Tariq ibn-Ziyad

From Freepedia

Tariq ibn Ziyad or Taric ben 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. He was initially the deputy of Musa ibn Nusair in North Africa, and was sent by his superior to the Iberian peninsula in order to intervene, at the request of the heirs of the Visigothic King, Wittiza, in the Visigothic civil war.

On April 30, 711, the armies of Tariq landed at Gibraltar (the name Gibraltar is derived from the Arabic name Jabal Tariq, which means mountain of Tariq). Upon landing, Tariq is said to have made the following speech, well-known in the Arab world, to his soldiers (supposedly after burning his boats, according to some accounts):

أيّها الناس، أين المفر؟ البحر من ورائكم، والعدوّ أمامكم، وليس لكم والله إلا الصدق والصب...

There is nowhere to flee! The sea is behind you, and the enemy before you: so by God, you have only sincerity and patience, and no minister but your swords (as recounted by al-Maqqari).

The so-called Moorish armies swept through Iberia and, in the summer of 711, won a decisive victory when the Visigoth king, Roderic, was defeated and killed on July 19th at the Battle of Guadalete. Afterwards, Tariq was made governor of Hispania for awhile but eventually returned to Morocco.

There is no mention in Muslim books of this intentional or accidental burning of the ships. The claim appears only in European sources. Indeed, there are a number of reasons why Tariq ibn Ziyad wouldn't have done such a thing.

1. Not all of the ships were Muslim owned (the leader of port septe owned ships which sailed with Muslims in exchange for lands in Andalusia).

2. The consequences of burning the ships would have been praised or punished by the Caliph, but no sources mention that Calipha either praised or punished Tariq for this.

3. In Islam it is forbidden to destroy public property.

4. If it had been his strategy to create desperation in his troops, Tariq could simply have sent the ships away, letting them return home.

5. Musa ibn Nusair sent reinforcements to Tariq, something he couldn't have done if the ships had been burned).

The controversy over the burning of the ships has remained a subject of debate between Muslims and the West.

See also

• Muslim conquest of Iberia
• Timeline of the Muslim Occupation of the Iberian peninsula
• Al-Andalus
• Moors

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