Moors Discussion

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During the classical period, the Romans interacted with and conquered parts of Mauretania, a state that covered modern Morocco, western Algeria and the Spanish cities Ceuta and Melilla. The Berber tribes there were noted as Mauri or Maurusii, which was rendered as Moors in English and many other European languages. In 24 AD the Roman historian Tacitus mentioned the Moors revolted against the Roman Empire. In 711, the Islamic Arab and Moors of Berber descent in northern Africa crossed the Strait of Gibraltar onto the Iberian Peninsula and in a series of raids conquered Visigothic Christian Hispania. Their general, Tariq ibn Ziyad, brought most of Iberia under Islamic rule in an eight-year campagin. They continued northeast across the Pyrenees Mountains but were defeated by the Franks under Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732.