Archeological excavations have shown that the area of Tudela has been populated since the lower paleolithic. The town of Tudela was founded by the Romans onCelt-Iberian settlements. Since then the town has been inhabited continuously. The Roman poet Marcus Valerius Martialis(Epigrams Book IV, 55) "recalls in grateful verse" the town of Tutela next to his own native Bilbilis. The city was later taken under the Muslim emirate of Al-Hakam I in 802 by Amrus ibn Yusuf al-Muwalad.
At the beginning of the 9th century, the strategic importance of Tudela as a site on the river Ebro was enhanced by historical and political circumstances. It turned into the base of the Banu Qasi family of Muladis, local magnates converted to Islam that managed to be independent of the emirs, establishing an on-off alliance and close dynastic bonds with the kings of Pamplona during the whole century. With the power of the Banu Qasi fading at the onset of 10th century, the town fell under the influence of the rising Caliphate of Córdoba and had to come up against a more aggressive policy on the part of the new dynasty ruling in Pamplona, the Ximenes, who had set up close ties with their neighbour Christian realms.
The town was used by Muslims as a bridge-head to fight against the Christians ofPamplona. Later Tudela became an important defensive point for the Kingdom of Navarre in battles with Castile and Aragon.
When Christians under Alfonso the Battler conquered Tudela in 1119, three different communities where living there: Muslim, Mozarab and Jewish. In the aftermath of the conquest, community relations appear to have been strained and Muslims were forced to live in a suburb outside the town walls, whereas Jews continued to reside inside the walls (see Jews in Tudela). The co-existence of different cultures is reflected in Tudela's reputation for producing important medieval writers such as Al-Tutili. In 1157 the English scholar Robert of Ketton, first translator of the
