THE CHRISTIAN REALMS 227internecine wars of the Arabs in the south of the peninsula in the
740s and 750s, several of the main towns of Galicia and the Meseta
were raided by the Asturians, including Lugo, Tuy, Oporto, Braga,
Salamanca, Astorga, Leon and Zamora. Lacking the military strength
and perhaps the desire to hold this large and exposed area against
eventual Arab counter-attack, the urban populations were carried off
back into the Asturias, and the whole Duero valley and western Galicia
was devastated and depopulated, leaving a no-man's land between
the Christian kingdom and the newly created Umayyad Amirate of
Cordoba. Although such a depopulation can hardly have been total,
the demolition of fortifications and the destruction of settlements
would have left any remaining inhabitants little defence or basis for
organisation. With the creation of the Umayyad marches across the
centre of the peninsula it is likely that this empty frontier zone be-
came a practical reality.
With the establishment of the Amirate and the stilling of the inter-
nal conflicts in the south, the Asturian kingdom became the target
for almost annual raids by the Umayyads' expeditions, but this never
presented a real threat to its continued existence, and occasionally
could give rise to morale-boosting victories in skirmishes. One such
is recorded in the reign of Alfonso's son Fruela 'the Cruel' (757-
768), in the course of which a supposed son of 'Abd al-Ral)man I is
reported to have been captured and executed.' .No reference to this
is found in the Islamic sources. Of greater significance for the future
of the kingdom were the campaigns of harassment and massacre
directed against the surviving Berber garrisons in Galicia that finally
led to their withdrawal from the region and return to Mrica, after
which Fruela was able to reverse some of his father's work and
repopulate Galicia as far as the river Minio. Also from this reign
comes the first record of conflict between the Asturians and the
Basques, the latter rebelling unsuccessfully against the king in
Cantabria. The extent of Basque lands under Asturian rule is uncer-
tain, but, together with the Galicians, they added a third culturally
distinctive and self-conscious element to the composition of the king-
dom, the future politics of which was to be seriously affected by the
rivalries and conflicts between the components. King Fruela himself
married a Basque called Munia before meeting a violent death at the
hands of his own followers. None of the chroniclers gives a clear
reason for this, but their account of his death is put in juxtaposition
with that of his murder of his own brother Vimara.