Musa bin Nusair

Musa bin Nusair

Musa bin Nusair (640 - 716) was a Yemeni Muslim governor and general under the Umayyads. In 698 he was made the viceroy of North Africa, and was responsible for putting down a large Berber rebellion. He also had to deal with constant harassment from the Byzantine navy, and built a navy that would go on to conquer the islands of Ibiza, Majorca and Minorca.

In Spain there was internal fighting among the Visigoths. Among the factions wre the sons of a recently deceased king who felt that they had unfairly been stripped of power. They appealed to Musa to intervene in their Civil War, and Musa obliged. He sent his deputy, Tariq bin Ziyad to Spain, and his armies landed at Gibraltar on April 30, 711 from where they proceeded to take most of Spain. Their major victory came in September of the same year when the Muslim armies defeated Roderic at the Guadalete River.

Musa would join Tariq in 712 and led armies into Southern Frace where he annexed some land. Musa was planning an invasion of the rest of Europe when he was recalled to Damascus by al-Walid I. Al-Waleed would die soon after, and Musa would be jailed by his sucessor, Suleiman who would have Musa executed in 715. The reasoning behind this was due to Suleiman seeing Musa as a threat or perhaps a personal vandetta.