Velasco the Basque (, Balask al-Galaski) was the Basque ruler of Pamplona in the early 9th century.
Velasco may have come to power in 799 in the uprising that overthrew the Umayyad rule in Pamplona, when Muá¹Âarrif ibn Mà «sa, probably of the Banu Qasi, was assassinated there.
The contemporary Annales Regni Francorum record that "the Navarri and the Pamplonans, who had defected to the Saracens in recent years, were received back into allegiance" in 806. Velasco must be seen as a pro-Frankish leader, perhaps even a Frankish appointee.
According to the 11th-century Muqtabis of Ibn ḤayyÃÂn, in the year 816 (AH 200) the Córdoban ