CHAPTER XVI.
THE WESTERN CALIPHATE.
After the successes of Mūsā and 'Abd-al-Azīz and the occupation of the Iberian peninsula by Ḥurr the slight resistance of the Christians may be neglected, while we follow the victorious Muslims through Gaul up to the defeat of the Emir 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān at Poitiers by Charles Martel (732). From that date till the accession of 'Abd-ar-Raḥmān ibn Mu'āwiya the whole history of Muslim Spain may be said to consist of internal dissensions between Yemenites and Ḳaisites, Syrians and Medinese. 'Abd-al-Malik, an old Medinese chief, was appointed governor of Spain in October 732. He refused to provide some Syrians, who were starving in Ceuta, with the means of crossing over into Spain, but an insurrection among the Berbers in the peninsula compelled him to summon them to his aid. The ragged and starving Syrians fought so fiercely that they routed the Berbers, and then having no desire to return to Africa where they had fared so ill, they revolted and proclaimed Balj as their Emir (741). They sought to inspire terror. They crucified 'Abd-al-Malik, and defeated his sons at Aqua Portora (August 742). The civil war ended with the appointment by the Emir of Africa of Abū-l-Khaṭṭār the Kalbite as governor. He pacified Spain and settled the Syrians along the southern fringe from Murcia to Ocsonoba (Algarve); but the conflict was promptly renewed between Ḳaisites or Ma'addites and Yemenites or Kalbites. The rebels defeated the Kalbites under Abū-l-Khaṭṭār at the battle of Guadalete (745), their leader Thuwāba becoming Emir. On his death war between rival tribes lasted some six years longer.
According to the oldest Arab and Christian chroniclers Asturias was the only part where the Visigoths prolonged their resistance. Some nobles of the south and centre of Spain had taken refuge there with the remnants of their defeated armies. The death of Roderick at Segoyuela[1] led them to elect Pelayo as their king, who took up Roderick's task of heroic resistance. Pelayo retired to the Picos de Europa; there in the valley of Covadonga the Visigoths defeated (718) an expedition led
- ↑ See Vol. ii. p. 186, and cf. Vol. ii. p. 372.
