The Berber commander who led the Muslim conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711, opening Iberia to centuries of Islamic presence — the Rock of Gibraltar (Jabal Tariq) bears his name.
Life
A Berber general and client of the Umayyad governor Musa ibn Nusayr, Tariq crossed from North Africa in 711 and destroyed the Visigothic army of King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete, then advanced to take Toledo and much of the peninsula. Gibraltar — from Jabal Tariq, "Tariq's mountain" — preserves his name. Later legend credits him with burning his boats and a stirring speech to his outnumbered men, though these are of doubtful historicity. His conquests, completed with Musa, founded al-Andalus; his own later fate is obscure.