ABSTRACT
Although Spain and Morocco were the states farthest west in .the Arab empire, together they formed the main bridge across which Islamic civilization and culture percolated to Europe. In less than a hundred years after the Hegira, the Arab dominion extended across northern Africa to the shores of the Atlantic. North Africa was not only conquered, but was permanently occupied. By 709 Musa ibn-Nusair, the Umayyad governor of the newly acquired region, had succeeded in subjugating the Berbers of Morocco. He had also come to terms with the legendary Count Julian or Urban, the Byzantine governor of Ceuta, who was to aid him in the wildfire conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.
