Ceuta and the reconquest

The mass arrival of migrants in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta has rekindled the idea within the Arab-Muslim world that Spain is a lost land of Islam to which it would be fitting to return, explains the Franco-Syrian writer Omar Youssef Souleimane. Last year, Souleimane published "Les Complices du mal" (Plon), causing panic on the left: “I lived for years on the outskirts of Paris. I was always surprised that some imams supported Mélenchon without reservation. Islamists use "La France insoumise" as a Trojan horse to pursue political interests and gain seats in parliament,” the writer explained in his book. “In the Arab-Muslim mindset, the word ‘Andalusia’ has a special, even sacred, resonance,” writes Souleimane in *Le Figaro*. “It evokes the golden age of the Umayyads, the dynasty that ruled the first great Islamic empire from 661 to 750, before being overthrown by the Abbasids. Abderrahman I, one of the few princes to survive that fall, fled the Levant and founded a state in Andalusia that lasted nearly three centuries. Since then, reconquering it has become, in the collective imagination of Muslims, an obsessive ambition that political Islam elevates to a duty. Thus, from this perspective, the mass migration of Moroccans to Ceuta is perceived as a return to the lost land. But the history of this land stretches back to more distant times. Textbooks in Arab countries, as well as lessons given in mosques, recount the arrival of Muslims in Andalusia in minute detail. It all begins with Tariq ibn Ziyad, the general elevated to the status of ‘hero’, who is said to have conquered Andalusia in order to civilise it and spread the ‘true’ religion there.

In 711, at the head of several thousand men, he crossed from Morocco via the strait that still bears his name, Djebel Tariq, ‘the mountain of Tariq’, which became Gibraltar, to reach Spain. Once he had landed, according to legend, he burnt his own ships so that his soldiers could no longer retreat, thereby cutting off any route of return. His words remain a symbol of absolute courage: ‘The enemy is before you, the sea is behind you’. He thus paved the way for eight centuries of Muslim presence on European soil. The anecdote is never recounted in its historical and mythical context, but rather as a justification for reviving that state. Europe is said to have become what it is today thanks to the Muslims, particularly the philosophers and architects of the time, whilst jihadists tend to emphasise the warriors. The epic concludes with an epilogue as dramatic as the conquest itself: in 1492, Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain, capitulated to the Catholic Monarchs. Its last ruler, Boabdil, left the city in tears. It is said that his mother addressed him with a famous phrase: ‘Weep like a woman for what you failed to defend as a man’. This tale has become a source of artistic inspiration, but also a tool for mobilisation for Islamist voices. In 1992, the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish transformed this story into a direct metaphor for the loss of Palestine, merging the two realities into a single poem. More recently, the 2005 series ‘Mulûk al-Tawâ’if’, ‘The Kings of the Taifa’, depicted the fragmentation of the Caliphate of Córdoba, helping to rekindle Andalusian nostalgia amongst the general public in the region.

The jihadists, for their part, have made it a priority: to reclaim that territory. Osama bin Laden had warned, in 2001, that the loss of Al-Andalus must not be repeated in Palestine. His successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in 2021 urged the liberation of Ceuta and Melilla from Spain, threatening the country with possible attacks. As for ISIS, following the 2017 Barcelona attacks, it announced that ‘Andalusia will once again become a land of Islam and the caliphate’. In 2025, the terrorist organisation threatened to target Spanish cathedrals as part of a campaign entitled ‘Destruction of the Cross’. The scale of the migration crisis is undeniable: in just a few days, over 70,000 young people poured in from Morocco towards Ceuta, in the hope of a better life in Europe. At least 72 people lost their lives during the crossing. It is precisely this situation of despair that provides fertile ground for exploitation by Muslim conservatives. All the more so because the dream of an Islamic Andalusia is already deeply rooted in the minds of the migrants. Some Islamists invoke the story of Tariq ibn Ziyad and argue that the conquest of Andalusia would not have been possible without the help provided by Ceuta. For others, Ceuta and Melilla bear witness to the fact that the colonisation that began with the collapse of Al-Andalus has never entirely left the region. This implicitly places today’s migrants within the continuity of a single historical line stretching from the fall of Granada to the present day. It is clear that Ceuta is colonised by Spain. However, it is not part of the narrative of Islamic Andalusia. The young people who have crossed the sea have not come to bring Muslim civilisation, but to join that of today’s Europe. Many have been beaten, and at times even raped, during this ordeal. It is right to address this tragedy free from all propaganda – whether political or religious – which continues to exploit the event, just as European extremist voices, equally lacking in nuance, do in a mirror image. As for the proponents of the Andalusian myth, mired in corruption, poverty and dictatorships, their priority should be to improve their daily lives rather than peddling dreams to manipulate their people.”