Islamic
Spain

A Berber commander with ~7,000 troops lands at Gibraltar — Jabal Ṭāriq, "Mountain of Tariq." The Visigothic kingdom collapses at the Battle of Guadalete. Within months, Córdoba and Toledo fall.

The Arab governor of Ifriqiya crosses with 18,000 Arab soldiers. Seville, Mérida, Zaragoza taken. By 714, Muslim forces reach the Pyrenees.

Muslim armies push into southern Gaul. Narbonne becomes the northernmost outpost of the Islamic world. Held until 759.

Charles Martel halts the Muslim advance near Poitiers. The frontier stabilizes along the Pyrenees.

The last Umayyad prince escapes the Abbasid massacre in Damascus, crosses North Africa, and declares an independent emirate in Córdoba. He plants Syrian palms in the courtyard and weeps for the homeland he will never see again.

Abd al-Rahman I begins building the Great Mosque on the site of a Visigothic church. Double-tiered horseshoe arches in red and white. It will be expanded four times over 200 years.

The Moors introduce irrigation systems (acequias), waterwheels (norias), and new crops: oranges, lemons, rice, sugarcane, cotton, saffron, pomegranates. Spain's landscape transforms.

A Baghdad-trained polymath revolutionizes Andalusi culture: introduces seasonal fashion, three-course dining, new musical modes on the oud (adding a fifth string), toothpaste, deodorant, and tablecloths.

After 17 years crushing revolts and unifying the peninsula, he claims the title of Caliph — challenging both Baghdad and Cairo. His 49-year reign is the longest.

Abd al-Rahman III builds a palatial city 8 km west of Córdoba. 4,000 columns, mercury pools that catch sunlight, 15,000 doors. It lasts 65 years before civil war destroys it.

Inherits the caliphate and builds a royal library of 400,000+ volumes — when the largest library in Christian Europe holds 400. Sends agents across the Islamic world to acquire manuscripts.

Population ~500,000. Paved streets with oil lamps. 70 libraries. 900 public baths. 80,000 shops. Running water in homes. London has ~20,000 people. Paris fewer still.

The vizier who rules in all but name. 57 campaigns, never defeated. He forces Christian prisoners to carry the cathedral bells to Córdoba — where they are melted into lamps for the Great Mosque.

After Almanzor's sons lose power, a brutal civil war shatters the caliphate. Medina Azahara is looted and burned. Berber and Slavic factions tear the state apart. By 1031, the caliphate is formally abolished.

Al-Andalus fractures into ~30 rival kingdoms: Seville, Granada, Zaragoza, Badajoz, Valencia, Toledo, Almería. Each court a miniature caliphate — brilliant poets, paralyzed armies.

The first major city to fall to the Reconquista. Sends shockwaves across the peninsula. The taifa kings panic — and turn to Morocco for help. The decision changes everything.

The Almoravid sultan answers the taifas' call. Defeats Castile at the Battle of Sagrajas. Then — instead of leaving — deposes the taifa kings and absorbs Al-Andalus into his Moroccan empire.

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar — a Castilian exile who fought for Muslim and Christian lords alike — captures Valencia and rules it until his death. A man between worlds.

A new Berber dynasty from the Atlas Mountains. Stricter theology, grander architecture. They build the Koutoubia, the Giralda, and the Hassan Tower — three sister minarets across two continents.

Born in Córdoba. His commentaries on Aristotle reignite Greek philosophy in medieval Europe. Thomas Aquinas calls him simply "The Commentator." Europe's Renaissance starts here.

Moses ben Maimon: born in Córdoba, educated in Fes, died in Cairo. Jewish, writing in Arabic, synthesizing Greek philosophy. His masterwork shapes both Jewish and Islamic thought. The convivencia made flesh.

A combined Christian army breaks the Almohad lines in Sierra Morena. The decisive battle of the Reconquista. Almohad power collapses. The frontier that held for centuries now moves south every year.

Ferdinand III takes the old caliphal capital. The Great Mosque becomes a cathedral — but the horseshoe arches remain. 525 years of Muslim rule end.

The Almohad Iberian capital surrenders after a 16-month siege. Most of its Muslim population is expelled. The Giralda becomes a bell tower. Only Granada remains.

Muhammad I founds the last Muslim state in Iberia. A vassal of Castile from the beginning — paying tribute, providing troops, surviving on diplomacy. Survives 254 years.

Yusuf I and Muhammad V build the Court of the Lions, the Hall of the Ambassadors, the Hall of the Two Sisters. Muqarnas ceilings with 5,000 cells. The most beautiful building in the Islamic world — built while the state crumbles.

In conquered Toledo, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish scholars work together translating Arabic texts into Latin. Aristotle, Galen, Ptolemy, al-Khwarizmi — Europe receives its classical inheritance through Arabic.

January 2. Muhammad XII surrenders the keys of the Alhambra to Ferdinand and Isabella. 781 years of Muslim presence in Iberia end. Columbus receives his commission the same year.

Isabella decrees: all Muslims in Castile must convert to Christianity or leave Spain. Islam goes underground. The Moriscos — outwardly Christian, privately Muslim — endure for another century.

Philip III expels the last descendants of Al-Andalus. ~300,000 people forced across the Mediterranean — to Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, the Ottoman Empire. They carry recipes, music, architecture.