Tāriq ibn-Ziyād

Berber-Muslim conqueror of Spain

• Born: Before 700
• Birthplace: Possibly Algeria
• Died: c. 720
• Place of death: Unknown

By decisively defeating the Visigoths in Spain in July of 711, Ṭāriq ibn-Ziyād destroyed the Visigothic monarchy and began the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.

Early Life

Little is known of the early life of Ṭāriq ibn-Ziyād (TAH-rihk ihb-n zi-YAHD). It is often said that his mother was Berber and his father Arab. This would suggest his birth in North Africa, but at least one scholar has argued for Persian origins. Arabic sources consider him a Berber. There is a tradition in some Muslim histories that his mother was related to the Berber leadership that resisted Arab conquest. The Algerian government named one of its fleet of ferries after him, considering him to be one of the nation’s famous native sons. He is often referred to as the “freedman” or “former slave” of Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr, but the nature of his servitude is uncertain. This situation may be due to conditions of capitulation of the town in which he was living at the time it was conquered. Most of what is known of his subsequent life is based on a very few contemporary documents and on Muslim histories written several generations later.

Life’s Work

In the early 700’, Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr, commanding the Arab armies of Islam, broke Berber resistance in Northwest Africa and then became governor of the region. Following traditional Arabic practice, he continued to assimilate conquered peoples by confirming their local rights in return for their acceptance of the new religion and military service. Ṭāriq ibn-Ziyād appears first as a soldier in Mūsā’s service and later as commander of his vanguard, as Mūsā moved into Morocco, took Tangier, and then led several expeditions into the interior. About 708, Mūsā garrisoned Tangier exclusively with Berber soldiers and named Ṭāriq ibn-Ziyād governor of the city. The only Arabs present in Tangier were a handful left to teach the Berbers the tenets of Islam. Feeling himself comfortable in his control of the territory, Mūsā ordered a reconnaissance of the southern Spanish coast. There were several intelligence-gathering expeditions, but no decisive action was taken until an exploratory party under Ṭārīq ibn Malik landed in Spain in 710 and returned with tales of easy booty.

In the late spring of 711, Ṭāriq, still governor of Tangier, was ordered to follow up on this earlier report and to land in Spain. There he was to await reinforcements or return to Morocco as the situation might warrant. Ṭāriq landed near Gibraltar (which now bears his name: Jabal Ṭāriq, or Ṭāriq’s Rock) with about 1500 mostly Berber troops. A lack of appropriate vessels and uncooperative currents made the crossing from Tangier a slow one, possibly taking place over a period of several days and done mostly at night to avoid detection. Once across, Ṭāriq burned his ships to encourage his men to remain in Spain and established a garrison near Gibraltar, having met little resistance. He is reported to have had little or no cavalry. Ṭāriq did not take much military action in the more than a month’s time between his arrival at Gibraltar and his meeting with the forces of Roderick, king of Spain, in the summer. Ṭāriq might have been waiting for the Spanish forces to come to him in territory with which he was already familiar. There is also a tradition that holds that Ṭāriq acted on his own initiative in crossing to Spain, without consulting Mūsā, who had returned to Ifriqiya (essentially, modern Tunisia). If this is true, it may help to explain Mūsā’s later treatment of Ṭāriq at Toledo.

Spain at this time was ruled by Roderick, newly elected king of the Visigoths. The recent nature of Roderick’s election and the civil wars that ensued because of it made the kingdom particularly vulnerable. It is also probable that this civil unrest gave rise to the tradition that Julian, count of the southern marches feeling himself aggrieved by the king invited the Muslims to help his cause and even guided some of Ṭāriq’s forces. When the king received news of Ṭāriq’s landing, he was in the far north putting down a Basque rebellion and was obliged to call off this action abruptly, gather such forces as he could, and march to the far south to meet the invading troops.

In July of 711, the forces of Ṭāriq and Roderick met in the Battle of the Guadalete (also known as the Barbate and the Wadi Bakka), at an as yet undetermined site on the Guadalete River not far from Gibraltar. Here Ṭāriq thoroughly defeated the much larger Visigothic army. Desertions from Roderick’s troops and the Visigoths’ unfamiliarity with Muslim tactics were major factors in Ṭāriq’s victory.

Finding victory easy, Ṭāriq advanced inland, his forces increased by a continual flow of deserters from the Visigothic army. He gradually increased his cavalry by taking enemy mounts as booty after each battle. He met his stiffest resistance at Ejica later in 711. There elements of the Visigothic army regrouped under new leadership in a second attempt to remove the invaders.

After this victory, Ṭāriq, apparently realizing the weakness of the Visigothic state, divided his forces into four groups, sending one each to Malaga, Granada, and Córdoba. At Córdoba Ṭāriq’s lieutenant applied a traditional Muslim practice: Terms of surrender were offered and refused. When the city later surrendered, the male population was executed and the women were enslaved. Ṭāriq himself led the fourth body of troops to Toledo, the Visigothic capital, which surrendered without a fight in 712. There is a tradition which says that Toledo was abandoned by the Visigothic nobility, leaving it in the hands of the recently disenfranchised Jewish population. This population now opened the city gates to possible deliverers.

