the Arabian conquerors of Spain, well known by this name on account of their having come directly from the land of the ancient Mauri, or Mauritania. They first Moorshedabad invaded the Spanish territories in 711 under Tarik, the lieutenant of Musa Ibn Nosseyr; and in 712 that able general, landing his forces, speedily completed the conquest that had been begun, and subdued the entire country, with the exception of the mountainous districts of Asturias and Galicia. (See Musa.) The conqueror then assumed the reins of government in subordination to the viceroy of Africa, and was the first of the amirs who ruled the country for the next forty-four years. In 756 Abd-el-rahman, a military adventurer, and a descendant of the deposed Mohammedan dynasty of the Beni Omniyah, won the supreme power by the sword. Till 1031 he and his descendants reigned as sovereigns of Spain. The local governors then threw off their allegiance, and established themselves as independent potentates. A series of civil wars, however, left Mohammedan Spain, in course of time, under the power of a few great kings. The Christians also, taking advantage of the internal dissensions of their Moorish enemies, marshalled themselves under Alfonso "the Battler," and captured Castile, and its capital Toledo. They were pursuing their conquests in 1086, when Yusef Ibn Tashfin, a member of that religious sect, called the Almoravides, which had already subdued Northern Africa, suddenly appeared to retrieve the sinking Moslem cause. In the same year Alfonso was defeated at Zalaca, and the progress of the Christians was checked. Yusef was raised to the sovereignty of the country in 1099; but the Spanish dynasty of the Almoravides which he founded lasted only for a few generations. The Almohades, another religious sect from Africa, invaded Spain, and in 1146 the sceptre passed into their hands. During their sway the Christians continued to extend their conquests over the territory of the Moors until 1238, when Mohammed Ibn Alahmar, King of Granada, became the vassal of Ferdinand III., King of Castile. From this date the Moorish cause steadily declined beneath the attacks of the Christians, and the still more fatal attacks of a continuous series of treacherous conspiracies and intestine broils. At length in 1491 Ferdinand V., King of Castile and Aragon, captured Granada, and gave the death-blow to the power of the Moors. (See Spain.)