In the western half of the Mediterranean, the Muslims were able to establish sustainable states on the European shores. The Arab assaults on Sicily were brought to a halt by the great Berber rebellion of 741. The history of the Muslim conquest of Sicily in the ninth century is largely based on much later Arabic chronicles, notably the compilations of Ibn al-Athīr and Ibn Idhārī. The main arena for Arab raids was mainland southern Italy. The earliest phases of Arabic historical literature from Muslim Spain, known as al-Andalus in the Arabic sources, are represented by akhbār, or individual anecdotes. The Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula from 711 to 716 was a logical extension of the conquest of North Africa. Muslim settlement was widely dispersed throughout the peninsula with the exception of the northern mountains. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, therefore, was the only leader who could appeal across and above tribal loyalties to a wide cross-section of Arab society in Spain.