Although the Thaghr may be characterized as a region where Islam was practiced, Arabic was spoken, and “Oriental” traditions were followed, such a vague and obvious description provides little basis for analysis. There may be “ideal” characteristics of an Islamic society, but no ideal Islamic society has ever existed. Rather, that of each region is an expression of the dialogue between Muslim tradition and belief, Eastern and local influences, and indigenous structures; each embodies a set of particularities related to the pre-Islamic societies of its own area and the circumstances of its conquest. But plotting the social and economic profile of the pre-conquest Thaghr is a discouraging task, given the sparsity and frustrating reticence of written records. One is forced to draw analogies and inferences from later documentation produced under Christian rule and from contemporary evidence relating to other regions of al-Andalus. The result is a composite portrait which, like a police artist's sketch, attempts to meld together distinguishing features – a patchwork of clues gathered from across more than four centuries of Muslim rule in the peninsula – into a recognizable and plausible whole. The logical place to begin such a description is with a discussion of the people of the region and of the Muslim conquest itself.

MUSLIM CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT

The Islamic conquest of Spain proceeded along the same general lines as that of Syria and Egypt, in which a small but motivated attacking force confronted disheartened and disorganized native populations whose overlords (here, the Visigothic and Ibero-Roman aristocracy) proved unable to defend them.