Who ruled over Gibraltar and for how long?

By Professor Clive Finlayson

“Who ruled over Gibraltar and for how long?” may seem a straightforward question. The traditional answer is that Gibraltar was under “Moorish” control from 711-1309 CE and once more from 1333-1462 CE. Some popular views gloss over the 1309-1333 Castilian capture and simply state that Gibraltar was under Moorish control from 711 CE to 1462 CE. A BBC news timeline (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18222199), for example, follows this reasoning and it also says that in 1462 CE “Spain recovers Gibraltar from the Moors”. Clearly, Spain did not recover Gibraltar because they had not had it previously, romantic ideas about Visigothic ancestry aside. If we follow one argument, of a complete Moorish control from 711 CE to 1462 CE, then Gibraltar would have been Moorish for 751 years. If we take out the 1309-1333 CE period, then the number reduces to 727 years. Logically, the first argument would give Spanish control over Gibraltar from 1462 CE to 1704 CE, a total of 242 years but if we add the 24-year period from 1309-1333 CE, then they had it for 266 years. This would not be strictly correct, in any case, as this first capture was by the Kingdom of Castile, not by a unified Spain. Finally, the British have held it since 1704 CE, currently a total of 321 years, and counting. Following these popularly held views, Gibraltar was longest under Moorish control, followed by British, followed by Spanish. But is this the whole story? It is not.

The first thing we have to do is understand who ruled over the territory of Gibraltar and it is useful to separate who ruled over it once it had an established settlement and who did when it was simply a peninsula without residents living on it. If we do this, we would have to divide the Moorish control into two parts: 711-1160 CE, when there was no settlement, and post-1160 CE when the first settlement was built by the Almohads. That has a clear impact in reducing the Moorish control over Gibraltar as a settlement by 449 years and would put the Moorish period of control at 278 years, second to the British. Of course, if we take the popular view of starting to count in 711 CE, and not 1160 CE, then we have to include other kingdoms and empires that ruled over Gibraltar pre-711 CE. It would be illogical to leave these out. So, who held Gibraltar prior to 711 CE?

The further back we go in time, the greater the difficulty at precision. I would argue that the first to control the territory that included Gibraltar were the Carthaginians. Under the command of their general Hamilcar Barca, they set on an expedition into Iberia to establish a new empire in 236 BCE. Their 30-year control over the territory was ended by Rome at the battle of Ilipa (near Seville), and the consequent conquest of Carthaginian Iberia in 206 BCE. So Rome took over and they kept some form of control for 681 years, until 475 CE when the Visigothic Kingdom that ruled over the Iberian Peninsula was recognized as an independent kingdom. The Visigothic domination over the territory, until Tarik’s landing in 711 CE, was interrupted by a 72-year period of Byzantine control of much of the southern Iberian coastline, including Gibraltar, between 552-624 CE. So, Visigoth authority was nominally some 164 years.

So, we reach Tarik’s landing. Is that the end of the story? No, it is not. The generic term “Moorish” is wholly inappropriate and inaccurate. The Islamic rule of Iberia – al-Andalus – was partly Arabic, partly (largely?) Imazighen (often referred to, also inappropriately, as Berbers). But under this overarching umbrella were several kingdoms and empires who ruled over the Gibraltar territory. In the beginning, and until establishment of the Córdoba Caliphate in 929 CE, the territory that included Gibraltar was under the ownership of the Umayyad Empire, controlled from Damascus for 218 years. Córdoba followed (some would argue that they continued as part of the Umayyad Empire) and controlled the territory for 102 years until its collapse. At that point it was the Kingdom (Taifa) of Seville that ruled over the territory for 59 years until the arrival of the Almoravid (al-Murabitun) Dynasty whose empire dominated the territory for 56 years (1090-1146 CE). It is with the Almohad (al-Muwahhidun) Dynasty that Gibraltar comes under a new empire, one which will be responsible for the construction of the first settlement on Gibraltar, in 1160 CE. The Almohads controlled the territory for 82 years, between 1146-1228 CE. A brief vacuum, until the establishment of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in 1232 CE, was filled by Ibn Hud who held a Taifa kingdom for a short while. The Nasrids controlled Gibraltar between 1232 CE and its fall to Ferdinand IV of Castile in 1309 CE, again between 1374 CE and 1410 CE and once more from 1411 CE until its fall to Spain in 1462 CE, a total of 164 years (exactly the same as the Visigoths). Castile, not yet a unified Spanish Kingdom, held Gibraltar for 24 years (1309-1333 CE). In 1333 CE the North African Merinid (al-Mariniyyun) Dynasty took Gibraltar and added it to its own expanding empire. They held it for 42 years until it returned to Nasrid hands in 1374 CE, taking it again very briefly between 1410 and 1411 CE. Spain then takes Gibraltar, for the first time, between 1462-1704 CE (242 years), and the British thereafter (321 years).
I have summarized the different kingdoms and empires that governed the territory that included Gibraltar in the accompanying chart. I also show for how long each has held it. Blank bars refer to Gibraltar as a territory without a settlement; coloured bars refer to Gibraltar as a settlement.

In sum, the Carthaginian Empire first held the territory that included Gibraltar, in 236 BCE. The Roman Empire took it over and held it longer than anyone else, but they never established a settlement on the Rock. As we approach our National Day, we can say with complete certainty that it is the Kingdom of Great Britain that has held on to a settlement on Gibraltar for longer than any other.