Battle of Guadalete The Battle of Guadalete was fought in 711 or 712 at an unidentified location between the Christian Visigoths of Hispania under their king , Roderic , and an invading force of Muslim Berbers under the Berber commander Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad . The battle was significant as the culmination of a series of Berber attacks and the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Hispania . In the battle Roderic probably lost his life , along with many members of the Visigothic nobility , opening the way for the capture of Visigothic capital of Toledo . The battle is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Jerez de la Frontera , Battle of La Janda , Battle of the Río Barbate , or Battle of the Transductine Promontories . Sources . The primary source for the battle is the " Mozarabic Chronicle " , which was written shortly after 754 probably in the vicinity of Toledo . The Latin " Chronicle " was written by a Mozarab Christian . The only other Latin Christian source written within a century of the battle is the " Historia Langobardorum " of Paul the Deacon . Paul was neither Visigothic nor Hispanic , but was writing probably in Montecassino between 787 and 796 , where many Visigothic monks had taken refuge . The " Chronicle " of 741 is a near - contemporary Hispanic source , but it contains no original material pertaining to the battle . Several later Latin Christian sources contain descriptive accounts of the battle that have sometimes been trusted by historians , most notably the " Chronicle of Alfonso III " , written by Alfonso III of Asturias in the late ninth century . The high medieval accounts , such as that of Lucas de Tuy , are generally untrustworthy , containing much legend and invention . Besides the Latin Christian sources there are several Arabic language sources widely used by historians , but increasingly coming under heavy criticism . None of them predates the mid - ninth century , the date of the earliest , the " Futūh Miṣr " of Ibn ʻAbd al - Ḥakam ( " c " . 803 – 71 ) , which was composed in Egypt . This account , more rich in detail than the " Mozarabic Chronicle " , is at odds with not only the later Latin histories , but also the later Arabic ones : the anonymous compilation called the " Akhbar Majmu ' ah " , the late tenth - century work of Ibn al - Qūṭiyya ( " the son [ i . e . descendant ] of the Goth [ i . e . Wittiza ] " ) , the eleventh - century historian Ibn Hayyān , the thirteenth - century " Complete History " of Ibn al - Athir , the fourteenth - century history of Ibn Khaldūn , or the early modern work of al - Maqqarī . The " Akhbar Majmu ' ah " in particular was upheld by Claudio Sánchez - Albornoz as a genuine eighth - century work surviving only in later copies , but this view has since been refuted . The French Orientalist Évariste Lévi - Provençal on the other hand advocated Ibn Hayyān as the supreme Muslim historian of the era ( and the battle ) . Among modern Anglo - American historians , Roger Collins , R . A . Fletcher , E . A . Thompson , and Kenneth Baxter Wolf are sceptical of the Arabic sources and rely more on the " Mozarabic Chronicle " . Historians Thomas F . Glick and Bernard S . Bachrach are less sceptical . Collins in particular rejects a syncretistic approach incorporating information from all the available sources . Background . Though the reign of Roderic is traditionally dated to 710 – 11 , a literal reading of the " Chronicle " of 754 indicates 711 – 12 . Roderic did not rule unopposed , however . The nature of his accession , whether on death of Wittiza or through his assassination , is not clear from the sources . It is possible that Roderic was probably the " dux " ( duke ) of Baetica before coming to the throne . Archaeological evidence and two surviving lists of kings show that one Achila II ruled in the northeast of the kingdom at this time , but his relationship to Roderic is unknown . Probably they were rivals who never actually came into open conflict , due to the shortness of Roderic ' s reign and his preoccupation with Muslim raids . Even with Roderic ' s sphere of influence ( the southwest ) and his capital Toledo , he was not unopposed after his " usurpation " ( the " Chronicle " of 754 calls it an " invasion " ) . The battle of Guadalete was not an isolated Berber attack but followed a series of raids across the straits