Battle of Guadalete
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Guadalete was fought in 711 or 712 at an unidentified location between the Christian
Visigoths of Hispania
under their king, Roderic
, and an invading force of Muslim
Arabs and Berbers
under Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad. The battle was significant as the culmination of a series of Arab-Berber attacks and the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Hispania
. In the battle Roderic probably lost his life, along with many members of the Visigothic nobility, opening the way for the capture of Visigothic capital of Toledo
.
The battle is sometimes referred to as the Battle of La Janda, Battle of the Río Barbate, or Battle of the Transductine Promontories.
, which was written shortly after 754 probably in the vicinity of Toledo. The Latin
Chronicle was written by a Mozarab
Christian. The only other Latin Christian source written within a century of the battle is the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon
. Paul was neither Visigothic nor Hispanic, but was writing probably in Montecassino between 787 and 796, where many Visigothic monks had taken refuge. The Chronicle of 741 is a near-contemporary Hispanic source, but it is a copy of the Mozarabic Chronicle for the eighth century and contains no original material pertaining to the battle. Several later Latin Christian sources contain descriptive accounts of the battle that have sometimes been trusted by historians, most notably the Chronicle of Alfonso III
, written by Alfonso III of Asturias in the late ninth century. The high medieval
accounts, such as that of Lucas de Tuy
, are generally untrustworthy, containing much legend and invention.
Besides the Latin Christian sources there are several Arabic language
sources widely used by historians, but increasingly coming under heavy criticism. None of them predates the mid-ninth century, the date of the earliest, the Futūh Miṣr of Ibn ʻAbd al-Ḥakam (c.803–71), which was composed in Egypt
. This account, more rich in detail than the Mozarabic Chronicle, is at odds with not only the later Latin histories, but also the later Arabic ones: the anonymous compilation called the Akhbar Majmu'ah, the late tenth-century work of Ibn al-Qūṭiyya ("the son [i.e. descendant] of the Goth [i.e. Wittiza]"), the eleventh-century historian Ibn Hayyān
, the thirteenth-century Complete History of Ibn al-Athir, the fourteenth-century history of Ibn Khaldūn
, or the early modern work of al-Maqqarī. The Akhbar Majmu'ah in particular was upheld by Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz
as a genuine eighth-century work surviving only in later copies, but this view has since been refuted. The French Orientalist
Évariste Lévi-Provençal
on the other hand advocated Ibn Hayyān as the supreme Muslim historian of the era (and the battle).
Among modern Anglo-American historians, Roger Collins
, R. A. Fletcher
, E. A. Thompson, and Kenneth Baxter Wolf are sceptical of the Arabic sources and rely more on the Chronicle of 754. Thomas F. Glick
and Bernard S. Bachrach
are less sceptical. Collins in particular rejects a syncretistc approach incorporating information from all the available sources.
or through his assassination, is not clear from the sources. It is possible that Roderic was probably the dux
of Baetica before coming to the throne. Archaeological evidence and two surviving lists of kings show that one Achila II ruled in the northeast of the kingdom at this time, but his relationship to Roderic is unknown. Probably they were rivals who never actually came into open conflict, due to the shortness of Roderic's reign and his preoccupation with Muslim raids. Even with Roderic's sphere of influence (the southwest) and his capital Toledo
, he was not unopposed after his "usurpation" (the Chronicle of 754 calls it an "invasion").
The battle of Guadalete was not an isolated Arab attack but followed a series of raids across the straits from Africa which had resulted in the sack of several south Iberian towns. Arab and Berber forces had probably been harassing the peninsula by sea since the conquest of Tangiers in 705/6. Some later Arabic and Christian sources present an earlier raid by a certain Ṭārif
in 710 and one, the Ad Sebastianum recension of the Chronicle of Alfonso III, refers to an Arab attack incited by Erwig
during the reign of Wamba (672–80). and two reasonably large armies may have been in the south for a year before the decisive battle was fought. These were led by Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad, and others, under the overall command of Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr. Most of the Arabic accounts agree that Ṭāriq was the Berber freedman
of Mūsā. Ignacio Olagüe, in La Revolución islámica en occidente, argues Ṭāriq to have been a Goth and the nominal governor of Tingitania. Others have argued that Ṭāriq was Jewish or Persian
.
