Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The term is used by modern historians for the former Islamic states in modern Portugal and Spain. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula and a part of present-day southern France, Septimania . For nearly a hundred years from the 9th century to the 10th, al-Andalus extended its control from Fraxinetum over the Alpine passes which connect Italy to Western Europe. The name describes the different Arab and Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. These boundaries changed constantly as the Christian Reconquista progressed, eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.

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