The Muslims controlled a significant portion of the Iberian peninsula from the conquest of 711 A.D. until the fall of Nasrid Granada in 1492. This control extended, at times, over virtually the entire area of modern Spain and Portugal. The hjib al- Man sur during the year 997 , even mana- ged to sack Santiago de Compostela, the holiest Christian shrine in western Europe. This extended Islamic occupation profoundly affected the course of Spanish history. My intention in this paper is to focus on some of the Arabic contributions to the development of the modern Spanish language.