711: Tarik, a Moslem general attacked southern Spain from Gibraltar. He soon defeated Roderic, last of the Visigoth kings, at the Battle of Xeres.
According to the "father of jewish history" Heinrich Graetz, in 694, the jews of Visigothic Spain entered into an alliance with the more fortunate jews of North Africa, with the intention of overthrowing the Visigoth kingdom and were to be aided by the Muslims. The plot was discovered and the jews were reduced to status of slaves.
However, only a few years later the plan went forward.
After each city was conquered - Cordova, Granada, and Malaga - anti-Christs were given positions of safeguarding Moslem interests.
Of course, jews now dispute Graetz's telling.
Picture: Roderic depicted as one of the "six kings" in an Umayyad fresco in Qasr Amra, modern-day Jordan, from between 710 and 750.
Roderic is the second figure, his face completely lost, with only the tip of his helmet and his robes being visible.
