CHAPTER III ARAB CIVILISATION IN SPAIN The fascinating story of the conquest of Spain by the Arabs and of the development of a civilisation far in advance of anything known at the time to Western Europe, lies outside the scope of this book. Yet the history of Negroland and of Spain were in their early days so closely interwoven through the links of the Arab and Berber connection that the records of Arab civilisation are not altogether foreign to the history of West Africa.

The conquest took place at the beginning of the eighth century, and was for all ordinary purposes complete. It was carried out almost entirely by Berber troops whom Musa continued to convert, to organise, and to draft into Spain. Tangiers, which had always been a Berber stronghold, became for this purpose his military headquarters, and he was enabled perpetually to recruit his conquering armies with fresh troops. Tarik took 12,000 of these converts with him on his first landing. There was a tradition lingering from the Greek occupation of the country that Spain would be conquered only **by two nations composed of peoples unaccustomed to the luxuries of life, hardened by privation and fatigue." The Arabs and the Andalusians alike translated the prophecy to apply to the Arabs and the Berbers. " For a long period," says one of their historians, " the Berbers and Andalusians had hated each other across the Straits, but Berbers being more in want of Andalusians than these were of them, owing to certain necessaries not to be procured in Africa, which were imported from Andalus, communication necessarily existed between the people of both