| Ardo | |
|---|---|
| King of the Visigoths | |
| Reign | 713/714 – 720/721 |
| Predecessor | Achila II |
| Successor | Title abolished |
| Died | 720/721 |
Ardo (or Ardonus, possibly short for Ardabastus; d. 720/721) is attested as the last of all Visigothic kings of Hispania, reigning from 713 or 714 until his death in 720 or 721. [1] [2] [3] The Visigothic Kingdom was already severely reduced in power and area at the time he succeeded Achila II, and his dominions probably did not extend beyond Septimania and present-day Catalonia, due to the Arab conquests of the previous three years.
Ardo is only recorded in one Visigothic regnal list as reigning for seven years. [4] [5] As of 716 the Arabs crossed over the Pyrenees and invaded Narbonensis, the last province under Gothic control. [4] Over the next three years Ardo probably defended what remained of the Visigothic kingdom and he "may have gone down fighting like his predecessor" after the Arabs took Narbonne and before they conquered all that remained of the old kingdom. [4] [6]
If Ardo is to be identified with Ardobastus, then he survived the invasion and negotiated a treaty, wherein he represented Christians as the Count of the Christians of al-Andalus. [7] This title would pass to a number of individuals until the tenth century at least. Other counts included: Rabî’ ibn Theodulph, [8] : 281–294 Abû Sa’îd al-Qûmis, (a descendant of Ardabastus) [9] and Mu’âwiya ibn Lubb. [10]
The Reconquista or the reconquest of al-Andalus was the successful series of military campaigns that Christian kingdoms waged against the Muslim kingdoms following the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Umayyad Caliphate. The beginning of the Reconquista is traditionally dated to the Battle of Covadonga, in which an Asturian army achieved the first Christian victory over the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate since the beginning of the military invasion. Its culmination came in 1492 with the fall of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs.
Toledo is a city and municipality of Spain, the capital of the province of Toledo and the de jure seat of the government and parliament of the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha.
The Battle of Guadalete was the first major battle of the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, fought in 711 at an unidentified location in what is now southern Spain between the Visigoths under their king, Roderic, and the invading forces of the Umayyad Caliphate, composed mainly of Berbers and some Arabs under the commander Tariq ibn Ziyad. The battle was significant as the culmination of a series of Berber attacks and the beginning of al-Andalus. Roderic was killed in the battle, along with many members of the Visigothic nobility, opening the way for the capture of the Visigothic capital of Toledo.
Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād, also known simply as Tarik in English, was an Umayyad commander who initiated the Muslim conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711–718 AD. He led an army and crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from the North African coast, consolidating his troops at what is today known as the Rock of Gibraltar. The name "Gibraltar" is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq, meaning "mountain of Ṭāriq", which is named after him.
The Mozarabs, or more precisely Andalusi Christians, were the Christians of al-Andalus, or the territories of Iberia under Muslim rule from 711 to 1492. Following the Umayyad conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania, the Christian population of much of Iberia came under Muslim control.
Theodemir or Theudimer was a Visigothic comes (count) prominent in the southeast of Carthaginensis during the last decades of the Visigothic kingdom and for several years after the Arab conquest. He ruled seven cities in southeastern Spain, mentioned in the Treaty of Orihuela that was preserved by the Andalusian historian Ibn Adarí in the thirteenth century: Orihuela, Valentila, Alicante, Mula, Bigastro, Eyya, and Lorca.
Roderic was the Visigothic king in Hispania between 710 and 711. He is well-known as "the last king of the Goths". He is actually an extremely obscure figure about whom little can be said with certainty. He was the last Goth to rule from Toledo, but not the last Gothic king, a distinction which belongs to Ardo.
The Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Umayyad Caliphate occurred between approximately 710 and the 720s. The conquest resulted in the defeat of the Visigothic Kingdom and the establishment of the Umayyad Wilayah of Al-Andalus.
Achila II was the Visigothic king of Hispania from 710 or 711 until his death. The kingdom he ruled was restricted to the northeast of the old Hispanic kingdom on account of the Arabo-Berber invasions.
Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani was the Arab governor general of Al-Andalus from between 719 and 721. In 720, under his governorate he minted the first purely Arab coins in Al-Andalus as part of his fiscal reforms.
The Chronicle of 754 is a Latin-language history in 95 sections, written by an anonymous Mozarab (Christian) chronicler in Al-Andalus. The Chronicle contains the earliest known reference in a Latin text to "Europeans" (europenses), whom it describes as having defeated the Saracens at the battle of Tours in 732.
Count Cassius, also called "Count Casius", was a Hispano-Roman or Visigothic nobleman who founded the Banu Qasi dynasty.
Anbasa ibn Suḥaym al-Kalbi was the Muslim wali (governor) of al-Andalus, from 721 to 726. Anbasa belonged to the tribe of Banu Kalb, which was established in southern Syria and northern Arabia since pre-Islamic times.
Al-Ḥurr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Thaqafi was an early Umayyad governor who ruled the Muslim province of Al-Andalus from between 716 and 718. He was the third successor to Musa bin Nusair, the North African governor who had directed the conquest of Visigothic Hispania several years earlier in 711. Al-Hurr was the first Muslim commander to cross the Pyrenees in 717, leading a small raiding party into Septimania. His incursions were largely unsuccessful, for which he was deposed in 718.
Ibn al-Qūṭiyya, born Muḥammad Ibn ʿUmar Ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʾIbrāhīm ibn ʿIsā ibn Muzāḥim, also known as Abu Bakr or al-Qurtubi, was an Andalusian historian and the greatest philologist at the Umayyad court of caliph Al-Hakam II. His magnum opus, the History of the Conquest of al-Andalus, is one of the earliest Arabic Muslim accounts of the Islamic conquest of Spain.
The Umayyad invasion of Gaul occurred in two phases in 719 and 732 AD. Although the Umayyads secured control of Septimania, their incursions beyond this into the Loire and Rhône valleys failed. By 759 Muslim forces had lost Septimania to the Christian Franks and retreated to Iberia.
Julian, Count of Ceuta (Spanish: Don Julián, Conde de Ceuta,, Arabic: يليان, was, according to some sources, a renegade governor, possibly a former comes in Byzantine service in Ceuta and Tangiers who subsequently submitted to the king of Visigothic Spain before secretly allying with the Muslims. According to Arab chroniclers, Julian had an important role in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, a key event in the history of Islam, and in the subsequent history of what were to become Spain and Portugal.
Toledo is the repository of more than 2000 years of history. Successively a Roman municipium, the capital of the Visigothic Kingdom, a major city in Al-Andalus and the Kingdom of Castile. Its many works of art and architecture are the product of three major religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Hafs ibn Albar al-Qūṭī, commonly known as al-Qūṭī or al-Qurṭubî, was a 9th–10th Century Visigothic Christian count, theologian, translator and poet, often memorialised as the 'Last of the Goths'. He was a descendant of Visigothic royalty and held a position of power over the Christians of his region. He was possibly a priest or censor, but many scholars take him to be a layman. He describes himself as ignorant of the sacred sciences, and constantly allowed his works to be checked and commented on by those he called "best in their religion and a bright light in the sacred sciences", claiming that "all of them know what I do not know".
Sara al-Qutiyya or Sara the Goth was a Visigothic noblewoman, who was the grand-daughter of king Wittiza. After the death of her father she travelled to Damascus from al-Andalus and successfully petitioned the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik to restore lands to her family that had been appropriated by her uncle. The historian Ibn al-Qutiyya was her great-grandson.
