Now that we understand the weakness that was present across the Iberian peninsula I will examine the conquest itself to further uncover why it was a success. On April 30th of 711, leader landed at with a force estimated at 10,000 men. He was sent by Musa ibn Nusayr The Arab Governor of North Africa.” Several historical sources state that the Islamic caliphate had not actually targeted Spain for conquest, but that political divisions in the Visigothic kingdom created an opportunity that Tarik and his army exploited successfully.” However some sources suggest that the Arabs saw the Iberian peninsula as an extension of Africa and it was only a matter of time before efforts were made to conquer it.
“King Roderic at the outset of his reign was in a vulnerable position. The opening of a new Kings rule was a particularly sensitive time where challenges to his authority might be expected.” When Tariq invaded Roderic was campaigning against the Basques in the North. He marched south to face this new threat to his power. It is widely believed by historians that the King did not consider the Moslems a significant threat therefore it is unlikely that he had raised substantial levies from other parts of the peninsula. The two forces met in battle at the Guadalquivir valley and it is there that Roderic met his demise. Many historians make a point of mentioning the uncanny number of similarities between the Muslin conquest of Spain in 711 and the arrival of the Normans in Britain in 1066. Indeed both conquests have a lot in common. In the case of Britain King Harold was in the north dealing with a Viking threat when the Normans invaded. Although he had superior numbers, the campaign and the long march left his army exhausted and they were defeated at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 leaving the rest of the country to fall into Norman rule. The main problem with Roderic’s rule of Hispania was the way most of his power was concentrated in the South “Merida was a stronghold of his partisans” Therefore any large and well organised invading force could take a foothold in the North with virtually no resistance. Like a game of chess when the king was taken out of the equation the game was virtually over. With the absence of a son or any clear successor. Added to this Tarik quickly captured of Toledo which was “the only place where a King might legitimately be anointed. The Hispanics were left in disarray.
Having made these first strategic, sniping blows the Moslems were gaining momentum on what was becoming a downhill run. This is when Tarik’s overlord Musa began to take interest. He saw Tarik’s achievements as both a threat and opportunity. “ The tribal democracy of Arabian society, reinforced by the egalitarianism of Islam, made it essential for any governor however appointed to take the lead in person of any major military undertaking, or risk being deposed by his own followers.” That is why in the year 711 he arrived with a large army determined to consolidate his power and bring the conquest to a conclusion. Quickly he captured Seville. The Kings former stronghold Merida held out much longer. After a year and a half of heavy siege it was finally taken. This completed “Musa continued North along the old Roman road to Salamanca. He turned East before that city to encounter his subordinate Tarik coming from Toledo to meet him at Talavera”. In 714 the two men continued their Northern thrust of conquest to Zaragoza and then divided. Musa took Soria and Palencia before reaching the Bay of Biscay at Gijon whilst Tarik marched trough Logorno to Lyon and Astorgo.
To account for the rapidity of the conquest I will examine Hispania during and after the time of conquest. As I have already explained the Kingdom was in a State of disunity. Most of the population had no real feelings of loyalty to either King or state, although many had reason to oppose it. When the Barbers arrived in Gibraltar they got different reactions from different factions of the population.
To a large proportion of the population of Hispania King Roderic who was killed at Guadalete was in fact a usurper , and the North African invaders had come at the request of the partisans of the legitimate claimant Aquila. We are told that “ most of the Hispano-Roman rural and urban population felt neither the loyalty to a united monarchy nor the strong religious unity which might have created a type of national resistance to the Islamic invader.” Then there was the Jews who welcomed the newcomers who ended their persecution.
I think one of the best moves by the North African invaders was the way they treated their new subjects. They did not try to force their religion or customs on them but instead let things continue as they were before. “The Hispano-Roman towns , even in relative decay, and the great agricultural estates of the Visgothic Nobility were more prosperous than those of the Maghrib.” supporters of the invasion retained their estates. The property that the invaders took for themselves was not altered much and they “courted the local population by improving the conditions of share-cropping”. An important figure which I believe merits special mention here is Theodemir. He was a Gothic count. The Moslems allowed him to keep his land and property and practice Christianity as long as he paid a special tax knows as Jixya. This is one of perhaps many deals and arrangements made by the Arabs in return for submission. It shows great diplomacy on the part of the invaders. Religious tolerance for all “Peoples of the Book” was encouraged. All these things served the invaders in two ways. It significantly reduced the chance of opposition to their new rule, and it improved the levels of conversions to Islam greatly.
The forty years after the conquest were obscure to say the least. Musa and Tarik were recalled to Damascus in the Winter of the years 714-15 by their master the Umayyad caliph Walid 1st where instead of being celebrated and praised for the magnitude of their achievements they were stripped of their property. There is no mention of them in later histories and we can only imagine that they met their deaths. The Moslem invaders themselves were never a united force but were made up of a variety of different peoples. “Within the ruling group Arabs, Syrians and Egyptians were mutually suspicious, and none of them could be sure of the loyalty of their largely Berber troop”. Between 732 and 735 no less than twenty three governors of Spain were named by the caliph. This is a laughable figure but it points to the deep social unrest that existed. Once the united army had established itself in this new country it divided into factions each intent on claiming the best land or the most commanding positions for their particular group. However during this time things were never right in Hispania. A great famine in 750 sent thousands of Berber immigrants back to Spain.
Although during this time there was never any hope that the conquerors would be overthrown there was a chance that the new regime would inherit the same problems that had plagued Visigoth rule I.e. disunity and administration problems. The event which indirectly saved it from such a fate was the “overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus, and its replacement by the rule of the Abbasids.” In the year 756 a surviving Umayyad prince arrived in Spain heralding in a new era and a more stable political system in Spain. He established the Emirate of Cordoba as his seat of power due to its central position in relation to the other cities of Spain. He was able to found a central administration that was to function in for two and a half centuries.
Bibliography:
Jackson. G, 1972, The Making of Medieval Spain, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London.
Collins R, 1983, Early Medieval Spain, Macmillan Press Ltd., London.
Imamuddin S.M, 1965, Muslim Spain 711-1492, Leiden.
Wikipedia contributors, Islam in Spain, 2 November 2007 22:17 UTC , 15 November 2007 18:12 UTC,
Lecture notes from lecture nine “The age of Muhammad module”
Photocopies of the first three chapters of R. Collins, The Arab Conquest of Spain
