Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/399

708-711] plans however could only be carried out when more troops became available for Africa after the restoration of unity in the empire by 'Abd-al-Malik, further when the fleet began also to co-operate, and when simultaneously a clever diplomatist effected the execution of Dīnār's plans in regard to the Berbers in more extended style. This man however was Ḥassān ibn an-Nu'mān.

His policy was continued by Mūsā ibn Nuṣair, who is regarded in history as the actual pacificator of Northern Africa and the conqueror of Spain. Mūsā appears to have assumed office in the year 708, though tradition on the point is rather shaky. The first years of his government were occupied with the subjection of the western Berbers, the latter years being devoted to the conquest of Spain, in which work his freedman and military commander Ṭāriḳ had paved the way for him. The conquest of Spain must be ascribed less to the craving of the Arabs for expansion than to the fact that the newly-subjected tribes of Moors, whom the prospect of booty had lured to the banner of Islām, had to be kept employed. At the seat of the Caliphate these far-reaching enterprises were followed with a certain amount of misgiving.

There certainly was little time available to intervene, for events followed one after the other in precipitate haste, and the frail kingdom of the Goths fell into the hands of the conquerors like a ripe fruit by a windfall. The actual cause is obscure. History tells of disputes in regard to the succession, and that the last king of the Goths, Roderick, who succumbed to the Arabs, was a usurper (cf. Chap. VI). Tradition tells of a certain Count Julian, the Christian ruler of Ceuta, whose daughter had been violated by Roderick, and who therefore led the Arabs and Berbers to Spain to satisfy his vengeance. Few characters in the earlier history of Islām have interested the historians to such an extent as this Julian, of whom it is not definitely known to which nation he belonged and to which sovereignty he owed allegiance. According to the reconstruction of Wellhausen and Codera he was not named Julian at all, but Urban; he was probably of Moorish ancestry and a vassal of the Gothic kings, but all beyond this is pure hypothesis.

Induced apparently by the struggles for the throne in the Gothic kingdom, and probably less with a view to conquer than to plunder, Ṭāriḳ crossed into Spain in the year 711 with 7000 Berbers, who were subsequently supplemented to a total of 12,000, and landed near to the rock which still bears his name. (Gibraltar = Gebel Ṭāriḳ = Mount Ṭāriḳ.) After having collected his troops, Ṭāriḳ appears to have practised highway robbery along the coast from Gibraltar westwards and to have gone around the Laguna de la Janda in the south. King Roderick opposed him in the valley of the Wādī Bekka, nowadays called Salado, between the lake and the town of Medina Sidonia. According to the earliest Spanish tradition the site is also named after the neighbouring Transductine promontory (Cape Spartel).