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The Battle Of Guadalete And The Saracen Conquest Of Spain by Andrew K. Steen
In the clouded past of a ghostlike age, from atop a sandstone escarpment encircled by steep ravines and flooded on three sides by the green waters of the Rio Tajo, the Visigoth kings ruled over a vast and fertile region known as Hispania.
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eginning in the mid-fourth century, from their fortress capital Toledo, the Visigoths’ Council of State had filled the power vacuum that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire. They achieved unification through most of the Iberian Peninsula by adopting many facets of the Christian Hispano-Romano culture, including its laws, language and religion. Their supremacy, however, had come at a very high cost. Between 411 and 441 A.D., barbaric Germanic tribes of Vandals and Swabians had periodically poured across their borders to plunder and pillage their lands. To counteract these invasions, the Visigoths’ cavalry, mounted on fleet and agile Thieldon and Caldon steeds, rode, fought and often died vanquishing them from their realm—in the process, giving birth to a new form of battle that would later be known as ‘Medieval warfare.’ Nevertheless, some 260 years after the Visigoths had consolidated their power, their kingdom was destabilized and shattered with internal strife, which rendered it incapable of withstanding the tidal wave of Islamic expansion that arose unexpectedly from the depths of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Saracens’ Holy War
In his book Medieval Warfare, noted war historian H. W. Koch commented on the Saracen warriors and their desert-bred horses. “The Arabs gained much by the surprise element of their attack, its sudden and unexpected impact and by the way in which they managed to sustain that impact,” he wrote. “Quick on horses and camels, both products of an environment which could make do with little for a long time, a characteristic which of course applied to their riders too. Armed with lance, sword, bow and arrow, they were unencumbered in their movement by the kind of baggage trains which Roman armies, or for that matter the Germanic tribes, carried with them.”
Origins Of The Visigoth Downfall Few segments of Spanish history are more muddled and confused than the momentous battle of Guadalete, which led to the decimation of the Visigoths and radically altered the course of world history. Although there is an abundance of ancient Latin Christian and Arabic language texts that expound upon the historic onslaught (notably the Mozarabic Chronicles), all were written between 40 and 200 years after the incident by authors who were not eyewitnesses. Not surprisingly, those secondhand accounts seldom agree upon such important factors as the strength of the opposing combatants and even the precise location of the battlefield. Indeed, some historians insist that the first major battle took place at Barbate or at the nearby town of Medina Sidonia, and no text relates with much credence or precision what became of the story’s principal Visigoth characters.
Collectively, the ancient desert tribes of Syria and Arabia, living on the fringe of the Roman Empire, were known as Saracens. By the year 711, the followers of Mohammed had conducted their religious/military revolution for nearly a century. Ignited by their prophet’s teachings, they had provoked a Holy War of conquest in which the territorial subjugation of adjacent nations was remarkably swift. Fortunately, historians tend to agree that by In the east, the Sassanid Persian Empire the beginning of the third century A.D., the and all the regions to the west of the situation in Hispania had become completely Indus River had been overrun and the chaotic. Famines, plagues and heavy-handed inhabitants converted to the Islamic faith. rule had thrust the regime of Toledo to Simultaneously, armies recruited from the the brink of civil war. The straw that broke King Witiza Bedouin tribes that dwelled in the depths the camel’s back occurred in February of of the Arabian deserts, lashed out across the whole of 710 A.D., when King Witiza (r. 698-710) died of North Africa from the Red Sea to the shores of the natural causes before he had reached the age of 30. He Atlantic Ocean. Thousands of their crescent banners bequeathed his kingdom to his eldest son Agila II (or were implanted throughout Central Asia and North Achila, Akhila, etc.,) who was but 10 years old. Although Africa. The Berber tribes of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains his loyal followers, who were known as Witizanos, (a people who were distantly related to the Arabian abided by the dictates of Witiza and placed the boy Bedouins) initially offered fierce resistance, but even on the throne, power-hungry rivals quickly emerged to they were soon “Islamicized” and anxious to fight for usurp his authority. In the midst of heated deliberations, the cause of Allah in the conquest of Spain. one of the two principal families that vied for control
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IN HISTORY of the Council of State proclaimed the Duke of Bética, Rodrigo (or if you prefer, Roderic), as king, only a month after Witiza’s demise. Consequently, a violent civil war erupted which devastated the once proud kingdom. Although it is difficult to document Rodrigo’s short reign, it is known that his first order of business was to banish all of his adversaries from Toledo. Among those expelled was Witiza’s brother Oppas, the Bishop of Seville, who sought refuge in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (ancient Septem) on the north coast of Morocco.
