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Meridans after resisting fot many months submitted on June 1,713 and Musa marched towards Toledo. At Talavera he met Tariq and received the booty including the famous table of Solomon. Tariq attacked Saragossa which resisted for long till Musa returned after occupying Salamanca and Astorga and took it by storm. Musa marched in a north easternly direction and occupying Tarragona and Barcelona reached the northern limits of Spain and attacked Gerona while Tariq overran the eastern coast of Spain from Tortosa to Valencia occupying all the important cities. The whole of the southeast of Spain held by Theodomir on behalf of Roderick had already submitted before this to the Muslims and Theodomir had been allowed to rule on the payment of a animal tribute as a vassal of the eastern provinces which were named after him as Tudmir with Murcia as its capital.
Musa crossed the Pyrenees and reduced a part of Languedoc which belonged to the Visigothic dominion. Across the Pyrenees on the bank of the Rhone (Rudano) Musa found an inscription reading, ”Sons of Ismail hitherto and no further, return”’ which had been placed there, it is said, either by Pepin the ruler of France or Mughith the msssenger of Walid. This frightened his soldiers and left Musa’s programme of attacking over Constantinople from the European side and uniting the western possession with the east through south Europe unaccomplished. Musa had to cancel his plan and turn back to complete the conquest of the north western part of Spain.
Meanwhile Walid rejoiced at the news of victory but was reluctant to send his troops to distant lands at the risk of their lives. He sent two messengers successively to recall Musa. The latter did not pay heed to the first summons which he received in France but retraced his steps to complete the conquest of Spain and advanced victoriously through the high lands of Aragon and Leon into Galicia, another messenger, Abu Nasr by name appeared at lake (Ugo) in Asturias with a sterner mandate which Musa could not disobey. Leaving Pelayo then an insignificant Christian chief hidden with thirty men and ten women in Covadonga, the rocky defiles of Asturias, unsubdued which were to prove a thorn for his successors latter and accompanied by Tariq followed by a train of Gothic princes and carriages full of valuable booties Musa returned to the straits of Gibraltar in 95 A.H./714 A.D.
Muir. The Caliphate, P.358.
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Musa went back to Damascus after appointing his sons, Abdul Aziz, governor of Spain, attached to the viceroyalty of Ifriqiyah with Seville as its capital, one Abdullah at Qayrawan and another Abdul Malik over western Africa. Achila was given his estate in Toledo and Bishop Oppas was installed as governor of Toledo. Musa’s fame and achievements created a number of enemies as Damascus and his paying no heed to the first summons of Walid was a matter of serious criticism at the court. Accompanied by four hundred Visigothic princes and followed by heavily loaded wagons and camels Musa reached Cairo and distributed presents among the family of his previous patron, Abdul Aziz, governor of Egypt. According to some, the ailing caliph died before he reached Damascus where he was received coldly by Sulayman, brother and heir of Walid, deposed from commands and put into prison; while according to others, he reached Damascus forty days before Walid died much against the desire of Sulayman. despite his order to delay his arrival at the capita! which had been received by Musa at Tiberia, the latter continued his march.
Actually it was a dilemma for him as to whether he should obey Walid or Sulayman. The ailing caliph had also written to him to hasten his march while Sulayman had ordered him other wise. His return to Damascus during the life time of Walid who died at the age of forty after a glorious reign of ten years in Jumadi al-Akhir

96/February 715, infuriated to punish him. He put him to torture and reduced him to poverty. Musa died at the age of seventy-eight in Dhul Hajjah 97 A.H. (July 716) at Wadi al Qura when on a pilgrimage to Makkah in the entourage of Sulayman. Tariq seems also to have retired into private life for nothing is known about him after this. Their fall reminds us that of Khalid bin Walid, Qutaybah Ibn Muslim and Muhammad b. Qasim and their conquests in Languedoc (South France) marked the north western limit of Arab penetration and the height of the expansion in Europe like the Asiatic expansion in Turkistan under Qutaybah. CHARACTER

