After the Muslim conquest in the year 711 and continuing with the previous approach, the first stage of Muslim domain is a period on which we have scarce references about Valencia (Balansiya according to Arab sources).

One of them talks about the destruction of the city by Abd al-Rahman I, first Emir of Córdoba, but probably the most relevant event of the emir stage could be the presence of Abd allah al-Balansi, the emir’s son who exerted a kind of autonomous government on the Valencian area and ordered to build a luxurious palace in the outskirts of the city, the Russafa, the real origin of the neighbourhood with the same name. Beyond political deeds, what has turned out to be really transcendental is the joining of the city within the Islam’s world which in a little time changed the language, religion and habits of its inhabitants.    

During the Caliph time, Balansiya started the urban recovery by means of the construction of the first perimeter of huerta in the present Carmen neighbourhood and the remodelling of the old Episcopal Visigoth area in the surroundings of the cathedral in order to turn it into a souk linked with the governor’s residence.

The true outcome of the city began after the defeat of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the year 1010 which led the way to the appearance of a whole series of autonomous kingdom s or taifas, one of them was the Valencian reign  . The city grew and during times of King Abd al-Aziz a new wall was built, remains of which are still kept in Carmen neighbourhood several archaeological findings reveal the importance reached by the city at this moment.

At the end of the Eleventh Century, and taking advantage of the political instability, the Cid took control of Valencia, which remained in the hands of the Christian troops until 1102. When they left the city, the almoravides occupied the city and restored the Muslim worship, leaving behind a governor in charge.

The decadence of the Almoravide power coincided with the promotion of a new North- African dynasty, the Almohades who ruled the peninsula since 1145. However, its entrance in Valencia was halted by Ibn Mardanis, the Wolf King, the monarch of Valencia and Murcia but finally the city fell into the hands of the North- Africans in 1171.

In the first decades of the Thirteenth Century, the city was fortified once more due to the imminence of the Aragon’s advancement. The Christian sources describe it as a populous city surrounded by a fertile huerta.

With Valencia’s conquest by Jaime the first in 1238, five centuries of Muslim culture came to an end but it left a solid influence in the city and in the Valencian territory.