The Traitor Count Julian Among the many legends associated with the downfall of the Visigoth Kingdom is the saga of Count Julian (in Arabic, Ilyan), the Lord of Ceuta and Alchadra, and his motives for betraying Rodrigo. Some maintain that his daughter Florinda (later known as ‘Cava Rumía’ or ‘Doña Cava’) had been assaulted by Rodrigo while the youthful future duke was being educated at the palace school. It is said that Count Julian, seeking revenge for his daughter’s dishonor, conspired with Oppas and other Witizanos to overthrow the king. Ostensibly, their goal was to seat Witiza’s chosen heir, Agila II, upon the throne, although it is more likely that they coveted it for themselves.
Muza Ibn Nasair At the time, Muza Ibn Nasair, who had been appointed by the Umayyad Caliph of Damascus to rule the vast region that the Romans had called Mauritania, governed most of North Africa from the seaport city of Tangiers. Supposedly, Oppas and Count Julian approached Muza and offered him abundant rewards in exchange for the services of his army. Apparently, they failed to consider the possibility that the Saracen mercenaries would overrun all of Spain. As a prelude to the main invasion, Tarif Ibn Malluk, with an army of some 500 Berber combatants, sailed on a reconnaissance expedition along the windy coast of Cadiz and landed at a place which now bears his name, the town of Tarifa. Having encountered almost no resistance, they pillaged the sparsely populated region, then returned to Morocco with tales of easy plunder. The political turmoil and manifest vulnerability of Hispania constituted an irresistible opportunity for the energetic Islamic armies, which did not hesitate to attack—and overwhelm—the affluent territory that was ripe for the picking.
Tariq Ibn Ziyad When Tariq Ibn Ziyad, a Berber lieutenant of Muza Ibn Nasair, was alerted that Rodrigo was engaged in the distant north of Iberia putting down a revolt, he seized the opportunity and immediately launched a full-scale invasion. Toward the end of April of 711, he disembarked on Spanish soil to do battle against the vastly superior Visigoth forces. News of Tariq’s invasion spread quickly. By all accounts, Count Julian supplied Tariq with four handsome vessels to transport 7,000 warriors and their horses across the 13 miles of the Straits of Hercules, which separate Europe and Africa. The army landed at the base of an enormous granite outcropping which jutted out of the sea; they dubbed it Jebel Tari (“Tariq’s Rock”), a term which later was corrupted into ‘Gibraltar.’ During the next few weeks, other boats ferried an additional 5,000 reinforcements that were sent by Muza Ibn Nasair. Most of these were Berbers that were commanded by roughly 300 battle-hardened Arab chiefs. A few Witizanos and disenfranchised Jews that Rodrigo had expelled from his reign also sided with the Saracens and participated in the first major confrontation.
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Rodrigo’s Long March South When Rodrigo received news of the invasion, he abandoned Pamplona in great haste and marched almost 1,000 kilometers south in a race to save his kingdom. Along the way, he recruited as many troops as possible from the loyal nobility and mobilized his entire personal guard from Toledo. However, in his rush, he made the error of accepting troops from his enemies, Oppas and Sisberto. It is difficult to establish the number of soldiers that rallied to his call. According to some accounts, he marshalled more than 100,000 men; however, such numbers were undoubtedly exaggerated. It is more likely that only around 40,000 Visigoths were assembled to repel the invasion. Rodrigo’s second fatal mistake was leaving most of his slow-marching infantry in Cordoba. Moreover, following their long trek, his entire army arrived at the theater of battle completely exhausted. While Rodrigo’s army was marching to meet their destiny and demise, Tariq had ample time to reconnoiter the terrain and choose the most advantageous site for the momentous battle. He King Rodrigo selected the undulating hills that rise above the banks of a shallow river which the Arabs called Wadi Lakkah and the Spanish know as the Rio Guadelete. Situated between what today are the towns of Jerez and Arcos de la Frontera, it offered ideal terrain for the Saracen cavalry’s proven battle tactics. By curious coincidence or bizarre fate, the ancient battle took place on precisely the ground occupied by the Yeguada Militar’s Cortijo Vico, the home of the Spanish National Arabian broodmare band and birthplace of some of the finest bloodstock the breed has ever known. The strength of Tariq’s army was his archers, who were trained in defensive tactics and especially adept at repelling cavalry charges. They were fundamental in dismounting the Visigoth horsemen. Tariq divided his forces into five divisions: the Muqaddama (advanced guard), Qalb (center guard), Maimanah (right flank),
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Maisarah (left flank), and Saqah (rear guard). These compact formations were escorted on both flanks by groups of light cavalry (the mujaffafa). Armed with mail shirts, iron breastplates and colorful turbans or metal helmets, they accounted for as much as a third of Tariq’s total force. For several days before the battle, his horsemen initiated a series of skirmishes and tactical retreats to ambush and chastise Rodrigo’s weary forces as they trudged toward their impending doom.