According to Paul the Deacon
, Ṭāriq left from Ceuta
(Septem) and landed at the Rock of Calpe, the later Gibraltar
, which Arabic sources derive from Jebel Tariq, "Rock of Ṭāriq". After burning his boats, according to legend, from Gibraltar he moved to conquer the region of Algeciras
and then followed the Roman road
that led to Seville
. According to Ibn ʻAbd al-Ḥakam writing around 860, Ṭāriq, commander of the Arab-Berber garrison of Tangiers, crossed the straits of Gibraltar with ships from a certain Count Julian
(Arabic Ilyan), lord of Ceuta and "Alchadra", and landed near Cartagena
, which he took and made his headquarters.
According to the Mozarabic Chronicle, Mūsā landed with a large force at Cádiz
in 711 and remained in Hispania for fifteen months, but it is unclear from the sources if he came before or after the battle of Guadalete, which was fought by the forces of his subordinates. During his time in the peninsula it was racked by civil war (intestino furore confligeratur, "internal frenzy", to the Mozarabic chronicler), cities were razed and many people slaughtered in the general destruction.
According to al-Maqqarī, Roderic was fighting the Basques when he was recalled to the south to deal with an invasion. There is also the record of a Byzantine
attack on southern Iberia that was repulsed by Theudimer some years before the fall of the Visigothic kingdom. This has led to theories that the Arab-Berber attacks may have been related to the Byzantine, and perhaps the Arabs were originally useful allies in a Byzantine attempt to reconquer the lost province of Spania
.
The author of the late Asturian Chronica Prophetica
(883) dates the first invasion of Spain to "the Ides
of November in the year 752 era
", that is, 11 November 714. He also identified two invasions, the first by an Abu Zubra and the second, a year later, by Ṭāriq; probably he has divided the historical figure Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad into two persons.
, the battle took place on 19 July 711. Preceding the battle was an entire week of inconclusive skirmishes near the lake La Janda, in the plain stretching from the Río Barbate to the Río Guadalete.
According to ʻAbd al-Ḥakam, Ṭāriq was marching from Cartagena to Córdoba
—after defeating a Gothic army that tried to stop him—when he met Roderic in battle near Shedunya, probably modern Medina Sidonia. The later Arab accounts, most of them generating from al-Ḥakam's, also place the battle near Medina Sidonia, "near the lake" or Wadilakka (river Lakka), often identified as the Guadalete river
, La Janda
lake, stream of "Beca", or the Barbate river (that is, their associated valleys). The earliest Christian source, and the nearest source in time to the events, says that it took place near the unidentified "Transductine promontories" (Transductinis promonturiis). Thomas Hodgkin
, probably following Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada
, placed the battle at Jerez de la Frontera
. Joaquín Vallvé, studying toponymy
, puts the engagement on the banks of the Guadarranque, which he says might derive from Wad al-Rinq (Roderic's river).
under Arab leadership. The Arabic sources traditionally give Roderic 100,000 troops, gathered during his return to the south after confronting the Basques. This number is outrageously high; it complements the figure of 187,000 for the Muslims provided by the Ad Sebastianum version of the Chronicle of Alfonso III. Ṭāriq is said to have landed with 7,000 and requested 5,000 more from Mūsā. There could thus have been as many as 12,000 Muslim fighters at the battle. One modern estimate, disregarding the primary source claims, suggest a quarter of the 7,500 reported in one of them; this would be approximately 2,000. The Visigothic forces were "probably not much larger" and it must be emphasised that the Visigothic kingdom had been relatively peaceful and not, like Francia to its north, organised for war. A small number of elite clans (perhaps around twenty five), their warrior followings, the king and his personal following, and the forces that could be raised from the royal fisc
constituted the troops upon which Roderic could draw.
The defeat of the Visigothic army followed on the flight of the king's opponents, who had only accompanied the host "in rivalry", "deceitfully", and "out of ambition to rule" says the Mozarabic chronicler. The story of Sisibert abandoning Roderic with the right wing of the host is a legend. Estimating Visigothic forces at 33,000, David Lewis recounts how the Muslim army engaged in a series of violent hit and run attacks, while the Visigothic lines maneuvered en masse. A cavalry wing that had secretly pledged to rebel against Roderic stood aside, giving the enemy an opening. Ṭāriq's cavalry, the mujaffafa, forming as much as a third of the total force and armored in coats of light mail and identifiable by a turban over a metal cap, exploited the opening and charged into the Visigothic infantry, soon followed by the infantry. The Christian army was routed and the king slain in the final hours of battle. The engagement was a bloodbath: Visigothic losses were extremely high, and the Muslims lost as many as 3,000 men, or a quarter of their force.
