought to a dramatic end after more than two hundred years in Iberia. That story has relevance for the theme of this book since altered circumstances offer perspective by way of contrast but also of transition. As the series of victorious Islamic campaigns sprang from the Arab lands, we may begin our brief look at this stage in the direction of the Near East.

In a small palatial complex from the early or mid-eighth century at Qasr ‘Amra in eastern Jordan, an intriguing fresco depicts six kings. Nearby is inscribed the word ‘Nike’, victory. Included among the rulers of lands where Islam successfully marched in this display of domination is the short-lived Visigothic king of distant Spain, Roderic. He had been defeated in the summer of 711 by the forces of the Berber commander of the Maghrib, Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad. The story is slightly complicated by the contestation of the monarchy at just this time, and the numismatic evidence stands in the center of the events at the end of one regime and the beginning of a quite different one, most especially because literary evidence is not available until several decades, or in the case of Arab texts over two centuries, later The rather sudden takeover puts us in position to see two administrations and two cultures in comparison.