Abstract
In the early eighth-century palace of Qu.(s)ayr ‘Amra in Syria, an image survives of Roderick, last Visigothic king of Spain, whose passionate love affair with the beautiful La Cava precipitated the Muslim invasion of his country in 711. Startlingly, this Umayyad painting predates the earliest written historical source narrating the invasion, the Cronica mozarabe of 754, and of Hispanic origin, which recounts the barest details of the Muslim conquest. The written account was later developed by medieval Christian and Arabic historians who had opposing views of this momentous event, creating a legend of extraordinary power and longevity, which has evolved in many different artistic forms from the Middle Ages to the present day. This essay assesses current scholarly opinion regarding the interpretation of this Arabic visual image of the Visigothic king and considers its implications in relation to the development of the legend of Roderick and La Cava in written form during the medieval period.
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