ABSTRACT
Like the early Arab settlers, al-Baladiyyūn, the Berbers settled along the routes of Ṭāriq’s and Mūsā’s expeditions. Reinhart Dozy, however, argues that the Arabs themselves were the designers of the Berber’s settlements. He also believes that the Arabs were very unjust in their division of the land among these people because, he asserts, the Arabs tried to keep the fair and fertile places for themselves. He accordingly concludes that ‘the Arabs banished the Berbers to the barren plains of la Mancha and Estremadora, or the bleak mountains of León, Galicia and Asturia’.1 No justification can be found in the sources for this conclusion. Unfortunately, Dozy’s baseless statements are widely believed by modern historians,2 but there are still a few writers who do not accept his arguments.3
