The Conquest of Al-Andalus: How Did Morocco Lay Claim to a History That Predates Its Own Existence?

History is not negotiated with chauvinistic Moroccan myths; it is written through facts, dates, and geography. While modern narratives attempt to appropriate the glorious epic of the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711, a rigorous analysis of the chronology and political sociology of the Maghreb dismantles the anachronism of attributing a role in this founding event to present-day Morocco.

The historical reality is unambiguous: the army that crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in 711 was commanded by Tariq ibn Ziyad, a leader from the Central Maghreb, corresponding largely to present-day Algeria, and fought under the banner of the Umayyad Empire. At that time, the lands of modern Morocco had not yet seen the founding of Fez, the oldest major city of the contemporary Moroccan state, whose establishment would only take place several decades later.

Indeed, nearly 80 to 100 years separate the conquest of al-Andalus from the birth of Fez and the emergence of the first Idrisid state. Meanwhile, the Central Maghreb already possessed prosperous and ancient urban centers, heirs to a long history stretching back to Numidia and Roman Africa. Among them was Tlemcen, whose origins date back to the ancient city known successively as Pomaria and later Tagrart, a major commercial and cultural crossroads in the region.

The conquest of al-Andalus therefore belongs to a period preceding the formation of the first Moroccan states, reminding us that the protagonists of this major event emerged from a political, military, and geographical context very different from the one that would develop in the Western Maghreb from the late eighth century onward.

1. Tariq ibn Ziyad: The Sword of the Central Maghreb

At the heart of this epic stands the monumental figure of Tariq ibn Ziyad. The major historiographical sources, foremost among them the renowned Ibn Khaldun in his Kitāb al-ʿIbar, establish his tribal origin beyond dispute.

Tariq ibn Ziyad belonged to the great Berber tribe of the Walhasa (or Oulhaça), a powerful branch of the Nafzaoua confederation. The historical and geographical homeland of the Walhasa is clearly identified: it lies in the heart of the Central Maghreb, in the Oran region, around the lands of Tlemcen and Aïn Témouchent, within the territory of present-day Algeria.

It was this exceptional strategist, serving as commander of the armed forces under the authority of Governor Musa ibn Nusayr and beneath the banner of the Caliphate of Damascus, who delivered the decisive blow in 711. To attribute the glory of Tariq ibn Ziyad to entities that arose centuries later farther west is a distortion of memory that historical scholarship firmly rejects.

2. The Absence of Present-Day Morocco: A Gap of One Century

The assertion that Morocco played a role in 711 encounters an absolute chronological impossibility. The political and urban structures that define Moroccan history simply did not exist at the time of the conquest of al-Andalus.

• 711: The military expedition reached the Iberian Peninsula. The Far Maghreb was then merely a commercial and military zone under the administrative authority of Kairouan (Ifriqiya).
• 789–808: Moulay Idriss I and his son Idriss II laid the first foundations of the city of Fez.

There is a gap of nearly eight decades to a century between Tariq ibn Ziyad’s crossing of the Strait and the emergence of the first Moroccan state centered in Fez. In 711, Fez was still undeveloped land, and no local dynasty exercised state power over the region.

3. The Barghawata: The Reality of the Far Maghreb in the Eighth Century

To understand what the Far Maghreb was in the eighth century, one must examine the direct consequences of the Great Berber Revolt (739–740) against the Umayyad Caliphate. Far from participating in the Islamic expansion into Europe, the local populations of west-central Morocco (the Tamesna region) turned away from Islamic orthodoxy and established the Barghawata Confederation.

Under the leadership of Salih ibn Tarif, the Barghawata founded a kingdom based on a distinctive form of religious syncretism: a Quran written in the Berber language, a local prophetic tradition, and religious practices separate from those of the wider Muslim world.

Historians and theologians of the period, whether Sunni, Shiite, or Kharijite, unanimously regarded the Barghawata as heretics (muhtadi'un). In complete doctrinal and political rupture with the rest of the Ummah, this local power possessed neither the religious motivation, the political alliances, nor the military means to influence the conquest of al-Andalus.

An Unalterable Historical Reality

History cannot be reinvented after the fact. The conquest of Andalusia in 711 was carried out by an Umayyad army led by a military commander originating from the tribes of the Central Maghreb, on the soil of what is now Algeria, at a time when Morocco, in its institutional form, had not yet come into existence and when the Far Maghreb was dominated by confederations isolated from the rest of the Islamic world.

Restoring the historical truth about Tariq ibn Ziyad and the eighth century means honoring the memory of the heroes of the Central Maghreb and protecting history from anachronistic distortions.

By Belgacem Merbah