After the fall of the Roman Empire, a Germanic people named the Visigoths occupied the Iberian Peninsula, creating a kingdom with its capital in Toledo. In the year 711, this kingdom was in the middle of a civil war. A foreign army composed of Arabs and Berbers took advantage by entering the territory from the Strait of Gibraltar, and began to exert its influence, sometimes by military conquest, sometimes by treaties and pacts. These troops brought with them a new religion that had been born in the Middle East and successfully spread far and wide: Islam. After being defeated at Poitiers in 732 by the Franks, the Muslims decided not to advance further north and instead settled, occupying three quarters of Iberia. They dismantled the Visigothic kingdom to create a new state, Al-Andalus. From this name derives the name of the region of southern Spain where modern Cordoba is located, Andalusia!