The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. The name of Portugal derives from the Roman name Portus Cale. The region was settled by Pre-Celts and Celts, giving origin to peoples like the Gallaeci, Lusitanians, Celtici and Cynetes, visited by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, incorporated in the Roman Republic dominions as Lusitania and part of Gallaecia (both part of Hispania), after 45 BC until 298 AD, settled again by Suebi, Buri, and Visigoths, and conquered by Moors. Other minor influences include some 5th century vestiges of Alan settlement, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra and even Lisbon.
The Arab Portugal: Gharb Al-Andalus
Portugal was part of the Arab-Muslim world for more than five and a half centuries following the Umayyad Caliphate conquest in 711 until the twelfth century with the beginning of the conquest of the lands that belong today to Portugal
After beating the Visigoths in a striking conquest that took only a few months, the Umayyad Caliphate started expending rapidly in the peninsula from 711. On the other hand the Arabs armies took Septimania in todays France on 719 with Narbonne as capital, Sicily in 720 ; Sardinia, Corsica and the Balearic followed in 724.
Beginning in 711, today's Portugal became part of the vast Umayyad Caliphate's empire of Damascus that stretched from the Indus river in India up to the South of France until its collapse in 750, a year in which the west of the empire gained its independence under Abd-ar-Rahman I with the creation of the Emirate of Cordoba. After almost two centuries, the Emirate turned into the Caliphate of Cordoba in 929 until its dissolution a century later to no less than 23 small kingdoms in 1031. They were called Taifa kingdoms.
At its dissolution, the Caliphate were shared between 23 small independent kingdoms (Reyes de taifas,muluk at tawaif). Their governors proclaimed themselves each Emir of his province and
