Visigothic rule in Spain was a shambles and their contribution to Iberian culture, society, security, progress and wealth was negligible. Legend states that Count Julian of Cueta in North Africa helped the Moors to invade the peninsula in revenge for the rape of his daughter by King Roderick. However, in reality the Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula was the logical extension of a spectacular movement of conquest and expansion, which in the space of barely a century, after the death of the prophet Muhammas in 632, led to the creation of a vast Islamic empire. After they conquered North Africa, the peninsula was a natural progression.

Although there was a half-hearted attempt by the Moors to invade in 675 AD (they never got off the boats), Musa, the Muslim governor of North Africa, sent a force of 400 Moors in 710 AD to reconnoitre the south coast. They brought back valuable information, some booty and ‘women of rare beauty.’ In 711 AD, Musa ordered the Arab governor of Tangier, Tariq ibn Zihad, to cross the straits and invade southern Spain.

‘You must know how the Grecian maidens, as handsome as houris, their necks glittering with innumerable pearls and jewels, their bodies clothed with tunics of costly silks and sprinkled with gold, are awaiting your arrival, reclining on soft couches in the sumptuous palaces of crowned lords and princes.’ It was with these words that Tariq inspired his invading force of 10,000 no-doubt ‘horny’ men, mostly comprised of Berbers.

In April 711 they landed near the limestone mass they called jabal-tariq (Tariq’s rock), which is the origin of the name Gibraltar. King Roderick was in the far north when the invasion occurred and rushed south with an army of questionable loyalty to do battle with the Moors. Both forces met near the Guadalete River in southwestern Andaluciá. During the battle, a large number of Roderick’s army defected to the other side which now included the bishop of Sevilla, together with the supporters of Achila,the main Visigoth opposition to Roderick. Rapidly, Roderick and what remained of his army were annihilated. One of Roderick’s bodyguards, obviously not a very effective one, together with remnants of the mangled Visigothic army, managed to escape to Asturias in the north. His name was Pelayo and together with a handful of stragglers, they joined tough local defenders and formed the nucleus of the Christian Reconquest.

After his victory, Tariq gave orders that a large group of prisoners be cut to pieces and their flesh boiled in cauldrons. The remainder of the Visigoths were released and told to spread the word of Moorish methods.

As the Moors advanced, if they met any armed opposition from a town or city, all the men were slaughtered and the women and children were taken into slavery. If there was no opposition there were no killings. Some Visigoth notables sought to preserve their power and status by immediately coming to terms with the Muslims.

After just two years, both Tariq and Musa returned to Damascus, then the power centre of the Muslim world, with phenomenal treasures and entourages of captured Spanish women. (The Moors brought no women with them from Africa.) However, bad timing was their undoing and after becoming unwittingly involved in a power struggle following the caliph’s death, they spent the remainder of their lives in a filthy Arab prison.

Most of the indigenous population believed that the Moors would load up with booty and depart back to Africa and the Middle East. However this was not the case. Surprising themselves, and historians subsequently, the Moors conquered most of Spain in just seven years, except for a small area in the north and north west.
Parallels are often drawn by historians between the rapid demise of the Visigoth kingdom and the equally dramatic fall of Anglo– Saxon England to the Normans in 1066. The Moors then crossed the Pyrenees, but were defeated by Charles Martel of the Franks near Poitiers in a number of battles around 733, finally returning to the peninsula in 759. The Moors now referred to their conquered areas in the peninsula as al-Andalus.

It would be a mistake to think that the Moors were a united or homogenous force. They consisted of a smaller Arab population and a much larger Berber element from the Maghreb, a large non-Arab region of North Africa.

If the Moors had concentrated on conquering the whole of the peninsula, and not been distracted by their quest for booty and glory beyond the Pyrenees in France, the Iberian Peninsula would still probably be Muslim today. Moorish troops were diverted from mopping-up to do battle with the Franks.

As we saw in Part 4, Pelayo, a bodyguard or sword-bearer for the deceased Visigothic King Roderic or Roderick, escaped to the north of Spain together with other Christians fleeing from Muslim rule in the south.

According to legend, Pelayo and 30 of his followers defeated an army of 40,000, some say 400,000! Moors in the valley of Covadonga in Asturias. One account states that the 400,000 Muslims were miraculously killed when all the weapons they hurled flew back at them! In reality it was probably just a skirmish, however Pelayo was referred to as ‘that savage ass’ by one Arab writer and he continued to be a thorn in the side of the Moors.

‘What harm can thirty savage asses, who live on honey like wild beasts, do to us?’, one Moorish general reported. Nevertheless, Pelayo’s constant harrying of the Moors wore them down and they eventually left the area. The Moors then put a number of military outposts manned by Berbers in Galicia and the north. However, following a disastrous famine in the north and a revolt in the south during 739 between the Berbers and their Arab masters, the Berbers vacated the garrisons in the north for the warmer climes of the south. Both the Arabs and the Berbers found the climate and remoteness of the north extremely inhospitable. Also they never conquered the Basque area believing that the Basques were wild animals.

Pelayo created a great dynasty when his daughter married a local chieftain named Alfonso, founder of the kingdom of Asturias. Alfonso 1 reigned for 18 years and won back extensive property. At the time of his death in 757 the Christians had re-occupied almost one-quarter of the peninsula. This was the beginning of what would later become known as the Reconquest or Reconquista.

After several failed attempts by the Franks, Charlemagne’s son, Louis of Aquitaine, captured Barcelona in 801 and established a Frankish protectorate between the city and the Pyrenees, known as the Marcha Hispanica or ‘Spanish March.’ (Many Spanish now put down the stubborn and intransigent nature of the Catalonians to their French genes! Catalonian nationalists still believe that Rossellon in France should be part of Catalonia.)

Around 840, the Vikings appeared in the peninsula. First they raided Galicia in the north and then Lisbon in search of slaves and booty. They then sailed up the Guadalquiver to Sevilla where for one murderous week they held the city and indulged in a week long orgy of murder and pillage. However, an army of Moors soon put them to flight and the Vikings limped back to sea with less than half their fleet.

The Muslims moved their capital from the old Visigothic centre of Toledo much further south to Córdoba.

They felt much more secure closer to Africa from where there was a constant flow of slaves and gold, and of course soldiers. As with the Romans, slaves were an essential element of the Muslim civilisation. Many were forced to serve in the Moorish armies. One Moorish prince had a retinue of 5,000 boys for his (ahem) pleasure.
The harems of the Moors were also well stocked with beautiful women. They preferred the fair women of the north, probably Celts, particularly those from Galicia. During periods of Moorish dominance, the small Christian kingdoms were often obliged to pay an annual tribute of young virgins for the harems. The continued interbreeding between Christian and Moor diluted the Arab blood so much that in time, many Arab rulers had to dye their hair black so they could ‘look the part’. Eunuchs also played a vital role in regal affairs and often rose to high government posts in the Moorish world. Castrated males were considered safe and trustworthy.

Although castration is prohibited in the Koran, the Moors bought the ‘finished product’ from Jews and Christians. Many ‘fresh’ eunuchs were imported from the south of France and Lucena, south of Córdoba, had a thriving trade in castrations and eunuchs. Certainly not a place you would want to get lost in!

Compared to the natives, the Moors were renowned for their cleanliness. The Visigoths, not known for their personal hygiene had destroyed most of the Roman baths. The Moors built hundreds of public baths. Later many Christians associated dirtiness with goodness and especially for Spanish monks, physical dirt became a test of moral purity and faith. Some wore the same unwashed clothes for years to express their devotion.