Ibn Nosseyr, a famous Mohammedan conqueror, was the son of a liberated slave, and was born A.D. 640. At the court of Damascus he rose high in the favour of Abd-ul-aziz, the brother of the Caliph Abd-ul-malek. It is probable that he was early employed in high military offices; but not until his fifty-ninth year did his talents for war obtain full scope. He was then appointed governor of Eastern Africa, and was charged with the subjugation of the wild tribes that bordered on that province. His armies, under himself and his sons Abdullah and Merwan, were everywhere triumphant. They pursued the Berbers into their native deserts, and forced them to adopt the faith of Islam. Marching westward through Northern Africa, they did not halt in their victorious career until, in 709, they had stormed the cities of Tangiers and Ceuta, and had encamped by the shores of the Atlantic. At this juncture, when Musa was beginning to look around for new fields of conquest, his aid was solicited by the sons of Wittiza, the late King of Gothic Spain, who were endeavouring to wrest their father's crown from the brave usurper Roderick. The occasion was eagerly seized by the Mohammedan conqueror. An expedition was forthwith sent into Spain, and returned soon afterwards laden with booty. A still greater force, under Tarik Ibn Zeyad, landed at Gibraltar in April 711; and in September of the same year, Roderick was defeated and slain in a great battle on the banks of the Guadalete. No sooner had Musa heard of this victory, than, jealous lest he should be eclipsed by his own lieutenant, he commanded Tarik to prosecute his successes no further, and at the same time he set out in person for the scene of war. But long before his arrival, in 712, his orders had been disregarded, and Cordova, Malaga, Granada, Orihuela, and Toledo had been captured by the victorious troops. Chafing under this insult to his authority, he set himself with vigour to bring his reputation out of the shade into which it had been cast by the exploits of Tarik. Carmona, Seville, Beja, and Niebla fell before his attack. After an arduous siege he took Merida, and then marched towards Toledo to meet Tarik. No sooner had he met the disobedient lieutenant, than he struck him with his whip in the sight of the whole army, upbraided him for his neglect of orders, and threw him into prison. He was even meditating his death, when an order came from the caliph to set him at liberty and restore him to his command. Tarik was accordingly reinstated in the favour of his superior, and was placed at the head of a division. Then Musa prepared to subjugate the rest of the country. Entering Aragon, he marched northward, subduing Saragossa and its districts, and receiving the submission of the inhabitants. In a short time Spain was almost entirely under his power. His next enterprise was to cross the Pyrenees, and to make an inroad into France. But as he met with no encouraging success, he returned to Spain, and addressed himself to the invasion of Asturias and Galicia. An order from the caliph to repair to Damascus did not deter him from executing his project. He was at Lugo, in the midst of new conquests, when a second and more peremptory command reached him. With extreme reluctance he relinquished the design he had been entertaining of carrying his conquests westward through Gaul, Italy, and Germany, and of thus opening a direct communication between Syria and Spain. Consigning the government of Spain into the hands of his son Abd-ul-aziz, he embarked for Africa, on his way to the East, in 713. On his landing, he astonished the inhabitants of the districts through which he passed by the pomp of his march. Numerous waggons and camels, laden with costly spoils and treasures of gold, silver, and precious stones, went before him. Behind him marched in long array 30,000 captives, including 400 nobles in gorgeous attire. As he approached Damascus, he is said to have been met with the intelligence that the Caliph Alwalid was at the point of death, and that Suleyman, the heir to the crown, desired him to delay his entrance into the city, and the exhibition of the Spanish spoils, until the commencement of the new reign. This request Musa set aside, and marched straight into Damascus. Accordingly, on the death of Alwalid, the resentment of Suleyman fell heavily upon him. All those illustrious services by which he had added so many territories to the government of the caliph were forgotten. He was cast into prison, lacerated with scourgés, and exposed to the sun till almost lifeless. A severe fine was then imposed upon him, which stripped him of his immense wealth, and left him to beg his bread from door to door. In the midst of his affliction, the head of his murdered son Abd-ul-aziz was shown to him by the tyrant. At length, overcome with misery and old age, Musa died at Wadal-Kora in 717. (See History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain, London, 1840.)