text:  Meanwhile the Christian remnant left unmolested in the Asturian and Galician mountains gradually recovered courage: and in 717-18 "a despicable barbarian " (as he is termed by Ibn Hayyan a writer often cited by Al-Makkari ) "named Belay (Pelayo or Pelagius ) rose in Galicia; and from that moment the Christians began to resist the Moslems and to defend their wives and daughters; for till then they had not shown the least inclination to do so