Arabs cross the straits of Gibraltar

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.2-3: The Literatures and Cultures of the Iberian Peninsula, 477-present.
Vol. editors: Stuart Green (University of Leeds), Duncan Wheeler (University of Leeds)

Domains

Colonialism and colonisation

Dates

Date of occurrence 711

Places

Portugal (Location)
Spain (Location)

The Arab invasion of the Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) was extraordinarily rapid. By 714 they had occupied most of the peninsula. The invasion is thought to have been precipitated by the kidnapping by Roderic, the King of the Visigoths, of the daughter of the Governor of Ceuta. He appealed to Musa ibn Nusayr, the Governor of North Africa, for assistance and it was Musa’s lieutenant Tariq ibn Ziyad, the governor of Tangiers, who led the army of around 12,000 men across the straits. The following year, Musa led a second army into the region in order to capitalise upon Tariq’s victory. The Visigothic kingdom, which then occupied most of Iberia, had …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

173 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Arabs cross the straits of Gibraltar". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 November 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1637, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Arabs cross the straits of Gibraltar

Domains

Dates

Places

Save this article

Leave Feedback