196 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINThe Muslim rulers might have been unable to hold down con-
quests in the difficult northern terrain, or the nature of their military
organisation may have been such that they lacked the resources to
garrison them. However, Al-Man~iir's importation of Berbers pro-
vided plenty of manpower for new military settlement, but no attempt
was ever made to take over the Christian states, who conversely never
sought significantly to extend themselves into Muslim-occupied ter-
ritory during the Umayyad period. Their expansion, such as it was,
directed itself towards the previously evacuated and depopulated
regions, notably in the Duero valley and Castille.
What then was the purpose of this incessant Umayyad military
activity? In some specific cases, as with the sacking of Pamplona,
exceptional measures were taken to bring to heel and punish a Chris-
tian state that had ignored the tacit agreement on the modus vivendi
that seems to have existed between Al-Andalus and its neighbours. In
this case it was the involvement of King Garcia with the rebel Banu
Qasi that led to the exemplary punishment. The general run of cam-
paigning had much less specific and more limited objectives. They
are best characterised by the description in the Bayan al-Moghrib of the
purpose of an expedition sent out in 795, which destroyed settlements
and strongholds and ravaged the countryside.^28
The despatch of such expeditions from Cordoba, whose exact com-
position is unfortunately never specified, probably had a number of
parallel aims. For one thing, loot obtained, of which a fixed propor-
tion went to the ruler, enhanced state revenues, limited by Islamic
conventions in respect of tax. Further, it could have had a deterrent
or punitive effect upon the Christian marcher nobles, whose depre-
dations might thereby be limited. It provided military experience for
the Arab, Berber and slave forces, amongst whom individuals who
performed acts of outstanding bravery were rewarded by gifts of gold
arm-rings. It may also, as the expeditions had to pass through the
turbulent frontier regions of Al-Andalus, have served as a useful check
on the ambitions of the governors and as a reminder of their master's
power. In view of the limitations of direct government from Cordoba,
the passing of the armies through the marches, where possible some
of their manpower was recruited, could have proved as valuable in
terms of the internal politics and cohesion of Al-Andalus as in respect
of any effects upon the Christian kingdoms.
The kingdoms of Asturias-Leon and of Pamplona-Navarre, espe-
cially in the tenth century, were in many respects dependent states of