Tariq ibn Ziyad

Ṭāriq bin Ziyād طارق بن زياد
Died	Damascus, Syria
Buried at	Damascus
Allegiance	Umayyad Caliphate
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Conquest of Hispania  • Battle of Guadalete
Other work	Governor of Al-Andalus

Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād (Arabic: طارق بن زياد‎‎) was a Muslim commander who led the Islamic Umayyad conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711–718 A.D. Under the orders of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I he led a large army and crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from the North African coast, consolidating his troops at what is today known as the Rock of Gibraltar. The name "Gibraltar" is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq (جبل طارق), meaning "mountain of Ṭāriq", which is named after him.

Medieval historians give little or no information about Ṭāriq's origins or nationality. Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, Ibn al-Athir, Al-Tabari and Ibn Khaldun do not say anything on the subject, and have been followed in this by modern works such as the Encyclopedia of Islam and Cambridge History of Islam.There are three different accounts given by a few Arabic histories which all seem to date from between 400 and 500 years after Ṭāriq's time. These are that:

Most historians, Arab and Spanish, seem to agree that he was a slave of the emir of Ifriqiya (North Africa), Musa bin Nusayr, who gave him his freedom and appointed him a general in his army. But his descendants centuries later denied he had ever been Mūsā's slave.

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