Tarik ibn Ziyad

Tarik ibn Ziyad

(tä`rĭk), fl. 711, Berber leader of the Muslim invaders of Spain. When the heirs of the Visigothic king, Witiza, requested help from the Moors of N Africa against the usurper RoderickRoderick
, d. 711?, last Visigothic king in Spain (710–711?). After the death of King Witiza, a group of nobles chose Roderick, duke of Baetica, as successor to the king. Having defeated Witiza's son, Roderick established himself on the throne.
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, Tarik, with his Moorish army, crossed (711) from Africa to Gibraltar (originally named for him, in Arabic, Jebel-al-Tarik; i.e., Tarik's mountain). Tarik defeated Roderick in the same year in the battle of Guadalete, but he did not restore Witiza's heirs. Instead, he sent for African reinforcements and conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula within a few years. Thus began the Moorish domination of Spain, which was not fully ended until 1492.