ABSTRACT
The Itineraries of the Muslim Conquest of al-Andalus 5
on the latter element, smce I judge it to be of most import to my purposes.
Briefly, there are three basic sources on which one must depend in order to study the first Muslim campaigns on this side of the Strait of Gibraltar .15 One of them is the chronicle by A~mad al-Razi, the original Arabic text of which has not come down to us, and of which we only possess an excessively adulterated version in Portuguese and partial translations in Spanish and French. We also find excerpts of this illustrious Cordoban historian's book in the writings of al-Maqqari, as well as in the Akhbiir majmii'a, Ibn al-Athir, Al-Bayiin al-mughrib and Ximenez de Rada, all of whom sometimes corrupt the text with arbitrary additions. Another of these basic sources is Ibn al-Qutyya's Iftitii~, written at roughly the same time as al-Razi's chronicle and preserved thanks to his disciple's notes. The third source is [56] made up of two complementary texts: the Fat~ al-Andalus and the Risiila of the Moroccan Ambassador, 16 works which are in general well-informed. Regrettably, the opinion of this trilogy of sources is not unanimous with regard to the order followed in the itineraries and the conquests carried out by one or the other Muslim military commander. With respect to the first itinerary, that is, the route pursued by Tariq ibn Ziyad, only the Fat~ al-Andalus and one reference by al-Maqqari taken from al-Razi 17 agree with what Ibn alShabbat proposes, inspired by Ibn al-Kharrafs compendium of al-Rushati's work. According to these texts, after their victory at Wadi Lakka, the Muslim hosts marched from Medina Sidonia to Toledo via Mor6n,18 Carmona, Seville,19 Ecija and Cordoba. The Moroccan Ambassador, perhaps relying
The conquest of Carmona was an inevitable precondition for a secure domination of the southern extremity of the Peninsula, since it was considered to be one of the most strongly garrisoned positions of Visigothic Spain.26 By
C. Sanchez Albornoz believes that, in spite of the unanimity of the testimony found in many chronicles, Tariq did not pass through Cordoba on his way to Toledo.35 We must dissent from this view in the face of the evidence which Ibn al-Shabbafs chronicle and other texts constitute.36 We are prepared to admit, however, that it could have been Mugh1th al-Rum1,37
The Itineraries of the Muslim Conquest of al-Andalus 9
along with those contained in Ibn al-Shabbafs chronicle, and we know for a fact that they cannot be simply brushed off; for in the form that we have attempted to propose above, Tariq's route would make perfect sense. That Miisa, disembarking at Algeciras,41 could have made his way to Nieblathe Fat~ al-Andalus and the Risiila have him first conquer a fortress, called "Qal'at Ra'wan" by one and "Qal'at Za'waq" by the other42-and Beja, in order to [61] then take the Roman highway (al-baliit) 43 which began in Carteya and ended in Merida, traversing the Fajj Miisa,44 is perfectly feasible.
