This book, now available in paperback, is a challenging and controversial account of the history of Spain in the eighth century. In it Roger Collins assesses the political and cultural impact on Spain of the first hundred years of Arab rule, focusing upon aspects of continuity and discontinuity with Visigoth Spain.

Roger Collins was formerly Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Liverpool, and also a Leverhulme Research Fellow. He is the author of The Basques (Blackwell Publishers, second paperback edition 1990).