from Africa which had resulted in the sack of several south Iberian towns . Berber forces had probably been harassing the peninsula by sea since the conquest of Tangiers in 705 / 6 . Some later Arabic and Christian sources present an earlier raid by a certain Ṭārif in 710 and one , the " Ad Sebastianum " recension of the " Chronicle of Alfonso III " , refers to an Arab attack incited by Erwig during the reign of Wamba ( 672 – 80 ) . and two reasonably large armies may have been in the south for a year before the decisive battle was fought . These were led by Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad , and others , under the overall command of Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr . Most of the Arabic and Berber accounts agree that Ṭāriq was a Berber military leader from northern Africa . , in " " , argues Ṭāriq to have been a Goth and the nominal governor of Tingitania . Others have argued that Ṭāriq was Jewish or Persian . According to all sources , the earliest being Paul the Deacon , Ṭāriq left from Ceuta ( Septem ) and landed at the Rock of Calpe , the later Gibraltar , which Arabic sources derive from " Jebel Tariq " , " Rock of Ṭāriq " . A legend first recorded by al - Idrīsī has it that Ṭāriq burned his boats after landing . From Gibraltar he moved to conquer the region of Algeciras and then followed the Roman road that led to Seville . According to Ibn ʻAbd al - Ḥakam writing around 860 , Ṭāriq , commander of the Berber garrison of Tangiers , crossed the straits of Gibraltar with ships from a certain Count Julian ( Arabic " Ilyan " ) , lord of Ceuta and " Alchadra " ( Algeciras ) , and landed near Cartagena , which he took and made his headquarters . According to the " Mozarabic Chronicle " , Mūsā crossed the " Gaditanum fretum " ( strait of Cádiz ) with a large force in 711 and remained in Hispania for fifteen months , but it is unclear from the sources if he came before or after the battle of Guadalete , which was fought by the forces of his subordinates . During his time in the peninsula it was racked by civil war ( " intestino furore confligeratur " , " internal frenzy " , to the Mozarabic chronicler ) , cities were razed and many people slaughtered in the general destruction . According to al - Maqqarī , Roderic was fighting the Basques when he was recalled to the south to deal with an invasion . There is also the record of a Byzantine attack on southern Iberia that was repulsed by Theudimer some years before the fall of the Visigothic kingdom . This has led to theories that the Berber attacks may have been related to the Byzantine , and perhaps the Arabs were originally useful allies in a Byzantine attempt to reconquer the lost province of Spania . The author of the late Asturian " Chronica Prophetica " ( 883 ) dates the first invasion of Spain to " the Ides of November in the year 752 era " , that is , 11 November 714 . He also identified two invasions , the first by an Abu Zubra and the second , a year later , by Ṭāriq ; probably he has divided the historical figure Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad into two persons . Date and place . The date of the battle is traditionally 711 , though this is not the date given by the " Chronicle " of 754 . The " Chronicle " dates it to 712 and places it before the conquest of Toledo , which it attributes to Mūsā in 711 . If this discrepancy is solved by preferring the chronicler ' s order to his dating , then the battle occurred in 712 and the fall of Toledo later that same year . Later Arabic accounts give an exact date of 25 or 26 July . A more rough dating is between 19 and 23 July . According to David Levering Lewis , the battle took place on 19 July 711 . Preceding the battle was an entire week of inconclusive skirmishes near the lake La Janda , in the plain stretching from the Río Barbate to the Río Guadalete . According to ʻAbd al - Ḥakam , Ṭāriq was marching from Cartagena to Córdoba — after defeating a Gothic army that tried to stop him — when he met Roderic in battle near " Shedunya " , probably modern Medina Sidonia . The later Arab accounts , most of them generating from al - Ḥakam ' s , also place the battle near Medina Sidonia , " near the lake " or " Wadilakka " ( river Lakka ) , often identified as the Guadalete river , La Janda lake , stream of " Beca " , or the Barbate river ( that is , their associated valleys ) . The earliest