Julian, count of Ceuta

Julian, Count of Ceuta was a Christian local ruler or subordinate ruler in North Africa who had a role in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, a key event in the history of Islam in which al-Andalus was to have a major role and the subsequent history of what were to become Spain and Portugal.

Count Julian was "Commander of Septem" (present-day Ceuta), and according to some scholars, possibly last Byzantine Exarch of Africa.

Luis García de Valdeavellano writes that, during the Umayyad conquest of North Africa, in "their struggle against the Byzantines and the Berbers, the Arab chieftains had greatly extended their African dominions, and as early as the year 682 Uqba had reached the shores of the Atlantic, but he was unable to occupy Tangier, for he was forced to turn back toward the Atlas Mountains by a mysterious person" who became known to history and legend as Count Julian. Muslim historians have referred to him as Ilyan or Ulyan, "though his real name was probably Julian, the Gothic Uldoin or perhaps Urban or Ulbán or Bulian."

Julian is sometimes regarded as having been a vassal of Roderic, king of the Visigoths in Hispania (modern Portugal and Spain). But Valdeavellano notes other possibilities, arguing that probably he was a berber.

We are not certain whether he was a Berber, a Visigoth, or a Byzantine; as a "count" he may have been the ruler of the fortress of Septem, once part of the Visigoth kingdom; or he may have been an exarch or a governor ruling in the name of the Byzantine Empire: or, as appears more likely, he may have been a Berber who was the lord and master of the Catholic Berber tribe of the Gomera.

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