page_title: Moorish Gibraltar
section_title: Fall of the city
hierarchical_section_title: Moorish Gibraltar / Fall of the city
caption_attribution_description: English: Moorish Baths, Gibraltar Museum
context_page_description: The history of Moorish Gibraltar began with the landing of the Muslims in Hispania and the fall of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo in 711 and ended with the fall of Gibraltar to Christian hands 751 years later, in 1462, with an interregnum during the early 14th century.
  The Muslim presence in Gibraltar began on 27 April 711 when the Berber general Tariq ibn-Ziyad led the initial incursion into Iberia in advance of the main Moorish force under the command of Musa ibn Nusayr, Umayyad governor of Ifriqiya. Gibraltar was named after Tariq, who was traditionally said to have landed on the shores of the Rock of Gibraltar, though it seems more likely that he landed somewhere nearby. Muslim sources claimed that Tariq established some kind of fortification on the Rock, but no evidence has been found and it is not considered credible. It was not until 1160 that a first fortified settlement was built there.
  The Madinat al-Fath was intended to be a major city furnished with palaces and mosques, but it seems to have fallen well short of the ambitions of its founder, the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min, by the time it was captured by the Kingdom of Castile in 1309 after a short siege.
context_section_description: The powerful Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan was severely defeated by the Christian kings at the Battle of Río Salado in 1340. Marinid Morocco subsequently went into internal convulsions, too busy for active intervention in Spain, clearing the way for a renewed attempt by the Castilians on Algeciras and Gibraltar. Algeciras was taken with relative ease by Alfonso XI of Castile in 1344. Gibraltar, however, would not fall as easily. The Castilans subjected it to a fifth siege between 1349–50. It ended when Alfonso XI died from bubonic plague during the Black Death.
  In 1374 control of Gibraltar was transferred from Marinid Morocco to Nasrid Granada. In 1410, however, the Moorish garrison revolted and declared their allegiance to Morocco, leading to the sixth siege in 1411 when the Granadan Nasrids stormed the city with assistance from sympathisers within the walls.
  Another attempt to capture the city for the Christians was made by Enrique de Guzmán, Second Count of Niebla. The Seventh Siege of Gibraltar ended in disaster on 31 August 1436 when a landing led by Enrique resulted in his drowning at the Red Sands along with 40 knights and men-at-arms. His body was retrieved by the Moors, beheaded and displayed in a wicker basket above Gibraltar's Sea Gate for the next 26 years.
  Finally, on 20 August 1462, Enrique's son Juan Alonso de Guzmán, 1st Duke of Medina Sidonia succeeded in capturing Gibraltar after launching a surprise attack. His success in the brief Eighth Siege of Gibraltar was due to the garrison being greatly depleted after its men of rank had left for Granada, with their retinues, to pay homage to the newly enthroned sultan Abu l-Hasan Ali. An initial assault by the Count of Arcos was beaten back with many casualties on both sides, but the men of the garrison realised that in their depleted state they could not withstand a second assault. They offered to surrender on condition that the garrison and inhabitants of Gibraltar would be allowed to leave with their wives, children and movable goods, with compensation to be paid for the property that they left behind. Although the proposal was welcomed, it fell through due to rivalry between the Christian commanders. The Moorish inhabitants of Gibraltar retreated to the castle and surrendered after a few days to Medina Sidonia. They were expelled along with the city's Jewish population, to be replaced by Spanish Christians.
  The Reconquista of Gibraltar took place on the feast of St. Bernard, whom the Spanish named patron saint of Gibraltar and has remained so ever since. This brought an end to Moorish Gibraltar, just over 751 years after Tariq ibn-Ziyad had begun the conquest of Iberia.
caption: The Gibraltar Museum incorporates the Moorish Baths, one of the few buildings of Moorish Gibraltar to have survived.
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