It is possible that his enemies intended to abandon Roderic on the field, to be defeated and killed by the Muslims. Whatever the case, their plan failed, for they too were largely slain. By another text from the Mozarabic Chronicle the treachery can be placed at Roderic's feet. He "lost his kingdom together with his patria with the killing of his rivals". This unclear passage could indicate that Roderic had killed his rivals and weakened his army, ensuring defeat, or that his rivals too died in the battle or its retreat. The chronicler may be blaming the defeat on factionalism. The Chronicle of Alfonso III, in both its versions, blames the anonymous "sons of Wittiza" for conspiring against Roderic. Oppa, Wittiza's historical brother, was found in Toledo, possibly as king-elect, by Mūsā when he took the city. This Oppa may have had a part to play in the opposition to Roderic, but certainly not his nephews, who would have been too young to participate in power politics in 711. The metropolitan of Toledo, Sindered
, fled the city at the coming of the Muslims, and remained for the rest of his life an exile in Rome
. The author of the Mozarabic Chronicle caustically notes that he was "an hireling, and not the shepherd" (quoting Jesus
, Gospel of John
10:12). The Gothic nobleman Theudimer made an alliance with the conquerors to preserve his own rule of his territory. Within a decade all of the peninsula save the tiny Kingdom of Asturias
and the mountain-dwelling Basques was under Muslims dominion and they had advanced beyond the Pyrenees
as well.
The later Arabic historians universally credit their religion for the victory. Al-Maqqarī, in The Breath of Perfumes, places in the mouth of Ṭāriq a morale-boosting address to his soldiers on the eve of battle, which closes with this exhortation to kill Roderic:
According to later traditions, indigenous Iberian Jews, progressively disenfranchised under the rule of the Catholic Monarchs and the bishops, provided fighters to augment the Moorish forces. Kawlah al-Yahudi distinguished himself in the battle at the head of a mixed contingent of Jews and Berbers, according to the compiler of the Akhbar Majmu'ah. In the aftermath of victory, the Jews reputedly took several cities and were even commissioned to garrison Seville
, Córdoba, and Toledo itself. Thompson remarks that "whatever the reason for the [Goths'] persecution [of the Jews], it may have contributed to the utter destruction of those who initiated and enforced it." Despite all this, the participation of Jews on the side of the Muslims is not recorded in the Chronicle of 754.
The traditional explanation for the rapid fall of the Visigothic kingdom has been decadence
. The late ninth-century Chronica Prophetica indeed blames the Goths' defeat on their lack of penance for their sins: "The city of Toledo, victor of all peoples, succombed as a victim to the triumphant Ishmaelites, and deserved to be subjected to them. Thus Spain was ruined for its disgusting sins, in the 380th year of the Goths." This is not accepted by specialists today, though it still exerts heavy influence through tertiary accounts, especially in Spanish-language historiography.
. While the rape (and the name of his daughter) are universally disregarded, the Count Julian of the Arabic histories has been identified with a North African Catholic named Urban who appears in the Chronicle of 754. This Urban accompanied Mūsā across the straits. Urban may be the Julian of legend, but more likely Julian is the legend of Urban. According to one interpretation of the Urban-Julian legend, he was a Byzantine
governor of Ceuta who joined with the Arabs to raid the southern coasts of Iberia in 710 with Ṭārif. Glick has suggested that Ṭārif is an invention designed to explain the etymology
of Tarifa
, the ancient Julia Traducta, of which "Julian" was probably the (unnamed) Gothic count (comes julianus).
The "sons of Wittiza" that figure so prominently in later Christian sources, are likewise unhistorical. Wittiza, who is praised by the Chronicle of 754, is almost universally vilified in subsequent works, beginning with the Chronicle of Moissac
around 818. The outrageousness of the accusations is proportional to the chronological distance of the narrative. Thus, Lucas de Tuy, writing in the late thirteenth century, portrays a monster, while Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, rectifying the disparate accounts, shows Wittiza commencing his reign with promise and evolving into an tyrant. The Monk of Silos around 1115 recorded that the sons of Wittiza fled from Roderic to Julian and enlisted his aid.
Among the other legends surrounding the battle is that of Roderic's arrival at the field in a chariot drawn by eight white mule
s. Concerning the conquest are the legends of the sealed chamber in Toledo ("la maison fermée de Tolède") and the table (or carpet, depending on the translation) of Solomon
that ʻAbd al-Ḥakam alleges was also discovered in Toledo. Roderic's golden sandal was allegedly recovered from the Guadalete river. The nineteenth-century American military history writer Henry Coppée
penned a history of the conquest which incorporates and retells many of the legends.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Visigoths of Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
under their king, Roderic
Roderic
Ruderic was the Visigothic King of Hispania for a brief period between 710 and 712. He is famous in legend as "the last king of the Goths"...
