the throne--a story which seems likely enough when read in the light of
the subsequent treason of Julian. These earlier attacks, however, seem
to have been mere raids, undertaken without an immediate view to
permanent conquest.

By way of retaliation, or with a commendable foresight, the Goths sent
help to Carthage when besieged by the Arabs in 695; and, while Julian
their general still remained true to his allegiance, they beat off the
Saracens from Ceuta. But on the surrender of that fortress the Arabs
were enabled to send across the Straits a small reconnoitring detachment
of five hundred men under Tarif abu Zarah,[3] a Berber. This took place
in October 710; but the actual invasion did not occur till April 30,
711, when 12,000 men landed under Tarik ibn Zeyad. There seems to have
been a preliminary engagement before the decisive one of Gaudalete (July
19th-26th)--the Gothic general in the former being stated variously to
have been Theodomir,[4] Sancho,[5] or Edeco.[6]

[1] See De Gayangos' note on Al Makkari, i. p. 382.

[2] "Annales Moslemici," i. p. 262.

[3] The names of Tarif ibn Malik abu Zarah and Tarik ibn Zeyad
have been confused by all the careless writers on Spanish
history--_e.g._ Conde, Dunham, Yonge, Southey, etc.; but Gibbon,
Freeman, etc., of course do not fall into this error. For
Tarif's names see De Gayangos, Al Makk., i. pp. 517, 519; and
for Tarik's see "Ibn Abd el Hakem," Jones' translation, note
10.

[4] Al Makk., i. 268; Isidore: Conde, i. 55.

[5] Cardonne, i. 75.

[6] Dr Dunham.

It will not be necessary to pursue the history of the conquest in
detail. It is enough to say that in three years almost all Spain and
part of Southern Gaul were added to the Saracen empire. But the Arabs
made the fatal mistake[1] of leaving a remnant of their enemies
unconquered in the mountains of Asturia, and hardly had the wave of
conquest swept over the country, than it began slowly but surely to
recede. The year 733 witnessed the high-water mark of Arab extension in
the West, and Christian Gaul was never afterwards seriously threatened
with the calamity of a Mohammedan domination.

The period of forty-five years which elapsed between the conquest and
the establishment of the Khalifate of Cordova was a period of disorder,
almost amounting to anarchy, throughout Spain. This state of things was
one eminently favourable to the growth and consolidation of t