Seville and Hermenegild. During this period, around 555 AD, the Eastern Roman Empire conquered Andalusia under Justinian I, the Eastern Roman emperor. They established Spania, a province of the Byzantine Empire from 552 until 624. Though their holdings were quickly reduced, they continued to have interests in the region until it was lost altogether in 624. Al-Andalus states The Visigothic era came to an abrupt end in 711 with the Umayyad conquest of Hispania by the Muslim Umayyad general Tariq ibn Ziyad. Tariq is known in Umayyad history and legend as a formidable conqueror who dared and bore the nerve to burn his fleet of ships, when he landed with his troops on the coast of Gibraltar – an acronym of "Jabel alTariq" meaning "the mountain of Tariq". When the Muslim invaders seized control and consolidated their dominion of the region, they remained tolerant of the local faiths, but they also needed a place for their own faith. In the 750s, they forcibly rented half of Córdoba 's Cathedral of San Vicente (Visigothic) to use as a mosque. The mosque's hypostyle plan, consisting of a rectangular prayer hall and an enclosed courtyard, followed a tradition established in the Umayyad and Abbasid mosques of Syria and Iraq while the dramatic articulation of the interior of the prayer hall was unprecedented. The system of columns supporting double arcades of piers and arches with alternating red and white voussoirs is an unusual treatment that, structurally, combined striking visual effect with the practical advantage of providing greater height within the hall. Alternating red and white voussoirs are associated with Umayyad monuments such as the Great Mosque of Damascus and the Dome of the Rock. Their use in the Great Mosque of Córdoba manages to create a stunningly original visual composition even as it emphasises 'Abd al-Rahman's connection to the established Umayyad tradition. In this period, the name "Al-Andalus" was applied to the Iberian Peninsula, and later it referred to the parts not controlled by the Gothic states in the North. The Muslim rulers in Al-Andalus were economic invaders and interested in collecting taxes; social changes imposed on the native populace were mainly confined to geographical, political and legal conveniences. Al-Andalus remained connected to other states under Muslim rule; also trade routes between it and Constantinople and Alexandria remained open, while many cultural features of the Roman Empire were transmitted throughout Europe and the Near