, and an invading force of Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Arabs and Berbers
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
under Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad. The battle was significant as the culmination of a series of Arab-Berber attacks and the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Hispania
Umayyad conquest of Hispania
The Umayyad conquest of Hispania is the initial Islamic Ummayad Caliphate's conquest, between 711 and 718, of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania, centered in the Iberian Peninsula, which was known to them under the Arabic name al-Andalus....
. In the battle Roderic probably lost his life, along with many members of the Visigothic nobility, opening the way for the capture of Visigothic capital of Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
.
The battle is sometimes referred to as the Battle of La Janda, Battle of the Río Barbate, or Battle of the Transductine Promontories.
Sources
The primary source for the battle is the Mozarabic ChronicleChronicle of 754
The Chronicle of 754 was a Latin-language history in ninety-five chapters with the narrative theme "the ruin of Spain", which was composed in the year 754, in Toledo or Córdoba...
, which was written shortly after 754 probably in the vicinity of Toledo. The Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
Chronicle was written by a Mozarab
Mozarab
The Mozarabs were Iberian Christians who lived under Arab Islamic rule in Al-Andalus. Their descendants remained unconverted to Islam, but did however adopt elements of Arabic language and culture...
Christian. The only other Latin Christian source written within a century of the battle is the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon
Paul the Deacon
Paul the Deacon , also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefred, Barnefridus and Cassinensis, , was a Benedictine monk and historian of the Lombards.-Life:...
. Paul was neither Visigothic nor Hispanic, but was writing probably in Montecassino between 787 and 796, where many Visigothic monks had taken refuge. The Chronicle of 741 is a near-contemporary Hispanic source, but it is a copy of the Mozarabic Chronicle for the eighth century and contains no original material pertaining to the battle. Several later Latin Christian sources contain descriptive accounts of the battle that have sometimes been trusted by historians, most notably the Chronicle of Alfonso III
Chronicle of Alfonso III
The Chronicle of Alfonso III is a chronicle composed in the early tenth century on the order of King Alfonso III of León with the goal of showing the continuity between Visigothic Spain and the later Christian medieval Spain...
, written by Alfonso III of Asturias in the late ninth century. The high medieval
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
accounts, such as that of Lucas de Tuy
Lucas de Tuy
Lucas de Tuy was a Leonese cleric and intellectual, remembered best as a historian. He was Bishop of Tuy from 1239 until his death....
, are generally untrustworthy, containing much legend and invention.
Besides the Latin Christian sources there are several Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
sources widely used by historians, but increasingly coming under heavy criticism. None of them predates the mid-ninth century, the date of the earliest, the Futūh Miṣr of Ibn ʻAbd al-Ḥakam (c.803–71), which was composed in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. This account, more rich in detail than the Mozarabic Chronicle, is at odds with not only the later Latin histories, but also the later Arabic ones: the anonymous compilation called the Akhbar Majmu'ah, the late tenth-century work of Ibn al-Qūṭiyya ("the son [i.e. descendant] of the Goth [i.e. Wittiza]"), the eleventh-century historian Ibn Hayyān
Ibn Hayyan
Abu Marwán Hayyán Ibn Khalaf Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi , usually known as Ibn Hayyan, was a Muslim historian from Al-Andalus.Born at Córdoba, he was an important official at the court of the Andalusian ruler al-Mansur and published several works on history which have only survived in part...
, the thirteenth-century Complete History of Ibn al-Athir, the fourteenth-century history of Ibn Khaldūn
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
, or the early modern work of al-Maqqarī. The Akhbar Majmu'ah in particular was upheld by Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz
Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz y Menduiña
Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz y Menduiña was an eminent Spanish medieval historian, statesman, and a leader of the Spanish Republican government in Exile during the rule of Francisco Franco.- Education and Early Career :...
as a genuine eighth-century work surviving only in later copies, but this view has since been refuted. The French Orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
Évariste Lévi-Provençal
Évariste Lévi-Provençal
Évariste Lévi-Provençal was a French medievalist, orientalist, Arabist, and historian of Islam.Born 4 January 1894 in Constantine, French Algeria, as Makhlóuf Evariste Levi, his name already revealing Gallicized tendencies in his North-African Jewish family...
on the other hand advocated Ibn Hayyān as the supreme Muslim historian of the era (and the battle).
