Tariq ibn Ziyad or Taric bin Zeyad (, d. 720), known in Spanish history and legend as Taric el Tuerto (Taric the one-eyed), was a Berber Muslim and Umayyad general who led the conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711 under the orders of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I. According to the historian Ibn Khaldoun, Tariq Ibn Ziyad was from the Berber tribe of Tunisia Tariq ibn Ziyad is considered to be one of the most important military commanders in Iberian history. He was initially the deputy of Musa ibn Nusair in North Africa, and was sent by his superior to launch the first thrust of a conquest of the kingom of Hispania (comprising modern Spain and Portugal). Some claim that he was invited to intervene by the heirs of the Visigothic King, Wittiza, in the Visigothic civil war.

On April 29, 711, the armies of Tariq landed at Gibraltar (the name Gibraltar is derived from the Arabic name Jabal Tariq, which means mountain of Tariq, or the more obvious Gibr Tariq, meaning rock of Tariq).

The 17th century Muslim historian Al Maggari wrote that upon landing, Tariq is said to have burned his ships then made the following speech, well-known in the Muslim world, to his soldiers:

The Moorish armies swept through Hispania and, in the summer of 711, won a decisive victory when the Visigothic king, Roderic, was defeated and killed on July 19th at the Battle of Guadalete. Afterwards, Tariq was made governor of Hispania but eventually was called back to Damascus by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I.

Namesakes

• Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, in Inver Grove Heights and Blaine, Minnesota.

See also

• List of military commanders
• Umayyad conquest of Hispania
• Timeline of the Muslim presence in the Iberian peninsula
• Al-Andalus
• Moors
• Musa ibn Nusair
• Tarif ibn Malluk

External links

• Tarik's Address to His Soldiers, 711 CE, from ''The Breath of Perfumes''
• Ibn Abd-el-Hakem, Medieval Sourcebook: ''The Islamic Conquest of Spain''
• Edward Gibbon, ''History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' Chapter 51
• Article: Tariq ibnu zeyad in tha mazight(Berber: Rif)

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