Tariq ibn Ziyad

Medieval Arabic historians give contradictory data about Tariq's origins or nationality. Some conclusions about his personality and the circumstances of his entry into al-Andalus are surrounded by uncertainty.[2] The vast majority of modern sources state that Tariq was a Berber mawla of Musa ibn Nusayr, the Umayyad governor of Ifriqiya.[2][3][4][5]

The Moorish Castle's Tower of Homage, symbol of the Muslim rule in Gibraltar.

Musa ibn Nusayr appointed Ṭāriq governor of Tangier after its conquest in 710-711 according to Ibn Abd al-Hakam (803-871),[6] but an unconquered Visigothic outpost remained nearby at Ceuta, a stronghold commanded by a nobleman named Julian, Count of Ceuta.

After Roderic came to power in Spain, Julian had, as was the custom, sent his daughter, Florinda la Cava, to the court of the Visigothic king for education. It is said that Roderic raped her, and that Julian was so incensed he resolved to have the Muslims bring down the Visigothic kingdom. Accordingly, he entered into a treaty with Ṭāriq (Mūsā having returned to Qayrawan) to secretly convoy the Muslim army across the Straits of Gibraltar, as he owned a number of merchant ships and had his own forts on the Spanish mainland .

About April 26, 711, the army of Ṭāriq, composed of recent converts to Islam, was landed on the Iberian peninsula (Spain) by Julian.[7] They debarked at the foothills of a mountain which was henceforth named after him, Gibraltar (Djabal Tarik).[8]

Tariq's army contained about 7,000 Berber horsemen, and Mūsā is said to have sent an additional 5,000 reinforcements after the conquest.[9] Roderic, to meet the threat of the Berbers, assembled an army said to number 100,000.[10] Most of the army was commanded by, and loyal to, the sons of Wittiza, whom Roderic had brutally deposed.[11] Ṭāriq won a decisive victory when Roderic was defeated and killed on July 19 at the Battle of Guadalete.[2][12]

Tariq split his army into four divisions which went on to capture Córdoba under Mughith al-Rumi, Granada and other places, while he remained at the head of the division which captured Toledo. Afterwards, he continued advancing towards the north, reaching Guadalajara and Astorga.[2] Ṭāriq was de facto governor of Hispania until the arrival of Mūsā a year later.

Both Tariq and Musa were simultaneously ordered back to Damascus by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I in 714, where they spent the rest of their lives.[12] The son of Musa, Abd al-Aziz who took the command of troops of Al-Andalus was assassinated in 716.[3] In the many Arabic histories written about the conquest of southern Spain, there is a definite division of opinion regarding the relationship between Ṭāriq and Musa bin Nusayr. Some relate episodes of anger and envy on the part of Mūsā, that his freedman had conquered an entire country. Others do not mention, or play down, any such bad blood. On the other hand, another early historian al-Baladhuri (9th century) merely states that Mūsā wrote Ṭāriq a "severe letter" and that the two were later reconciled.[13]

The 16th-century historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari, in his The Breath of Perfume, places into Ṭāriq's mouth a long speech to his troops before Guadalete.[14][15][16]

• Pascual de Gayangos y Arce, The History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain.. vol. 1. 1840. Authoritative English translation of al-Maqqari available from Google eBooks. This is the translation still cited by modern historians.
• Tarik's Address to His Soldiers, 711 CE, from The Breath of Perfumes. A translation of al-Maqqari's work included in Charles F. Horne, The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, (New York: Parke, Austin, & Lipscomb, 1917), Vol. VI: Medieval Arabia, pp. 241–242. Horne was the editor, the translator is not identified. NB: the online extract, often cited, does not include the warning on p. 238 (download the whole book from other sites): "This speech does not, however, preserve the actual words of Tarik; it only presents the tradition of them as preserved by the Moorish historian Al Maggari, who wrote in Africa long after the last of the Moors had been driven out of Spain. In Al Maggari's day the older Arabic traditions of exact service had quite faded. The Moors had become poets and dreamers instead of scientists and critical historians."
• Ibn Abd al-Hakam, rather outdated English translation in Medieval Sourcebook: The Islamic Conquest of Spain