ABSTRACT

The Arabs called their new domain in the Iberian peninsula "al-Andalus". The word is thought to be a corruption of "Vandalicia", a name derived from the Vandal invaders. It was used exclusively for that part of the peninsula under Muslim rule, so that, as the Reconquista progressed, the geographical area to which the term was applied contracted. The non-Muslims in a province of the caliphate had, as already noted, the status of "protected persons" or dhimmis. Originally, all the Muslim Arabs were Hable to military service and all received stipends from the state. They thus constituted a superior military caste. The rapid occupation of almost the whole Iberian peninsula together with the attempts at further expansion into France inevitably had repercussions among the agents of these operations, namely, the Arabs and their Berber allies. Much of the tension which is found among the Arabs is ascribed, in the sources, to the rivalry between tribes and groups of tribes.