History of Gibraltar - Muslim Rule (711-1309, 1333-1462)

Muslim Rule (711-1309, 1333-1462)

By 681 the armies of the Umayyad Caliphate had expanded from their original homeland of Arabia to conquer the whole of North Africa as well as the Middle East and large parts of West Asia, bringing Islam in their wake and converting local peoples to the new religion. The Berbers of North Africa, called Moors by the Christians, thus became Muslims. The Straits of Gibraltar gained a new strategic significance as the frontier between Muslim North Africa and Christian Spain. The Visigothic rulers of Spain were, however, split between rival contenders for the throne. This gave the Moors the opportunity to invade and pursue a course of dividing-and-conquering the Christian factions.

Following a raid in 710, a predominately Berber army under the command of Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed from North Africa in April 711 and landed somewhere in the vicinity of Gibraltar (though most likely not in the bay or at the Rock itself). Although Tariq's expedition was an outstanding success and led to the Islamic conquest of most of the Iberian peninsula, Tariq himself ended his career in disgrace. His conquest nonetheless left a long-lasting legacy for Gibraltar: Mons Calpe was renamed Djebel al-Tariq, the Mount of Tariq, subsequently corrupted into "Gibraltar".

Gibraltar was fortified for the first time in 1160 by the Almohad Sultan Abd al-Mu'min in response to the coastal threat posed by the Christian kings of Aragon and Castile. Gibraltar was renamed Djebel al-Fath (the Mount of Victory), though this name did not persist, and a fortified town named Medinat al-Fath (the City of Victory) was laid out on the upper slopes of the Rock. It is unclear how much of Medinat al-Fath was actually built, as the surviving archaeological remains are scanty.

Its defences were put to the test for the first time in 1309, when Ferdinand IV of Castile and James II of Aragon joined forces to attack the Muslim Emirate of Granada, targeting Almeria in the east and Algeciras, across the bay from Gibraltar, in the west. In July 1309 the Castilians laid siege to both Algeciras and Gibraltar. By this time the latter had a modest population of around 1,200 people, a castle and rudimentary fortifications. They proved unequal to the task of keeping out the Castilians and Gibraltar's defenders surrendered after a month.

Ferdinand gave up the siege of Algeciras the following February but held on to Gibraltar, repopulating it with Christians and ordering that a keep and dockyard be built to secure Castile's hold on the peninsula. He also issued a letter patent granting privileges to the inhabitants to encourage people to settle.

In 1315 the Moors attempted to recapture Gibraltar but were thwarted by a Castilian relief force. Eighteen years later, however, the Sultans Muhammed IV of Granada and Abu Al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman of Fez allied to besiege Gibraltar with a large army and naval force. This time the king of Castile, Alfonso XI, was unable to raise a relief force for several months due to the threat of rebellions within his kingdom. The relief force eventually arrived in June 1333 but found that the starving inhabitants of Gibraltar had already surrendered to the Moors. The Castilians now found themselves having to assault an entrenched enemy. They were unable to break through the Moorish defences and, faced with a stalemate, the two sides agreed to disengage in exchange for mutual concessions.

Abu Al-Hasan refortified Gibraltar "with strong walls as a halo surrounds a crescent moon" in anticipation of renewed war, which duly broke out in 1339. His forces suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Río Salado in October 1340 and fell back to Algeciras. The Castilians besieged the city for two years and eventually forced its surrender, though Gibraltar remained in Moorish hands. The peninsula's defences had been greatly improved by Abu Al-Hasan's construction of new walls, towers, magazines and a citadel, making its capture a much more difficult endeavour. Alfonso XI laid siege in 1348 following the death of Abu Al-Hasan but was thwarted by the arrival of the Black Death in 1350, which decimated his army and claimed his own life.

Gibraltar remained in Moorish hands until 1462 but was disputed between rival Moorish factions. In 1374 the peninsula was handed over to the Moors of Granada, apparently as the price for their military support of the Moors of Fez in suppressing rebellions in Morocco. Gibraltar's garrison rebelled against the Granadans in 1410 but a Granadan army retook the place the following year after a brief siege. Gibraltar was subsequently used by the Granadans as the base for raids into Christian territory, prompting Enrique de Guzmán, second Count of Niebla, to lay siege in 1436. The attempt ended in disaster; the attack was repelled with heavy casualties and Enrique himself was drowned while trying to escape by sea. His decapitated body was hung on the walls of Gibraltar for the next twenty-two years.

The end of Moorish Gibraltar came in August 1462 when a small Castilian force under Enrique's son Juan Alonso, the first Duke of Medina Sidonia, launched a surprise attack while the town's senior commanders and townspeople were away paying homage to the new sultan of Granada. After a short Castilian assault which inflicted heavy losses on the defenders, the garrison surrendered.