:salam2:
From A Book “**Salah Ad-Din Al-Ayoobi” written by Dr. Ali Salabi. 
****The Spanish
**From the earliest stages the Andalusian arena witnessed persistent counterattacks from the north, where the Spanish had fortified themselves in areas of rugged terrain. These attacks resulted in a bitter conflict throughout which the Umayyad leadership confronted these counterattacks for nearly three centuries, during which they contained the threat and forced the enemy to retreat to northern pockets in the Iberian Peninsula.
There were two bursts of renewed Islamic energy, the first of which was at the hands of the Almoravids (al-Murabitoori) who came from Morocco, and who achieved a magnificent victory at the battle of Sagrajas (az-Zallaqah) against the Spanish Christians in 479 AH.
The second came at the hands of the Almohads (al-Muwahhidoon) who came after them and succeeded in inflicting a crushing defeat on the Christians in the battle of Alarcos (al-Arak) in 591 AH. Thus Islam was able to survive in Andalusia by confronting challenges and resisting Spanish counterattacks on an almost equal footing, and this continued for almost four centuries.
But the Muslims there soon became exhausted and ever more weakened by division and bloody conflicts among themselves. This tipped the balance in favour of the Christian leadership, which was ultimately able to bring down the last Islamic government there, the Kingdom of Granada, which fell in 897 AH.
Soon after that, under the leadership of Ferdinand and Isabella, came the worst massacre in human history, when the state, church and Inquisition joined forces and were able, by methods which showed no respect to human — let alone religious — values, to destroy the Islamic presence in Andalusia and erase it from the map of Spain, and to assimilate the Muslim masses by force into a society that claimed to be Christian in religion, culture and conduct.
Re: The Spanish
Why didn't the Muslims unify all of Spain? It seems that we had zardaris and imran khans back then as well who didn't have the vision to do it.
I have see maps where Visigoths ruled France (and hence Spain) completely so perhaps a buffer zone in France should have been established to defeat and/or vanquish the northern Spain / Basque region. It seems that muslims became a bunch of camel jockeys right after making some gains, hence their downfall later on.
Re: The Spanish
Why didn't the Muslims unify all of Spain? It seems that we had zardaris and imran khans back then as well who didn't have the vision to do it.
I have see maps where Visigoths ruled France (and hence Spain) completely so perhaps a buffer zone in France should have been established to defeat and/or vanquish the northern Spain / Basque region. It seems that muslims became a bunch of camel jockeys right after making some gains, hence their downfall later on.
There was Barbar- Arab conflict like we have ethnic conflicts.
Re: The Spanish
Why didn't the Muslims unify all of Spain? It seems that we had zardaris and imran khans back then as well who didn't have the vision to do it.
I have see maps where Visigoths ruled France (and hence Spain) completely so perhaps a buffer zone in France should have been established to defeat and/or vanquish the northern Spain / Basque region. It seems that muslims became a bunch of camel jockeys right after making some gains, hence their downfall later on.
Basque still has an independence movement, maybe something to do with their history/ethnicity.
Re: The Spanish
Why didn't the Muslims unify all of Spain?
They did... At first. But it fell apart into lots of petty states pretty quickly. When central leadership was weak, local governors could declare independence and this get to keep all of the revenue from their lands instead of having to pay a portion to the central government. Plus being a small independent state allowed you to make sure that power would remain in your family, rather than risking you superiors replacing you with someone else.
The downside, as the descendants learned later, was that when Crusaders would come bearing down on you from the north, there was no massive army available to defeat them because there was no central government to furnish such an army....