The Umayyad governor of North Africa who directed the conquest of Hispania and completed the subjugation of the Maghreb — architect, with his general Tariq, of Muslim al-Andalus.
Life
Musa ibn Nusayr (c. 640–716) served as Umayyad governor of Ifriqiya, consolidating Muslim control across North Africa and its Berber population. In 711 he sent his commander Tariq ibn Ziyad to invade Visigothic Spain, then crossed himself in 712 to complete the conquest, taking cities Tariq had bypassed. Summoned to Damascus by the caliph al-Walid, he fell from favor amid disputes over the spoils and the credit for the conquest, and died in obscurity. His campaigns opened Iberia to centuries of Islamic civilization.