Battle of the Salado (Tarifa)

Timeline

1. 1340Tarifa · AndalusiaAfter retaking Gibraltar in 1333, Abu al-Hasan assembled a large North African army in 1340 and crossed the strait, joining with Granada's Emir Yusuf I to besiege the strategic strait town of Tarifa. The Castilian fleet was at one point checked in the strait, the garrison of Tarifa was in dire straits, and southern Iberia faced its gravest North African intervention in half a century.
2. 1340Seville · AndalusiaAlfonso XI and Afonso IV renewed their alliance under the framework of the Treaty of Seville, and Pope Benedict XII proclaimed a crusade and provided funding. After mustering at Seville, the two kingdoms' armies advanced on the besieged Tarifa; the Christian coalition and the Marinid-Granadan army faced each other across the Salado, and the conditions for a decisive battle took shape.
3. 1340Salado battlefield · AndalusiaThe Christian coalition forced a crossing of the Salado; Alfonso XI attacked the Marinid main body while Afonso IV pinned the Granadan flank. Once their riverbank positions were broken, the Marinid army collapsed; Abu al-Hasan fled back across the sea to North Africa, losing his camp and supplies. The siege of Tarifa was promptly lifted, and the day became one of the most famous battles of the late Reconquista.
4. 1340–1341Strait of Gibraltar coast · Strait of GibraltarThe victory on the Salado ended the Marinid dynasty's capacity for strategic counteroffensive against Iberia. Afonso IV soon withdrew his forces, while Alfonso XI secured the strait coastline and prepared to besiege Algeciras. Thereafter North African powers never again organized a landing on the peninsula of comparable scale, and Granada grew increasingly isolated.