ABSTRACT
The surge and ebb of the tide of Moorish rule across the Iberian Peninsula between the eighth century and the fifteenth left enduring marks on its cultural landscape and economic life. In nothing else are the marks of the Moorish occupation so evident as in the architecture and urban forms, especially in the Algarve and Andalusia, and in the Levant. No less important were the Moorish contributions to the economic geography of the peninsula. Among the numerous economic plants introduced by the Arabs the most important rice, sugar cane, pomegranate, carob, cotton, apricot, bitter orange are at home only in the subtropical coastal regions of the south and east. The areas of origin of the bearers of the Muslim culture traits that persist today in Iberia are imperfectly known. The first contingent to cross the Strait of Gibraltar in 711 and 712 comprised only a few thousand Arabs.