In 713, Ṭāriq was joined near Toledo by Mūsā, who had with him about eighteen thousand mostly Arab troops, including cavalry. Mūsā had become jealous of Ṭāriq’s continued successes and was annoyed by his not following instructions to wait for reinforcements. Fresh from his own successes in southwestern Spain, Mūsā now humiliated Ṭāriq, ordering him flogged and beating him with his own sword. With Ṭāriq at his side, Mūsā now executed many of the Visigothic nobles who had returned to Toledo, this presumably to reduce further the Visigothic leadership and the possibility of rebellion. With Mūsā’s arrival in Spain, Ṭāriq therefore became a secondary figure in the conquest of the peninsula.

Mūsā and Ṭāriq wintered at Toledo and from there they rode together, taking Guadalajara and Alcalá de Henares before entering the valley of the Ebro River. There Zaragoza, Huesca, and a number of other towns fell to them. At Zaragoza Mūsā again applied the consequences of not accepting terms of surrender that were earlier used at Córdoba.

While in the vicinity of Zaragoza in the spring of 714, Mūsā received a summons from the Umayyad caliph, al-Walīdī I, to report to Damascus as soon as possible to give an account of his actions. He had earlier been accused of financial improprieties, which may have contributed to his recall. He was also instructed to take Ṭāriq with him. Because of this summons and because they were encountering increasing resistance, Mūsā and Ṭāriq turned west, subduing sections of León, Asturias, and Galicia.

At this time Ṭāriq issued a warrant for the arrest of Pelagius (or Pelayo), an important former official in the Visigothic court who would emerge several years later as the victor at the Battle of Covadonga, the first serious setback for the Arabs in Spain. Mūsā took the higher regions, leaving Ṭāriq to subdue several towns in the Duero River Valley before they both turned south and left Spain in the winter of 714. Another consideration for ending further conquests may have been Mūsā’s fear that his Arab forces, spread from Tunisia to the Ebro River, were now stretched to their limit. As proof of their achievements, the two leaders took some Visigothic prisoners as well as considerable treasure. Mūsā left his son Abd al Aziz as governor in his absence.

The caliph al-Walīdī I died within a few weeks of Mūsā and Ṭāriq’s arrival in Damascus, and Mūsā fell foul of the new, short-lived caliph Sulaymān (r. 715-717). Mūsā and Ṭāriq had some differences over aspects of the administration of Spain and Mūsā was humiliated, ending his days in poverty, reputedly on his way to Mecca. His and Ṭāriq’s achievements in Spain were denigrated as the next caliph, ՙUmar II (r. 717-720), considered abandoning the Iberian Peninsula altogether. Sulaymān had briefly considered Ṭāriq as Mūsā’s replacement as governor of Spain, but rivalry between Arabs and Berbers and fear of Ṭāriq’s following the same independent line of action as before quashed this plan. Ever since the conquest of Egypt, the caliphs had been reluctant to commit large numbers of Arab troops to the conquest and maintenance of the western territories. At about this time, a tax collector for part of Iraq named Ṭāriq ibn-Ziyād is reported; he may be the same person. However, the conqueror of Spain is not heard of after 720 that is, after the reign of Caliph ՙUmar II.

Significance

Ṭāriq’s actions in spearheading the Muslim conquest of Spain altered significantly the future course of Spanish and Portuguese history. His decisive defeat of King Roderick and the speed with which he then took Toledo, the royal capital, probably went far toward preventing any serious regrouping of forces or rebellion on the part of the Visigoths. His decision to follow through after his initial victory forced the hand of his superior to act while the Muslims had the advantage.

His military tactics were typical of those of the early Arab conquests in that they involved extended, unsupported military maneuvers deep into enemy territory. These tactics would be continued by his successors as the Arabs invaded Aquitaine and the France’s Rhone Valley. Ṭāriq himself also represents a common use of clients or conquered peoples in the Arab expansion in the first centuries of Islam.

Bibliography

Collins, Roger. The Arab Conquest of Spain, 710-797. London: Blackwell, 1994. The only work to focus specifically on the eighth century in Spain, it is particularly valuable for its evaluation of original sources and of the problems posed in documenting the period of Ṭāriq’s activity.

Collins, Roger. Early Medieval Spain: Unity and Diversity, 400-1000. New York: St. Martin’, 1983. A broad study of the shift from Roman to Arab dominance in Spain, it contains a very detailed study of the conquest and its immediate aftermath.

Kennedy, Hugh. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of Al-Andalus. Menlo Park, Calif.: Addison-Wesley, 1997. Though a general survey of the Muslim period, it contains valuable and detailed information on the period of the conquest.

Taha, Abdulwahid Dhanun. The Muslim Conquest of North Africa and Spain. New York: Routledge, 1989. One of relatively few serious histories of this topic by a modern Arab scholar which is also readily available in English. The work relies heavily on Arabic sources, most of which date from several generations after the fact. This allows the author to provide very detailed, if somewhat unsubstantiated, accounts of the conquest.

Wolf, K. B. Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain. Translated Texts for Historians, Vol. 9. Liverpool: Liverpool University, 1990. One of the more accessible translations of four major Latin chronicles of the Visigothic and early Muslim periods. Contains texts and useful essays on each.