The arrival of the Barbarians to the Iberian Peninsula ended the Romanization and it was the Vandals who occupied the coastal areas of the Bética, being, according to the historian Carlos Posac Mon, responsible for the traumatic end of roman times in Marbella. The climate of insecurity on the coast after the period of invasions and the fear of piracy ensured that during the first years of the creation of al-Andalus the construction of castles was prioritized along with the re-population of higher locations such as Ojén or Benahavís, in preference to Marbella. But with the consolidation of the Caliphate of Córdoba, little by little a change in settlement models took place; building on higher ground was abandoned as they were far from the productive farming and fishing areas, as well as having complicated access routes for commerce. It is at this time that Marbella is first cited in written sources and when the town must have been created, arising, in all probability, from the necessity to protect with walls a port area useful for facilitating and fomenting both commerce and the movement of troops between al-Andalus and the North of Africa. The birth of the town of Marbella must have taken place in a relatively short space of time and by means of a decision taken by the ruling Caliphate, as indicated by the architecture of the defensive remains. The oldest author to speak of Marbella is al-Idrisi from Ceuta in the XI century, who mentions it on two occasions, once to tell us that it belonged to la Cora (Province) de Rayya and another time in which he tells us “Marbella is a small but well populated village whose land produces abundant figs”. From hereon in Arabic references to the town are constant and the name of Marbella appears written in a number of ways: “Marvella”, “Marvellar”, “Marbela”, “Marbellia, “Marbelam”, “Melela, “Marabela”… all corresponding to orthographical errors rather than to phonological changes in the name of the town. From all these references, we highlight the one made by the code-writer from Granada, Ibn al Jatib, who in the XIV century wrote the following: “It is a land where the people are convened to eat sardines rather than called to prayer and where the person prayed for is the one who caught and shared the big fish” adding that “its gardens produced grapes so celebrated that there were none other to rival them” and, with so much sunshine, fish and wine, even the greatest believer couldn’t resist.
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