High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Moorish Gibraltar lasted for 727 years, currently far longer than the subsequent Spanish and British periods of rule (266 years and 300+ years respectively). The Muslim presence in Gibraltar began on 27 April 711 when the Berber general Tariq ibn-Ziyad led the initial incursion into Iberia in advance of the main Moorish force under the command of Musa ibn Nusayr, Umayyad governor of Ifriqiya. Gibraltar was named after Tariq, who was traditionally said to have landed on the shores of the Rock of Gibraltar, though it seems more likely that he landed somewhere nearby. Tariq is said to have established some kind of fortification on The Rock, but it was not until 1160 that a permanent fortified settlement was built there.