Introduction

There is no doubt that the best sources regarding the Muslim settlement in Spain are Ibn Hazm’s book Jamharat Ansāb al-’Arab,¹ and al-Maqqarī’s quotations from Ibn Ghālib’s work, Farḥat al-Anfus.² Yet some of their information is too general and remote from the early times of the conquest. However, in an attempt to describe the Muslim settlement in Spain, some modern historians have confined themselves to the above mentioned sources alone. Thus, although Ḥ. Mu’nis writes a lengthy study of 700 pages about the early Muslim period in Spain, he only devotes a few pages to their actual settlement there.³ On the other hand. P. Guichard realises that it is impossible to write a proper study of the Arab settlement in Spain by relying on just one source. Nevertheless, he himself attempts to establish a system of naming the Arab tribes in Spain using Ibn al-Faraḍī’s work Tarīkh ‘Ulamā’ al-Andalus⁴ as his point of departure; but he is very cautious about drawing any conclusions from this source.⁵