al-Andalus

Al-Andalus (Arabic: الأَنْدَلُس, romanised: al-ʾAndalus) refers to the various Muslim ruled territories on the Iberian Peninsula that existed between 711 and 1492. At its height, it covered the entirety of Spain and Portugal, as well as parts of southern France. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula as well as Septimania under Umayyad rule. These boundaries changed through a series of conquests that Western historiography has traditionally characterised as the Reconquista, eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.