Among modern Anglo-American historians, Roger Collins
Roger Collins
Roger J. H. Collins is an English medievalist, currently an honorary fellow in history at the University of Edinburgh.Collins studied at the University of Oxford under Peter Brown and John Michael Wallace-Hadrill. He then taught ancient and medieval history at the universities of Liverpool and...
, R. A. Fletcher
Richard A. Fletcher
Richard A. Fletcher was a historian who specialized in the medieval period. He was Professor of History at the University of York and one of the outstanding talents in English and Spanish medieval scholarship....
, E. A. Thompson, and Kenneth Baxter Wolf are sceptical of the Arabic sources and rely more on the Chronicle of 754. Thomas F. Glick
Thomas F. Glick
Thomas F. Glick Ph.D. has been a professor at Boston University since 1972. He teaches in the departments of history and gastronomy. He served as the history department's chairperson from 1984 to 1989, and again from 1994 to 1995. He has also been the director of the Institute for Medieval...
and Bernard S. Bachrach
Bernard Bachrach
Bernard S. Bachrach is an American historian and a professor of history at the University of Minnesota. He specialises in the Early Middle Ages, mainly on the topics of Medieval warfare, Medieval Jewry, and early Angevin history...
are less sceptical. Collins in particular rejects a syncretistc approach incorporating information from all the available sources.
Background
Though the reign of Roderic is traditionally dated to 710–11, a literal reading of the Chronicle of 754 indicates 711–12. Roderic did not rule unopposed, however. The nature of his accession, whether on death of WittizaWittiza
Wittiza was the Visigothic King of Hispania from 694 until his death, co-ruling with his father, Ergica, until 702 or 703.-Joint rule:...
or through his assassination, is not clear from the sources. It is possible that Roderic was probably the dux
Dux
Dux is Latin for leader and later for Duke and its variant forms ....
of Baetica before coming to the throne. Archaeological evidence and two surviving lists of kings show that one Achila II ruled in the northeast of the kingdom at this time, but his relationship to Roderic is unknown. Probably they were rivals who never actually came into open conflict, due to the shortness of Roderic's reign and his preoccupation with Muslim raids. Even with Roderic's sphere of influence (the southwest) and his capital Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
, he was not unopposed after his "usurpation" (the Chronicle of 754 calls it an "invasion").
The battle of Guadalete was not an isolated Arab attack but followed a series of raids across the straits from Africa which had resulted in the sack of several south Iberian towns. Arab and Berber forces had probably been harassing the peninsula by sea since the conquest of Tangiers in 705/6. Some later Arabic and Christian sources present an earlier raid by a certain Ṭārif
Tarif
Tarif is a surname and may refer to:*Mowafak Tarif*Salah Tarif*Salih ibn Tarif*Yemek tarifi...
in 710 and one, the Ad Sebastianum recension of the Chronicle of Alfonso III, refers to an Arab attack incited by Erwig
Erwig
Erwig was a king of the Visigoths in Hispania . He was the only Visigothic king to be a complete puppet of the bishops and palatine nobility....
during the reign of Wamba (672–80). and two reasonably large armies may have been in the south for a year before the decisive battle was fought. These were led by Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad, and others, under the overall command of Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr. Most of the Arabic accounts agree that Ṭāriq was the Berber freedman
Freedman
A freedman is a former slave who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves became freedmen either by manumission or emancipation ....
of Mūsā. Ignacio Olagüe, in La Revolución islámica en occidente, argues Ṭāriq to have been a Goth and the nominal governor of Tingitania. Others have argued that Ṭāriq was Jewish or Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
.
According to Paul the Deacon
Paul the Deacon
Paul the Deacon , also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefred, Barnefridus and Cassinensis, , was a Benedictine monk and historian of the Lombards.-Life:...
, Ṭāriq left from Ceuta
Ceuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
(Septem) and landed at the Rock of Calpe, the later Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, which Arabic sources derive from Jebel Tariq, "Rock of Ṭāriq". After burning his boats, according to legend, from Gibraltar he moved to conquer the region of Algeciras
Algeciras
Algeciras is a port city in the south of Spain, and is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar . Port of Algeciras is one of the largest ports in Europe and in the world in three categories: container,...
and then followed the Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
that led to Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
. According to Ibn ʻAbd al-Ḥakam writing around 860, Ṭāriq, commander of the Arab-Berber garrison of Tangiers, crossed the straits of Gibraltar with ships from a certain Count Julian
Julian, count of Ceuta
Julian, Count of Ceuta was a legendary Christian local ruler or subordinate ruler in North Africa who had a role in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania — a key event in the history of Islam, in which al-Andalus was to have a major role, and the subsequent history of what were to become Spain and...
