Middle Ages

Al-Andalus
At the beginning of 8th century, Muslims conquered the Iberian Peninsula.
Muslims entered into the Iberian Peninsula in 711 though the Strait of Gibraltar, defeated Visigoths and invaded Guadalete.
They conquered cities as Toledo, the Visigoth capital. Tariq and Muza, muslim military generals took control over almost the hole Peninsula in only seven years.
The only territories Muslims didn't conquered were Asturias and Cantabria so, a few Visigoth nobles and clerymen and a very small part of the general population moved there.
Muslims gave the territories conquered on the Peninsula the name of Al-Andalus. This became a province, or dependent emirate of the Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus and it's capital was Cordoba.
When Abbasids of Badhgad killed the last Umayyadd caliph, Abd ar-Rahman I, refuged in al-Andalus.
He declared himself emir and gained independance from the Caliphate of Baghdad in 756. The Independant Emirate experienced a period of econmic and cultural development.