Walid’s reign was an era of consolidation and peace at home and expansion abroad. He was the most illustrious ruler of his line and time but all his achievements were due mainly to his viceroys and generals who conquered new lands for him and introduced new reforms and constructed fine public buildings. His empire expanded from the Atlantic to the borders of China and the Indus and from the

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Arabian Sea to Caspian Sea and the Sahara to the Rome in Southern France and prospered under his benevolent ruler. Walid was regarded as an ideal ruler by the Syrians.
His reign was marked by economic prosperity and cultural progress. The Caliph himself visited the markets and encouraged manufacture of new articles. To compensate for the destruction caused by twenty year of war in the country of Iraq, huge construction work was undertaken by his viceroy Hajjaj. The operation of the canals which carried the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris was resumed and dams were repaired and constructed to protect its fertility against the desert. The exodus from the villages to the cities was checked by improving security in land and restoration of confidence in local business affairs. The system of currency and measure was revised and stability was brought in village life. For all these economic reforms, Walid was indebted to the beneficial service of his loyal viceroy Hajjaj.
Walid is, however more known for his building activities than anything else. He was the greatest Umayyed Builder. Fakhri rightly observes, ”during his reign whenever people in Damascus met together fine buildings formed the chief topic of conversation, as cookery and the fair sex did under Sulayman, and religion and the Quran under Dinar Ibn Abdul Aziz.” The mosque of Medina was rebuilt and that of Makkah enlarged. The mosque of Aqsa constructed by his father at Jerusalem was beautified and the whole area with a group of sacred buildings became known as al-Haram alSharif, the third century of the Muslims. It is said that Usman (Rad.A) had built a wooden screen (Maqsurah) for his prayer in the mosque of Medina. This example was followed by the Umayyads in the provinces. With the employment of foreign technical skill as it appeared from Papyri from Byzantium and Persia the style of construction could not be uniform in building mosques in and outside Syria.
Among the palaces built by Walid was the beautiful painted desert palace of the Qusayr Amrah built to the east of the Northern end of the Dead sea. On one of the walls of the Palace there are depicted portraits of four princes Caesar, Chosroes Negus and Roderick had been defeated during nis time. A number of schools and hospitals and large houses were established in Syria and in the provinces. He was the first to build hospitals or lepers and blind and asylums for the disabled persons. The aged and disabled persons
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were granted pensions roads, wells and caravanserais were constructed for travellers and wayfarers particularly pilgrims. Walid in credited for certain reforms introduced by his viceroy Hajjaj, the school master who continued to take interest in literature and patronise art and science.
Al-Hajjaj introduced orthographic reforms in Arabic language for the correct recitations of the Holy Quran. The diacretical points were introduced to make distinction between the writings, of the consonants of the same type and the Syriac vowel dhammah, fathah and kasrah were introducSd for correct pronunciation of a word.
AI-Hajjaj dug a number of canals and redug the large one between the Euphrates and the Tigris bringing under cultivation submerged and uncultivated lands. He is particularly known for his fiscal and administrative reforms. On accepting Islam many villagers had migrated to the towns and had obtained concession Tn the payment of land tax to the treasury and on joining the army as Mawali (clients) they received subsidies which caused a double loss to the treasury since the collection of revenue had already fallen considerably. Hajjaj rehabilitated such men on their farms4 and reimposed on them the usual tax including Kharaj and Jizya. Even Arabs, who had acquired lands in the conquered countries were required to pay the usual tax. This replenished the treasury and improve the economic condition but caused dissatisfaction among the Muslims masses and proved a stumbling block on the spread of Islam. The loss thus incurred was greatly compensated later by the liberal policy of Umar b. Abdul Aziz. Walid was mild and considerate in character and knew how to tackle difficult situation and control harsh and hard man like Hajjaj and to keep control over Arab tribal rivalries by a policy of check and balance. He uas generous and kind and helped the needy when he visited Medina he distributed large gifts among the people.5
Hitti, P.2I8.
’ S.M. Imamuddin. A Political History of the Muslims, Vol.11. P.54.

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