Christianity gained influence from early on in Algeria because it was the home and domain of Saint Augustine of Hippo, a Berber philosopher and theologian and the most influential Church Father of early Christendom. This may have been the reason why Islam prevailed only slowly after the Arabs had conquered the Maghreb by the end of the 7th century: it took some 400 years until the whole of North Africa was truly Muslim. In the early 16th century, after the end of the Reconquista, the Spanish invaded Algeria, whereupon the land submitted itself under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century the French began their conquest; Algeria fell under French rule and remained a French colony until 1962. This double influence of the Ottomans on the one hand and the French on the other, expresses itself also in the Algerian currency. The currency unit is the Algerian dinar, divided into 100 centimes. The name "dinar" derives from the medieval Islamic gold coin, and "centime" is the name of the French small coins.