ABSTRACT
Armies comprised mostly of Muslim Berbers entered the Iberian Peninsula in the spring of 711, in what seems to be an extension of territorial expansion from northern Africa. In some regions and towns their presence was met with armed conflict, such as when Roderic, King of Spain (r. 710–11), met Muslim armies in battle on the river Guadalete. The battle was a decisive victory for the Muslims. In other places, the arrival of Muslims was met with little resistance, and in some cases, especially in rural areas, local inhabitants were probably unaware of the new change in rulers. Once cognizant of the shift, they may have paid little attention to it as they were largely unaffected (Hitchcock 2014: 23–4). By the early decades of the eighth century, Muslim settlement extended over two-thirds of the peninsula, which became known as al-Andalus. It was governed by successive emirs from Córdoba until ʿAbd al-Raḥmān I (r. 756–88), who escaped the ʿAbbāsid revolution and fled to Spain, ruled as an Umayyad. By the tenth century, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III (r. 912–61) reigned over the independent Umayyad state of al-Andalus as self-declared caliph. In 1031, after several years of civil war, al-Andalus dissolved into independently ruled party states (ṭawāʾif).
