Al-Andalus (Arabic: الأندلس, trans. al-ʼAndalus; Spanish: Al-Ándalus; Portuguese: Al-Andalus; Aragonese: Al-Andalus; Catalan: Al-Àndalus; Berber: Andalus or Wandalus), also known as Muslim Spain or Islamic Iberia, was a medieval Islamic state occupying at its peak most of what are today Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and part of southern France. The name more generally describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims (given the generic name of Moors) at various times between 711 and 1492, though the boundaries changed constantly in wars with Christian kingdoms.
Following the Muslim conquest of Hispania, Al-Andalus was divided into five administrative units, corresponding roughly to modern Andalusia, Galicia and Portugal, Castile and León, Aragon, county of Barcelona and Septimania. As a political domain, it successively constituted a province of the Umayyad Caliphate, initiated by the Caliph Al-Walid I (711–750); the Emirate of Córdoba (c. 750–929); the Caliphate of Córdoba (929–1031); and the Caliphate of Córdoba's taifa (successor) kingdoms. Rule under these kingdoms saw a rise in cultural exchange and cooperation between Muslims and Christians, with Christians and Jews considered as protected people who paid a tax to the state but enjoyed "internal autonomy'. It is noted that under the Caliphate of Córdoba, al-Andalus was a beacon of learning, and the city of Córdoba became one of the leading cultural and economic centres in both the Mediterranean Basin and the Islamic world.
For much of its history, Al-Andalus existed in conflict with Christian kingdoms to the north. After the fall of the Umayyad Andalusian kingdom, Al-Andalus was fragmented into a number of minor states and principalities, most notably the Emirate of Granada. Attacks from the Christian Castillians intensified, led by Alfonso VI. The Almoravid empire intervened and repelled the Christian attacks on the region, deposing the weak Andalusian Muslim princes and including Al-Andalus under direct Berber rule. In succeeding centuries, Al-Andalus became a province of the Berber Muslim empires of the Almoravids and Almohads, both based in Marrakesh.
Ultimately the Christian kingdoms of the north overpowered their Muslim neighbors. In 1085, Alfonso VI captured Toledo, starting a gradual Muslim decline. With the fall of Córdoba in 1236, the Emirate of Granada was the only Muslim territory in what is now Spain. The Portuguese Reconquista culminated in 1249 with the conquest of the Algarve by Afonso III. In 1238, the Emirate of Granada officially became a tributary state to the Kingdom of Castile, then ruled by King Ferdinand III. Finally, on January 2, 1492, Emir Muhammad XII surrendered the Emirate of Granada to Queen Isabella I of Castile, who along with her husband King Ferdinand II of Aragon were known as the "Catholic Monarchs." The surrender ended Al-Andalus as a political entity, though aspects of Islamic culture are still evident in the region.