Tariq ibn Ziyad

Tariq ibn Ziyad led the army that changed the map. Around 670 he was born; by 711 he was an Umayyad commander launching the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. He crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from North Africa and consolidated his forces at the rock that would carry his name — Jabal Ṭāriq, "mountain of Tariq," became Gibraltar in Spanish. Over seven years his campaign dismantled the Visigothic Kingdom across what is now Spain and Portugal. He died around 720, but the geography never forgot.