Christian source , and the nearest source in time to the events , says that it took place near the unidentified " Transductine promontories " ( " Transductinis promonturiis " ) . Thomas Hodgkin , probably following Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada , placed the battle at Jerez de la Frontera . Joaquín Vallvé , studying toponymy , puts the engagement on the banks of the Guadarranque , which he says might derive from " Wad al - Rinq " ( Roderic ' s river ) . Engagement and aftermath . The armies that met in battle on the day that decided the fate of the Goths in Spain are not reliably described in the surviving records . Glick surmises that the Muslim army was predominantly Berber cavalry under Berber leadership . The Arabic sources traditionally give Roderic 100 , 000 troops , gathered during his return to the south after confronting the Basques . This number is outrageously high ; it complements the figure of 187 , 000 for the Muslims provided by the " Ad Sebastianum " version of the " Chronicle of Alfonso III " . Ṭāriq is said to have landed with 7 , 000 and requested 5 , 000 more from Mūsā . There could thus have been as many as 12 , 000 Muslim fighters at the battle . One modern estimate , disregarding the primary source claims , suggest a quarter of the 7 , 500 reported in one of them ; this would be approximately 2 , 000 . The Visigothic forces were " probably not much larger " and it must be emphasised that the Visigothic kingdom had been relatively peaceful and not , like Francia to its north , organised for war . A small number of elite clans ( perhaps around twenty five ) , their warrior followings , the king and his personal following , and the forces that could be raised from the royal fisc constituted the troops upon which Roderic could draw . The defeat of the Visigothic army followed on the flight of the king ' s opponents , who had only accompanied the host " in rivalry " , " deceitfully " , and " out of ambition to rule " says the Mozarabic chronicler . The story of Sisibert abandoning Roderic with the right wing of the host is a legend . Estimating Visigothic forces at 33 , 000 , David Lewis recounts how the Muslim army engaged in a series of violent hit and run attacks , while the Visigothic lines maneuvered " en masse " . A cavalry wing that had secretly pledged to rebel against Roderic stood aside , giving the enemy an opening . Ṭāriq ' s cavalry , the " mujaffafa " , forming as much as a third of the total force and armored in coats of light mail and identifiable by a turban over a metal cap , exploited the opening and charged into the Visigothic infantry , soon followed by the infantry . The Christian army was routed and the king slain in the final hours of battle . The engagement was a bloodbath : Visigothic losses were extremely high , and the Muslims lost as many as 3 , 000 men , or a quarter of their force . It is possible that his enemies intended to abandon Roderic on the field , to be defeated and killed by the Muslims . Whatever the case , their plan failed , for they too were largely slain . By another text from the " Mozarabic Chronicle " the treachery can be placed at Roderic ' s feet . He " lost his kingdom together with his " patria " with the killing of his rivals " . This unclear passage could indicate that Roderic had killed his rivals and weakened his army , ensuring defeat , or that his rivals too died in the battle or its retreat . The chronicler may be blaming the defeat on factionalism . The " Chronicle of Alfonso III " , in both its versions , blames the anonymous " sons of Wittiza " for conspiring against Roderic . Oppa , Wittiza ' s historical brother , was found in Toledo , possibly as king - elect , by Mūsā when he took the city . This Oppa may have had a part to play in the opposition to Roderic , but certainly not his nephews , who would have been too young to participate in power politics in 711 . The metropolitan of Toledo , Sindered , fled the city at the coming of the Muslims , and remained for the rest of his life an exile in Rome . The author of the " Mozarabic Chronicle " caustically notes that he was " an hireling , and not the shepherd " ( quoting Jesus , " Gospel of John " 10 : 12 ) . The Gothic nobleman Theudimer made an alliance with the conquerors to preserve his own rule of his territory . Within a decade all of the peninsula save the tiny Kingdom of Asturias and the