The Umayyad Caliphate conquered the Visigothic Kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th century. The conquest resulted in the end of Christian rule throughout most of Iberia and the establishment of Muslim rule in that territory, which came to be known as al-Andalus under the Umayyad dynasty. During the reign of the sixth Umayyad caliph al-Walid I (r. 705–715), military commander Tariq ibn Ziyad departed from North Africa under the command of Musa ibn Nusayr in early 711 to cross the Straits of Gibraltar, with a force of about 1,700 men, to launch a military expedition against the Visigothic Kingdom based in Toledo, which encompassed the former territory of Roman Hispania.

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