Tariq ibn Ziyad (Tariq ibn Ziyad ibn ‘Abd Allah) (Tariq ibn Zayd) (Taric bin Zeyad) (Tarik ibn Zeyad) (November 15, 689 – April 11, 720). Berber chief and leader of the Muslim forces in the conquest of al-Andalus. He crossed the Straits in 711 and concentrated his troops on a hill which took his name: Jabal Tariq (Gibraltar). The Muslims were victorious in the decisive battle fought with the Goths at the mouth of the Wadi Bekka (in Spanish, Rio Barbate). Tariq was joined by his commander Musa ibn Nusayr in 712 and the Muslim forces took Madina Sidonia, Carmona, Seville, Merida, Ecija, Toledo, Cordoba, Archidona and Elvira and soon reached Saragossa and the highlands of Aragon, Leon, the Asturias and Galicia. In a very short time, Muslim Spain had practically attained its extreme geographical limits.
Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr, the Arab conqueror of Morocco, left his general Ṭāriq to govern Tangier in his place. Spain at this time was under Visigothic rule but was torn by civil war. The dispossessed sons of the recently deceased Visigothic king of Spain, Wittiza, appealed to the Muslims for help in the civil war, and the Arabs quickly responded to this request in order to conquer Spain for themselves. In May 711, Ṭāriq landed on Gibraltar with an army of 7,000 men, mostly Berbers, Syrians, and Yemenis. Gibraltar henceforth became known as Jabal Ṭāriq (Mount Tarik), from which the Anglicized form of the name is adapted.
Ṭāriq soon advanced to the Spanish mainland itself, gaining valuable support from Spanish Jews who had been persecuted by the Visigoths and from Christian supporters of Wittiza’s sons. In July 711 he defeated the forces of the Visigothic usurper king Roderick at Guadalete. He then immediately marched upon Toledo, the capital of Spain, and occupied that city against little resistance. He also conquered Córdoba. Mūsā himself arrived in Spain with about 18,000 more Arab troops in 712, and together the two generals occupied more than two-thirds of the Iberian peninsula in the next few years. In 714, Mūsā and Ṭāriq were summoned by the caliph back to Damascus, where they were both accused of misappropriation of funds and died in obscurity.
Tariq ibn Ziyad is considered to be one of the most important military commanders in Iberian history.
Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād, also known simply as Tarik in English, was a Berber Umayyad commander who initiated the Muslim Umayyad conquest of Visigothic Hispania (present-day Spain and Portugal) in 711–718 AD. He led a large army and crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from the North African coast, consolidating his troops at what is today known as the Rock of Gibraltar. The name "Gibraltar" is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq, meaning "mountain of Ṭāriq", which is named after him.
According to Ibn Abd al-Hakam (803–871), Musa ibn Nusayr appointed Ṭāriq governor of Tangier after its conquest in 710-711 but an unconquered Visigothic outpost remained nearby at Ceuta, a stronghold commanded by a nobleman named Julian, Count of Ceuta.
After Roderic came to power in Spain, Julian had, as was the custom, sent his daughter, Florinda la Cava, to the court of the Visigothic king (Roderic) for education. It is said that Roderic raped Florinda, and that Julian was so incensed he resolved to have the Muslims bring down the Visigothic kingdom.
Subsequently,, Julian entered into a treaty with Ṭāriq (Mūsā having returned to Qayrawan) to secretly convoy the Muslim army across the Straits of Gibraltar, as Julian owned a number of merchant ships and had his own forts on the Spanish mainland.
On or about April 26, 711, the army of Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad, composed of recent converts to Islam, was landed on the Iberian peninsula (in what is now Spain) by Julian. They debarked at the foothills of a mountain which was henceforth named after him, Gibraltar (Jabal Tariq).
Ṭāriq's army contained about 7,000 soldiers, composed largely of Berber stock but also Arab troops. Roderic, to meet the threat of the Umayyads, assembled an army said to number 100,000, though the real number may well have been much lower. Most of Roderic's army was commanded by, and loyal to, the sons of Wittiza, whom Roderic had brutally deposed. Ṭāriq won a decisive victory when Roderic was defeated and killed on July 19 at the Battle of Guadalete.
Ṭāriq Bin Ziyad split his army into four divisions, which went on to capture Cordoba under Mughith al-Rumi, Granada, and other places, while he remained at the head of the division which captured Toledo. Afterwards, he continued advancing towards the north, reaching Guadalajara and Astorga. Ṭāriq was de facto governor of Hispania until the arrival of Mūsā a year later. Ṭāriq's success led Musa to assemble 12,000 (mostly Arab) troops to plan a second invasion, and within a few years Ṭāriq and Musa had captured two-thirds of the Iberian peninsula from the Visigoths.
Both Ṭāriq and Musa were simultaneously ordered back to Damascus by the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I in 714, where they spent the rest of their lives. The son of Musa, Abd al-Aziz, who took command of the troops of al-Andalus, was assassinated in 716. In the many Arabic histories written about the conquest of southern Spain, there is a definite division of opinion regarding the relationship between Ṭāriq and Musa bin Nusayr. Some relate episodes of anger and envy on the part of Mūsā that his freedman had conquered an entire country. Others do not mention, or play down, any such bad blood. On the other hand, another early historian, al-Baladhuri, writing in the 9th century, merely states that Mūsā wrote Ṭāriq a "severe letter" and that the two were later reconciled.
Tariq ibn Ziyad ibn 'Abd Allah see Tariq ibn Ziyad
Tariq ibn Zayd see Tariq ibn Ziyad
Taric bin Zeyad see Tariq ibn Ziyad
Tarik ibn Zeyad see Tariq ibn Ziyad
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