The Arabs raised a ribat, a small monastery to train mounted monk-warriors like those of the Christian Orders. The ribat, "rábida" (or "rápita") in Spanish is derived from the Arabic word meaning "watchtower", and the ruins of several other Moorish towers of this kind along the Costa de la Luz still exist. In this environment, Muslim ascetics sought to become perfected spiritually so that they would be better able to defend this isolated coastal frontier of the Moorish empire in Iberia.