The Arrival of the Moors

The Visigothic monarchy disappeared when Roderick, the last of the Visigothic kings, was defeated by the Moors at the battle of Guadalete. When Tariq entered Toledo, as tradition has it on 11^th November in 711 AD, the city ceased to be the royal city and seat of the court that it had been for a century and a half. It became just another of the cities - albeit always one of the most remarkable – belonging to Al Andalus, the new political structure that was about to develop. The city gradually changed shape, taking on an urban pattern more appropriate to a Moorish society whose geographers spoke of it as the city of the kings - madinat-al-muluk.