(Arabic Ilyan), lord of Ceuta and "Alchadra", and landed near Cartagena
Cartagena, Spain
Cartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality and the country’s 6th non-Province capital...
, which he took and made his headquarters.
According to the Mozarabic Chronicle, Mūsā landed with a large force at Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
in 711 and remained in Hispania for fifteen months, but it is unclear from the sources if he came before or after the battle of Guadalete, which was fought by the forces of his subordinates. During his time in the peninsula it was racked by civil war (intestino furore confligeratur, "internal frenzy", to the Mozarabic chronicler), cities were razed and many people slaughtered in the general destruction.
According to al-Maqqarī, Roderic was fighting the Basques when he was recalled to the south to deal with an invasion. There is also the record of a Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
attack on southern Iberia that was repulsed by Theudimer some years before the fall of the Visigothic kingdom. This has led to theories that the Arab-Berber attacks may have been related to the Byzantine, and perhaps the Arabs were originally useful allies in a Byzantine attempt to reconquer the lost province of Spania
Spania
Spania was a province of the Roman Empire from 552 until 624 in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. It was a part of the conquests of Roman Emperor Justinian I in an effort to restore the western half of the Empire....
.
The author of the late Asturian Chronica Prophetica
Chronica Prophetica
The Chronica Prophetica is an anonymous medieval Latin chronicle written by a Christian in April 883 at or near the court of Alfonso III of Asturias in Oviedo. It uses the dating system of the Spanish Era and is essentially an interpretation of the prophecy concerning the fate of Gog found in the...
(883) dates the first invasion of Spain to "the Ides
Ides
Ides may refer to:* Ides , a day in the Roman calendar that marked the approximate middle of the month* Specifically, Ides of March* Ides, a being in Germanic paganism* Saint Ides, an Irish saint...
of November in the year 752 era
Spanish era
The Spanish era, Hispanic era or Caesar era refers to the dating system used in Hispania until the 14th century, when the Anno Domini system was adopted. It began with year one in what is 38 BC, probably the date of a new tax imposed by the Roman Republic on the subdued population of Iberia....
", that is, 11 November 714. He also identified two invasions, the first by an Abu Zubra and the second, a year later, by Ṭāriq; probably he has divided the historical figure Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad into two persons.
Date and place
The date of the battle is traditionally 711, though this is not the date given by the Chronicle of 754. The Chronicle dates it to 712 and places it before the conquest of Toledo, which it attributes to Mūsā in 711. If this discrepancy is solved by preferring the chronicler's order to his dating, then the battle occurred in 712 and the fall of Toledo later that same year. Later Arabic accounts give an exact date of 25 or 26 July. A more rough dating is between 19 and 23 July. According to David Levering LewisDavid Levering Lewis
David Levering Lewis is the Julius Silver University Professor and Professor of History at New York University. He is twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, for part one and part two of his biography of W. E. B. Du Bois...
, the battle took place on 19 July 711. Preceding the battle was an entire week of inconclusive skirmishes near the lake La Janda, in the plain stretching from the Río Barbate to the Río Guadalete.
According to ʻAbd al-Ḥakam, Ṭāriq was marching from Cartagena to Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
—after defeating a Gothic army that tried to stop him—when he met Roderic in battle near Shedunya, probably modern Medina Sidonia. The later Arab accounts, most of them generating from al-Ḥakam's, also place the battle near Medina Sidonia, "near the lake" or Wadilakka (river Lakka), often identified as the Guadalete river
Guadalete River
The Guadalete River is a small stream located in the Spanish province of Cádiz, arising in the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park at an elevation of about 1000 m, and running for 172 km into the Bay of Cádiz at El Puerto de Santa Maria, south of the city of Cádiz...
, La Janda
La Janda
La Janda is a comarca in the province of Cádiz, southern Spain.La Janda is composed of the following municipalities:*Alcalá de los Gazules*Barbate*Benalup-Casas Viejas*Conil de la Frontera*Medina Sidonia...
lake, stream of "Beca", or the Barbate river (that is, their associated valleys). The earliest Christian source, and the nearest source in time to the events, says that it took place near the unidentified "Transductine promontories" (Transductinis promonturiis). Thomas Hodgkin
Thomas Hodgkin (historian)
Thomas Hodgkin , British historian, son of John Hodgkin , barrister and Quaker minister, and Elizabeth Howard ....
