Introduction: The Iberian background -- The invasion of the Iberian Peninsula - the eighth century -- The establishment of the Umayyad state in al-Andalus - the ninth century -- Al-Andalus in the tenth century -- The eleventh century - a time of change -- Al-Andalus under the rule of the Berber dynasties -- The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries -- The fifteenth century - the final phase of Muslim rule in al-Andalus -- Conclusion.