The Battle Of Guadalete As the battle grew near, Rodrigo’s infantry occupied the central position along the banks of the shallow Guadelete, leaving his flanks under the command of Oppas and Sisberto. The Visigoth fighters were wellarmed with double-edged swords, lightweight shields covered with leather, lances and daggers of various sizes and types. Some were also equipped with lethal iron maces for hand-to-hand combat. The attack was initiated with general fighting concentrated in the center of the Visigoths’ front line. While their infantry stood firm and struck back, Oppas and Sisberto persuaded other Witizano nobles to abandon Rodrigo’s flanks en masse. Meanwhile, Tariq’s cavalry struck with a violent frontal attack which breached Rodrigo’s defensive line. During the heat of battle, the mujaffafa exploited an opening in the Visigothic files, allowing their own infantry to penetrate deep into their ranks. The mêlée gave way to encirclement, and Rodrigo’s army was decimated by a deadly fusillade of arrows and spears. The speed and endurance of the Saracens’ hot-blooded Arabian and Berber (Barb) horses played a crucial part in the outcome.
The Spoils Of War The devastating history-altering clash ended near sunset on June 26, 711. Fatality statistics are wildly diverse. The most reliable figures place Tariq’s losses at around 3,000 soldiers. Although the number of Rodrigo’s men that died at Guadelete is unknown, the consensus is that his losses were far greater than the Saracens’ losses. From the captured booty, Tariq rewarded each of his men with 250 dinars, reserving the bulk of the spoils to split with Musa Ibn Nusayr. Quickly, news of the abundant plunder taken in the south of Spain, which the Arabs called Al-Andaluz, converted Hispania into
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IN HISTORY the Promised Land for the defenders of the Koran. Thousands of Arabs rode across the barren sands of North Africa to participate in subsequent battles of the Holy War and partake in the bountiful spoils of war.
The Fate Of Rodrigo Historians don’t know if Rodrigo was killed at Guadelete, but one thing is certain: He disappeared, as did the entire Visigoth civilization, in remarkably short order. Some of his vanquished troops that escaped from the carnage sought refuge at nearby Écija. The remainder retreated toward Toledo and other cities in the north. Most of the demoralized Visigoths probably realized that their society and way of life would be coming to an abrupt end. As for Rodrigo, there are various versions of what became of him. By some romantic and far-fetched accounts, he died in ferocious hand-to-hand combat with Tariq himself. Others maintained that his horse and armor were found near the banks of the Guadalete and that he had drowned. A few assert he died at Segoyuela, Salamanca, in 713. Perhaps the most interesting scenario is that he escaped toward the west in the company of his loyal guard to organize a second resistance in the hope of maintaining his throne. This intriguing hypothesis is based upon a strange sepulcher that was discovered in ancient Lusitania near the town of Viseu, Portugal, that featured a curious lapis engraved with the Latin words Rodericus Rex.
The Fall Of Toledo Muza Ibn Nasair and Tariq’s armies advanced rapidly inland, conquering Seville, Cordoba, and every other city in their path. The following year (712) at Toledo, after annihilating the Council of State, they separated. Tariq’s forces rode east into the Levant and took Valencia, while Muza overran Galicia in the northwest. In less than three years, almost all of the Iberian Peninsula had fallen under Islamic domination. Only small, isolated strongholds in Asturia, Navarra and upper Aragon managed to withstand the Saracen onslaught. In the meantime, other armies from Damascus, Baghdad, and throughout the Mideast arrived to conquer. They crossed into France and took Aquitaine in 712, then returned in 719 to ransack Narbonne. Two years later, they desecrated and plundered Toulouse.
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Despite huge losses, his defensive tactic succeeded and with the coming of nightfall on the seventh day of battle, the invaders withdrew and rode back across the Pyrenees, abandoning most of their baggage train and many wounded desert-bred horses. When the Saracen armies were unable to overwhelm the Frankish territories, they consolidated their power throughout Hispania. The distinguished equine authority Anthony Dent observed in The Horse Through Fifty Centuries of Civilization that “probably the Saracen offensive in Spain, which had reached far up into France in the years before Charlemagne’s accession, had resulted in more oriental horses coming into Western hands than all the Crusades put together.”
Aldebaran I, “The Immigrant” Don Pelayo And Covadonga Some seven years after the defeat at Guadelete and the fall of Toledo, Don Pelayo, who had fled to the extreme north of the peninsula, established his own small Kingdom of Asturias. In the late summer of 718, a Muslim army overran much of that region, forcing him and his 300 warriors to retreat into a narrow valley secluded deep into the mountains, where they could defend against the broad frontal cavalry attacks employed by the Arabs. Following many bellicose incursions at the fateful battle of Covadonga, Pelayo’s forces finally routed a Saracen army and inspired the region’s peasant population to take up arms. The victory at Covadonga marked the first small step of a 781 year journey to vanquish and expel the Arabs from Spanish soil, which became known as La Reconquista.
