The story
Arab raids west of Egypt began in the 640s, but the lasting conquest came between about 670 and 709. Uqba ibn Nafi founded the garrison city of Kairouan in 670 as a base. Hassan ibn al-Nu'man took Byzantine Carthage in about 698, ending Roman and Byzantine rule there after some seven centuries. By about 709, Musa ibn Nusayr had reached Tangier on the Atlantic. Local Byzantine garrisons and Berber resistance made the campaign slow, and it took roughly forty years.
The Berber peoples did not give up easily. The Berber queen Dihya, called al-Kahina, led fierce resistance in the Aures mountains around 700 and was defeated and killed. Over time Berber leaders accepted Islam and joined the armies, and in 711 the Berber commander Tariq ibn Ziyad led the invasion of Spain. Dates and details come mostly from later Arabic chronicles, so historians treat the sequence with some caution.
Why it mattered
- The conquest began the slow Arabization and Islamization of North Africa.
- It opened the way for the Muslim invasion of Spain in 711.
- Berber dynasties such as the Almoravids and Almohads later rose from the Maghreb itself.
Sources
- ʿUqbah ibn Nāfiʿ Britannica
- Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr Britannica
- Kahina World History Encyclopedia
- Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād Britannica
- History of North Africa Britannica
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made
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