Hi!
I believe the Moors are mainly of Berber stock with a few being of Arab stock. Also they invaded southern Spain. My question is how much of Portugal did they invade? Was it the entire country? Cheers for any thoughts. Chris
Welcome
Try and avoid the word 'moors'. It equates to 'mauri' or berber as you say. Yet many of the 'muslims' who made up Spain's population in the years 711-1611 were of other origins, such as arab, Syrian, Yemeni. The vast majority of Iberia's muslims were the original hispano-roman and Visigothic population who sooner or later converted.
It was less an 'invasion' than a takeover, with military support. The oppressive and dissolute Visigothic regime was such that it was a huge relief for most of the people, including jews and disenfranchised goths, to have a more enlightened ruler. It's the only way a relatively small berber force could get the better of what should be a huge and powerful Visigothic army. I won't go into all the reasons here but there are threads on it here if you can search.
Portugal of course did not exist. Roman Hispania was (eventually) taken over lock stock and barrel and maintained, after a fashion, by the Visigoths for around 200 years. It included all of Iberia, the Narbonne Province in southern France and Ceuta.
The muslim regime initially simply took over this almost exact footprint - another sign of pacting and connivance rather than conquest. Just as the Visigoths never really managed to subdue or garrison the very north coastal strips of Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country then neither, in turn, did the new regime. Sanchez Albornoz tells a different tale, but is nowadays thought to have been in error
What is now Portugal was of course wholly within muslim territory for 500 years - the people were muslim. As far as Galicia goes - the lords of Galicia seemed to have come down and offered their loyalty just after a rebellion in Toledo was harshly suppressed in 712. Personally I don't think Galicia was ever populated or garrisoned, although some suggest it was - until the Great Berber Revolt 3 of decades later.
At this time Cordoba rule was erratic and not centralised - mainly due to the varying 'ownership' of many local cities and regions - and there simply wasn't any need or resource to send troops there. They were occupied elsewhere