The events which followed were
not only of great moment in the affairs of that country, but
foreshadowed others which seemed to involve the fate of Europe and
of Christendom in the outcome of the Mahometan advance.
Musa strengthened himself in his intention of invading Andalusia; to
this effect he called a freed slave of his, to whom he had on different
occasions intrusted important commands in his armies, and whose name was
Tarik Ibn Zeyad Ibn Abdillah, a native of Hamdan, in Persia, although
some pretend that he was not a freedman of Musa Ibn Nosseyr, but a
free-born man of the tribe of Sadf, while others make him a _mauli_ of
Lahm. It is even asserted that some of his posterity, who lived in
Andalusia, rejected with indignation the supposition of their ancestor
having ever been a liberated slave of Musa Ibn Nosseyr. Some authors,
and they are the greatest number, say that he was a Berber.
To this Tarik, therefore, the Arabian governor of Africa committed the
important trust of conquering the kingdom of Andalusia, for which end he
gave him the command of an army of seven thousand men, chiefly Berbers
and slaves, very few only being genuine Arabs.
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