mountain - dwelling Basques was under Muslims dominion and they had advanced beyond the Pyrenees as well . The later Arabic historians universally credit their religion for the victory . Al - Maqqarī , in " The Breath of Perfumes " , places in the mouth of Ṭāriq a morale - boosting address to his soldiers on the eve of battle , which closes with this exhortation to kill Roderic : According to later traditions , indigenous Iberian Jews , progressively disenfranchised under the rule of the Catholic Monarchs and the bishops , provided fighters to augment the Moorish forces . Kawlah al - Yahudi distinguished himself in the battle at the head of a mixed contingent of Jews and Berbers , according to the compiler of the " Akhbar Majmu ' ah " . In the aftermath of victory , the Jews reputedly took several cities and were even commissioned to garrison Seville , Córdoba , and Toledo itself . Thompson remarks that " whatever the reason for the [ Goths ' ] persecution [ of the Jews ] , it may have contributed to the utter destruction of those who initiated and enforced it . " Despite all this , the participation of Jews on the side of the Muslims is not recorded in the " Chronicle " of 754 . The traditional explanation for the rapid fall of the Visigothic kingdom has been decadence . The late ninth - century " Chronica Prophetica " indeed blames the Goths ' defeat on their lack of penance for their sins : " The city of Toledo , victor of all peoples , succombed as a victim to the triumphant Ishmaelites , and deserved to be subjected to them . Thus Spain was ruined for its disgusting sins , in the 380th year of the Goths . " This is not accepted by specialists today , though it still exerts heavy influence through tertiary accounts , especially in Spanish - language historiography . Legend . Among the legends which have accrued to the history of the battle , the most prominent is that of Count Julian , who , in revenge for the rape of ( or affair with ) his daughter Florinda ( the later " Cava Rumía " or " Doña Cava " ) by Roderic while the youth was being raised at the palace school , supposedly lent Ṭāriq the necessary ships for launching an invasion . That the Arabs already possessed sufficient naval forces in the western Mediterranean is attested by their activities against the Balearic Islands . While the rape ( and the name of his daughter ) are universally disregarded , the Count Julian of the Arabic histories has been identified with a Berber Catholic named Urban who appears in the " Chronicle " of 754 . This Urban accompanied Mūsā across the straits . Urban may be the Julian of legend , but more likely Julian is the legend of Urban . According to one interpretation of the Urban - Julian legend , he was a Byzantine governor of Ceuta who joined with the Arabs to raid the southern coasts of Iberia in 710 with Ṭārif . Glick has suggested that Ṭārif is an invention designed to explain the etymology of Tarifa , the ancient " Julia Traducta " , of which " Julian " was probably the ( unnamed ) Gothic count ( " comes julianus " ) . The " sons of Wittiza " that figure so prominently in later Christian sources , are likewise unhistorical . Wittiza , who is praised by the " Chronicle " of 754 , is almost universally vilified in subsequent works , beginning with the " Chronicle of Moissac " around 818 . The outrageousness of the accusations is proportional to the chronological distance of the narrative . Thus , Lucas de Tuy , writing in the late thirteenth century , portrays a monster , while Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada , rectifying the disparate accounts , shows Wittiza commencing his reign with promise and evolving into an tyrant . The Monk of Silos around 1115 recorded that the sons of Wittiza fled from Roderic to Julian and enlisted his aid . Among the other legends surrounding the battle is that of Roderic ' s arrival at the field in a chariot drawn by eight white mules . Concerning the conquest are the legends of the sealed chamber in Toledo ( " la maison fermée de Tolède " ) and the table ( or carpet , depending on the translation ) of Solomon that ʻAbd al - Ḥakam alleges was also discovered in Toledo . Roderic ' s golden sandal was allegedly recovered from the Guadalete river . The nineteenth - century American military history writer Henry Coppée penned a history of the conquest which incorporates and retells many of the legends .