Editing Reconquista (section)

=== Background ===
{{Further|Islam in Spain}}

====Landing in Visigothic Hispania and initial expansion====
{{Further|Umayyad conquest of Hispania|Battle of Guadalete}}

In 711, North African [[Berber people|Berber]] soldiers with some [[Arab]]s commanded by [[Tariq ibn Ziyad]] crossed the [[Strait of Gibraltar]], engaging a Visigothic force led by King [[Roderic]] at the [[Battle of Guadalete]] (July 19–26) in a moment of severe in-fighting and division across the [[Visigothic Kingdom|Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nick |date=2022-11-10 |title=Battle of Guadalete: 2 Reasons It Changed History |url=https://thehistoryace.com/battle-of-guadalete-2-reasons-it-changed-history/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=The History Ace |language=en-us}}</ref> Many of Roderic's troops deserted, leading to his defeat. He drowned while crossing the [[Guadalquivir River]].

After Roderic's defeat, the Umayyad governor of [[Ifriqiya|Ifrikiya]] [[Musa ibn Nusayr|Musa ibn-Nusayr]] joined Tariq, directing a campaign against different towns and strongholds in Hispania. Some, like [[Mérida, Spain|Mérida]], [[Córdoba, Spain|Cordova]], or [[Zaragoza]] in 712, probably [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], were taken, but many agreed to a treaty in exchange for maintaining autonomy, in [[Theodemir (Visigoth)|Theodemir]]'s dominion (region of Tudmir), or [[Pamplona]], for example.{{sfn|Collins|1989|pp=38–45}} The invading Islamic armies did not exceed 60,000 men.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fletcher|first=Richard|title=Moorish Spain|year=2006|publisher=Los Angeles: University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24840-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/moorishspain00rich/page/43 43]|url=https://archive.org/details/moorishspain00rich/page/43}}</ref>

====Islamic rule====
{{Main|Berbers and Islam|Berber Revolt|}}
[[File:Al Andalus - 2.png|thumb|250px|The [[Caliphate of Córdoba]] in the early 10th century]]
After the establishment of a local [[Emirate]], [[Caliph]] [[Al-Walid I]], ruler of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]], removed many of the successful Muslim commanders. Tariq ibn Ziyad was recalled to [[Damascus]] and replaced with Musa ibn-Nusayr, who had been his former superior. Musa's son, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, apparently married [[Egilona]], [[Roderic]]'s widow, and established his regional government in [[Seville]]. He was suspected of being under the influence of his wife and was accused of wanting to convert to Christianity and of planning a secessionist rebellion. Apparently a concerned Al-Walid I ordered Abd al-Aziz's assassination. Caliph Al-Walid I died in 715 and was succeeded by his brother [[Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik]]. Sulayman seems to have punished the surviving Musa ibn-Nusayr, who very soon died during a pilgrimage in 716. In the end, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa's cousin, [[Ayyub ibn Habib al-Lakhmi]] became the ''wali'' (governor) of al-Andalus.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

A serious weakness amongst the Muslim conquerors was the ethnic tension between Berbers and Arabs.<ref>[[Chris Lowney]], ''A Vanished World: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain'', (Oxford University Press, 2005), 40.</ref> The Berbers were indigenous inhabitants of North Africa who had only recently converted to Islam; they provided most of the soldiery of the invading Islamic armies but sensed Arab discrimination against them.<ref>Roger Collins, ''Early Medieval Spain'', (St. Martin's Press, 1995), 164.</ref> This latent internal conflict jeopardised Umayyad unity. The Umayyad forces arrived and crossed the Pyrenees by 719. The last Visigothic king [[Ardo]] resisted them in Septimania, where he fended off the Berber-Arab armies until 720.<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|page=45}}</ref>

After the Islamic Moorish conquest of most of the Iberian Peninsula in 711–718 and the establishment of the emirate of al-Andalus, an Umayyad expedition suffered a major defeat at the [[Battle of Toulouse (721)|Battle of Toulouse]] and was halted for a while on its way north. [[Odo of Aquitaine]] had married his daughter to [[Uthman ibn Naissa]], a rebel Berber and lord of [[Cerdanya]], in an attempt to secure his southern borders in order to fend off [[Charles Martel]]'s attacks on the north. However, a major [[punitive expedition]] led by [[Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi]], the latest emir of al-Andalus, defeated and killed Uthman, and the Muslim governor mustered an expedition north across the western Pyrenees, looted areas up to Bordeaux, and defeated Odo in the [[Battle of the River Garonne]] in 732.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Reconquista {{!}} Map and Timeline |url=https://history-maps.com/story/Reconquista |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=HistoryMaps |language=en}}</ref>

A desperate Odo turned to his archrival Charles Martel for help, who led the Frankish and remaining Aquitanian armies against the Umayyad armies and defeated them at the [[Battle of Tours|Battle of Poitiers]] in 732, killing Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi. While Moorish rule began to recede in what is today France, it would remain in parts of the Iberian peninsula for another 760 years.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trawinski |first1=Allan |title=The Clash of Civilizations |year= 2017 |publisher=Page Publishing Inc. |isbn=978-1635687125}}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref>