On this day 1299 years ago, Tariq ibn Ziyad’s forces of Berber Muslims from northern Africa attacked the Visigoth forces of King Roderic, putting to flight a numerically superior army and establishing a foothold in Spain as part of an eight-year campaign which resulted in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The name of the “Rock of Gibraltar” derives from a mispronunciation of “Jabl Tariq”, meaning “Tariq’s Mountain”.
The Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula was completed less than 90 years after the death of Muhammad, indicating the extraordinary speed with which Islam spread in the early days. The Islamic world was at the time rules by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I of Damascus. Al-Walid built a strong navy, supporting the expansion into Spain. The Muslim-ruled Iberian Peninsula became known as Al-Andalus
After consolidating Islamic control of Al-Andalus, the Muslim forces marched north across the Pyrenees into France. In October 732 they attacked the French forces of Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours, and were defeated, thus halting the spread of Islam into Europe. Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula continued for several centuries before non-Muslim forces gradually reconquered the territory, with the last significant Muslim stronghold of Granada being conquered in 1492.