and the Franks, emboldened, grew covetous.

So ʿAbd al-Muʾmin equipped ʿUmar Intī, who crossed into al-Andalus and captured Algeciras, then Ronda, and after that Seville, Córdoba, and Granada. Thereafter ʿAbd al-Muʾmin himself marched with his armies, crossed the sea through the Ceuta Narrows, landed at Gibraltar (Jabal Ṭāriq) and renamed it Jabal al-Fatḥ, the Mount of Conquest. He stayed there for several months, building palaces and a town, and the notables of al-Andalus came to pay homage. One of the poets stood and recited:

No shield serves the foe like flight;
where can they flee when the steeds of God give chase?

And where shall he go who clings to a towering height,
now that Allah’s flaming arrows rain upon him?

Speak of the Romans in every corner of al-Andalus—
the sea already echoes on both its shores with Arab hosts. (1)

ʿAbd al-Muʾmin was impressed and said, “With poetry such as this are caliphs to be praised.”

He then appointed his son Yūsuf over Seville, Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar Intī over Córdoba, and his son ʿUthmān over Granada. In al-Andalus he stationed a great host of Maṣāmidah, Arabs, and the tribes of Banū Hilāl—people he had long fought, defeated, and humbled, but whom he afterwards addressed with courtesy until they served at his side and received robes of honour from him. His entry into al-Andalus was in the year 548 AH.

Among the ways he courted and won over the Arabs was a poem of his own:

Speed the restless mounts toward the heights of glory;
lead the sleek stallions into the crucible of war.

Rise for the triumph of the faith like a people in revolt;
assail the enemy with a raider’s ferocity.

For honour lies only on the back of a galloping, bare-backed steed,
and in a bright, time-honoured blade that never begs. (2)