The Battle of Guadalete was the first major battle of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, fought in July 711 at an unidentified location in what is now southern Spain between the Visigoths under their king, Roderic, and the invading forces of the Umayyad Caliphate, composed of mainly Berbers and some Arabs under the commander Tariq ibn Ziyad. The battle was significant as the culmination of a series of Umayyad attacks and the beginning of al-Andalus. Roderic was killed in the battle, along with many members of the Visigothic nobility, opening the way for the capture of the Visigothic capital of Toledo.
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Battle of Guadalete in the context of Umayyad conquest of Hispania
The Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (Arabic: فَتْحُ الأَنْدَلُس, romanized: fatḥu l-andalus; 711–720s), also known as the Arab conquest of Spain, was the Umayyad conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania in the early 8th century. The conquest resulted in the end of Christian rule in most of Iberia and the establishment of Muslim Arab-Moorish rule in that territory, which came to be known as al-Andalus, under the Umayyad dynasty.
During the caliphate of the sixth Umayyad caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715), military commander Tariq ibn Ziyad departed from North Africa under the command of Musa bin Nusayr in early 711 to cross the Straits of Gibraltar, with a force of about 1,700 men, to launch a military expedition against the Visigoth-controlled Kingdom of Toledo, which encompassed the former territory of Roman Hispania. After defeating king Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete in July the same year, Tariq was reinforced by an Arab force led by his superior wali Musa ibn Nusayr and continued northward.
Battle of Guadalete in the context of Roderic
Roderic (also spelled Ruderic, Roderik, Roderich, or Roderick; Spanish and Portuguese: Rodrigo, Arabic: لذريق, romanized: Ludharīq; died July 711) was the Visigothic king in Hispania between 710 and 711. He is well known as "the last king of the Goths". He is actually an extremely obscure figure about whom little can be said with certainty. He was the last Goth to rule from Toledo, but not the last Gothic king, a distinction which belongs to Ardo.
Roderic's election as king was disputed and he ruled only a part of Hispania with an opponent, Achila, ruling the rest. He faced a rebellion of the Basques and the Umayyad invasion. He was defeated and killed at the Battle of Guadalete. His widow Egilona is believed to have married Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, the first Muslim governor of Hispania.