He agrees in saying that Ilyan,
lord of Ceuta, incited Musa Ibn Nosseyr to make the conquest of
Andalusia; and that this he did out of revenge, and moved by the
personal enmity and hatred he had conceived against Roderic. He makes
Tarik's army amount only to seven thousand, mostly Berbers, which, he
says, crossed in four vessels provided by Ilyan. According to his
account, Tarik landed on a Saturday, in the month of Shaban, of the
year 92, and the vessels that brought him and his men on shore were
immediately sent back to Africa, and never ceased going backward and
forward until the whole of the army was safely landed on the shores of
Andalusia.
On the other side, Ibnu Khaldun reckons the army under the orders of
Tarik at three hundred Arabs and ten thousand Berbers. He says that
before starting on his expedition, Tarik divided his army into two
corps, he himself taking the command of one, and placing the other under
the immediate orders of Tarif An-najai. Tarik, with his men, landed at
the foot of the rock now called _Jebalu-l-fatah_, "the mountain of the
entrance," and which then received his name, and was called
_Jebal-Tarik_, "the mountain of Tarik"; while his companion, Tarif,
landed on the island afterward called after him _Jezirah-Tarif_, "the
island of Tarif.
Pages:
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620