, probably following Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada
Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada
Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada was a Navarrese-born Castilian Roman Catholic bishop and historian....
, placed the battle at Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera is a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, situated midway between the sea and the mountains. , the city, the largest in the province, had 208,896 inhabitants; it is the fifth largest in Andalusia...
. Joaquín Vallvé, studying toponymy
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
, puts the engagement on the banks of the Guadarranque, which he says might derive from Wad al-Rinq (Roderic's river).
Engagement and aftermath
The armies that met in battle on the day that decided the fate of the Goths in Spain are not reliably described in the surviving records. Glick surmises that the Muslim army was predominantly Berber cavalryCavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
under Arab leadership. The Arabic sources traditionally give Roderic 100,000 troops, gathered during his return to the south after confronting the Basques. This number is outrageously high; it complements the figure of 187,000 for the Muslims provided by the Ad Sebastianum version of the Chronicle of Alfonso III. Ṭāriq is said to have landed with 7,000 and requested 5,000 more from Mūsā. There could thus have been as many as 12,000 Muslim fighters at the battle. One modern estimate, disregarding the primary source claims, suggest a quarter of the 7,500 reported in one of them; this would be approximately 2,000. The Visigothic forces were "probably not much larger" and it must be emphasised that the Visigothic kingdom had been relatively peaceful and not, like Francia to its north, organised for war. A small number of elite clans (perhaps around twenty five), their warrior followings, the king and his personal following, and the forces that could be raised from the royal fisc
Fisc
Under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the fisc applied to the royal demesne which paid taxes, entirely in kind, from which the royal household was meant to be supported, though it rarely was...
constituted the troops upon which Roderic could draw.
The defeat of the Visigothic army followed on the flight of the king's opponents, who had only accompanied the host "in rivalry", "deceitfully", and "out of ambition to rule" says the Mozarabic chronicler. The story of Sisibert abandoning Roderic with the right wing of the host is a legend. Estimating Visigothic forces at 33,000, David Lewis recounts how the Muslim army engaged in a series of violent hit and run attacks, while the Visigothic lines maneuvered en masse. A cavalry wing that had secretly pledged to rebel against Roderic stood aside, giving the enemy an opening. Ṭāriq's cavalry, the mujaffafa, forming as much as a third of the total force and armored in coats of light mail and identifiable by a turban over a metal cap, exploited the opening and charged into the Visigothic infantry, soon followed by the infantry. The Christian army was routed and the king slain in the final hours of battle. The engagement was a bloodbath: Visigothic losses were extremely high, and the Muslims lost as many as 3,000 men, or a quarter of their force.
It is possible that his enemies intended to abandon Roderic on the field, to be defeated and killed by the Muslims. Whatever the case, their plan failed, for they too were largely slain. By another text from the Mozarabic Chronicle the treachery can be placed at Roderic's feet. He "lost his kingdom together with his patria with the killing of his rivals". This unclear passage could indicate that Roderic had killed his rivals and weakened his army, ensuring defeat, or that his rivals too died in the battle or its retreat. The chronicler may be blaming the defeat on factionalism. The Chronicle of Alfonso III, in both its versions, blames the anonymous "sons of Wittiza" for conspiring against Roderic. Oppa, Wittiza's historical brother, was found in Toledo, possibly as king-elect, by Mūsā when he took the city. This Oppa may have had a part to play in the opposition to Roderic, but certainly not his nephews, who would have been too young to participate in power politics in 711. The metropolitan of Toledo, Sindered
Sindered
Sindered became Archbishop of Toledo in Visigothic Hispania around the year 710 or 711, succeeding Gunderic. But at least one later chronicler makes him archbishop during the reign of Wittiza , during which he supposedly took part in Wittiza's challenge to church authority during the last nine...
, fled the city at the coming of the Muslims, and remained for the rest of his life an exile in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. The author of the Mozarabic Chronicle caustically notes that he was "an hireling, and not the shepherd" (quoting Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, Gospel of John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
10:12). The Gothic nobleman Theudimer made an alliance with the conquerors to preserve his own rule of his territory. Within a decade all of the peninsula save the tiny Kingdom of Asturias
Kingdom of Asturias
The Kingdom of Asturias was a Kingdom in the Iberian peninsula founded in 718 by Visigothic nobles under the leadership of Pelagius of Asturias. It was the first Christian political entity established following the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom after Islamic conquest of Hispania...
and the mountain-dwelling Basques was under Muslims dominion and they had advanced beyond the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
as well.
