Gharb al-Andalus

al-gharb; "the west"), was the name given by the Muslims of Iberia to the region of southern modern-day Portugal and part of West-central modern day Spain during their rule of the territory, from 711 to 1249.

This period started with the fall of the Visigothic kingdom after Tariq ibn-Ziyad's invasion of Iberia and the establishment of the Umayyad control in the territory.

[2] After a small civil war in the already Christianized Visigothic Kingdom in Hispania, King Roderic (Rodrigo in Portuguese and Spanish) had a strong position in the peninsula.

Tariq utterly defeated Roderic's Visigothic army in the Battle of Guadalete, and soon after captured Toledo and Córdoba.

The Umayyads eventually stopped between Poitiers and Tours but Muslim rule in Iberia would last until 1492 with the fall of the Kingdom of Granada.

Eventually, however, a taifa based at Niebla was founded in the last years of 1230s and controlled the region up to 1249, when the Kingdom of Portugal conquered Faro.