In the 7th and 8th centuries Arabs introduced Islam to Morocco, and the great Arab dynasties began to rule over vast swathes of the Maghreb and Spain.

• El Maghreb el Aqsa (The Farthest West), as Morocco is known in Arabic, was seen in Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, as a land of misguided infidels who needed to be converted to the new faith besiff (by the sword). The first of these military missions was led by one of the greatest of North African heroes, Sidi Okba ibn Nafi.