The later Arabic historians universally credit their religion for the victory. Al-Maqqarī, in The Breath of Perfumes, places in the mouth of Ṭāriq a morale-boosting address to his soldiers on the eve of battle, which closes with this exhortation to kill Roderic:
According to later traditions, indigenous Iberian Jews, progressively disenfranchised under the rule of the Catholic Monarchs and the bishops, provided fighters to augment the Moorish forces. Kawlah al-Yahudi distinguished himself in the battle at the head of a mixed contingent of Jews and Berbers, according to the compiler of the Akhbar Majmu'ah. In the aftermath of victory, the Jews reputedly took several cities and were even commissioned to garrison Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Córdoba, and Toledo itself. Thompson remarks that "whatever the reason for the [Goths'] persecution [of the Jews], it may have contributed to the utter destruction of those who initiated and enforced it." Despite all this, the participation of Jews on the side of the Muslims is not recorded in the Chronicle of 754.
The traditional explanation for the rapid fall of the Visigothic kingdom has been decadence
Decadence
Decadence can refer to a personal trait, or to the state of a society . Used to describe a person's lifestyle. Concise Oxford Dictionary: "a luxurious self-indulgence"...
. The late ninth-century Chronica Prophetica indeed blames the Goths' defeat on their lack of penance for their sins: "The city of Toledo, victor of all peoples, succombed as a victim to the triumphant Ishmaelites, and deserved to be subjected to them. Thus Spain was ruined for its disgusting sins, in the 380th year of the Goths." This is not accepted by specialists today, though it still exerts heavy influence through tertiary accounts, especially in Spanish-language historiography.
Legend
Among the legends which have accrued to the history of the battle, the most prominent is that of Count Julian, who, in revenge for the rape of (or affair with) his daughter Florinda (the later Cava Rumía or Doña Cava) by Roderic while the youth was being raised at the palace school, supposedly lent Ṭāriq the necessary ships for launching an invasion. That the Arabs already possessed sufficient naval forces in the western Mediterranean is attested by their activities against the Balearic IslandsBalearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...
. While the rape (and the name of his daughter) are universally disregarded, the Count Julian of the Arabic histories has been identified with a North African Catholic named Urban who appears in the Chronicle of 754. This Urban accompanied Mūsā across the straits. Urban may be the Julian of legend, but more likely Julian is the legend of Urban. According to one interpretation of the Urban-Julian legend, he was a Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
governor of Ceuta who joined with the Arabs to raid the southern coasts of Iberia in 710 with Ṭārif. Glick has suggested that Ṭārif is an invention designed to explain the etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of Tarifa
Tarifa
Tarifa is a small town in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, on the southernmost coast of Spain. The town is located on the Costa de la Luz and across the Straits of Gibraltar facing Morocco. The municipality includes Punta de Tarifa, the southernmost point in continental Europe. There are five...
, the ancient Julia Traducta, of which "Julian" was probably the (unnamed) Gothic count (comes julianus).
The "sons of Wittiza" that figure so prominently in later Christian sources, are likewise unhistorical. Wittiza, who is praised by the Chronicle of 754, is almost universally vilified in subsequent works, beginning with the Chronicle of Moissac
Chronicle of Moissac
The Chronicle of Moissac is an anonymous compilation that was discovered at the abbey of Moissac, but is now thought to have been compiled in the Catalan monastery of Ripoll in the end of the tenth century. Like most chronicles, it begins with Adam, but gains increasing interest for historians as...
around 818. The outrageousness of the accusations is proportional to the chronological distance of the narrative. Thus, Lucas de Tuy, writing in the late thirteenth century, portrays a monster, while Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, rectifying the disparate accounts, shows Wittiza commencing his reign with promise and evolving into an tyrant. The Monk of Silos around 1115 recorded that the sons of Wittiza fled from Roderic to Julian and enlisted his aid.
Among the other legends surrounding the battle is that of Roderic's arrival at the field in a chariot drawn by eight white mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s. Concerning the conquest are the legends of the sealed chamber in Toledo ("la maison fermée de Tolède") and the table (or carpet, depending on the translation) of Solomon
Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
that ʻAbd al-Ḥakam alleges was also discovered in Toledo. Roderic's golden sandal was allegedly recovered from the Guadalete river. The nineteenth-century American military history writer Henry Coppée
Henry Coppée
Henry Coppée was an American educationalist and author.-Biography:Henry Coppée was born in Savannah, Georgia, to a family of French extraction that had formerly settled in Haiti...
penned a history of the conquest which incorporates and retells many of the legends.