Charles Martel At Poitiers All of Europe lay vulnerable to the Islamic conquest, which was not detained until 732, when Charles Martel, called “the Hammer,” chief of the Austrasian Franks, confronted the invaders with a huge army at Poitiers, not far from Tours, France. During the weeklong battle that ensued, the Moslems brought their offensive strength into play, attacking at lightning speed in a series of cavalry charges that made the earth tremble. Charles Martel had drawn his forces in a solid phalanx and repelled assault after assault.
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Hollywood screenwriters would be hard pressed to conjure up a more exciting story than the truelife saga of Spain’s most famous invader, Abdu’rRahman Ibn Muawiyah. Better known as Aldebaran I, “The Immigrant,” he was the grandson of Caliph Rishim and the sole survivor of the Maiyads chiefs. The Abbasids, a rival branch of Mohammed’s extended family (that descended from Abbas, the Prophet’s paternal uncle), had enticed the Maiyads into attending a reconciliatory banquet, where they slaughtered 80 or 90 members of that clan. The chronic rivalry between the two principal branches of the Islamic faith threatened the stability of Islamic Spain; nevertheless, Abdu’r-Rahman’s instincts pushed him in that direction. For five dangerous and hungry years, he lived as a fugitive and survived several assassination attempts. Fleeing certain death, he departed with only one faithful servant from Damascus on an epic ride across the entire North African continent. Through his cunning, determination and bravery, he assembled an army that triumphed over the Abbasids and in 756 founded an emirate and dynasty in Cordoba, which ruled over Al-Andaluz until 1031. Among the many legends pertaining to Aldebaran I, one is the story that as he prepared to engage in battle mounted on a magnificent Arabian stallion, a rumor spread among his troops that he might be
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IN HISTORY tempted to flee, should fate not be on his side. To reassure his men, he supposedly exchanged the swift steed for a skinny old mule, which he rode through the rank and file before the combat began.
Abdu’r-Rahman III In 929, Cordoba broke away from the control of Damascus. Abdu’r-Rahman III (r. 912-961) proclaimed Spain independent and himself Charles "The Hammer" Martel at the Battle of Poitiers. caliph—and three centuries of peace and prosperity reinforced his army until it numbered approximately followed. The splendor of Cordoba rivaled Baghdad 70,000 men and as many as 46,000 riders. When in its opulence. Its main library contained 400,000 he died at Calatañazor, Soria, in 1002, his personal manuscripts and documents. Perhaps among them was escort numbered 1,700 horsemen. By that time, the a book titled Ali Abd Allah Ben Ziyadin, which was emblematic traits of the Arabian horses were firmly probably the first book ever written on the Arabian ingrained in the indigenous herds of Spain. horse. Transcribed entirely in verse in the year 1060 (450 of the Moslem calendar), it was written by 84 different Arab authors. The priceless tome contained anecdotes about which tribes had the best, the fastest and strongest horses, in addition to accounts of various famous events and battles, and the names of saints, wise men and great warriors.
Al Manzor “The Victorious” During these prolonged periods, important commercial trade routes were established directly with other Islamic kingdoms in the Middle East, and innumerable horses of Arabian lineage, many directly from Baghdad and the Mesopotamia region, entered the conquered territory of Al-Andaluz. The horses and elaborate stables of a later Caliph of Cordoba, the ruthless and remarkable Al Manzor “The Victorious” (r. 939-1002), were renowned throughout Islam. His army was composed principally of Berbers, Negro slaves from the Maghreb regions of Northwest Africa, and Asian volunteers for the Holy War. In all they numbered more than 30,000 infantry and 5,000 mounted warriors. There were also some 3,900 camels and 2,000 mules in his supply train. Toward the end of his reign, at the height of his campaigns against the Christians, Al Manzor
The Saracen Legacy While the rest of Europe stagnated and stumbled through the Dark Ages, and for the most part lived in misery, the Spanish Muslims ruled over a splendid civilization with a well organized and prosperous economy. Their advances in science, astronomy, mathematics and medicine far surpassed those of the rest of Europe. The Saracens greatly influenced and enriched the Spanish culture in uncountable different ways. Its language, art, architecture, agriculture, music, dance and cuisine are all firmly rooted in the 781 years of Muslim occupation. Subtle Oriental nuances are omnipresent and evident throughout the entire modern culture, including the morphological characteristics of Spain’s horses, which underwent profound changes in their traits and coat colors. After Tariq’s invasion of 711, continuous importations of Arabian horses were interbred over several centuries with the local equine population. Their descendants established a genetic base that became the foundation of today’s renowned Hispano horses. Their influence upon virtually every other light horse breed on the European continent is a matter of historical record. ■
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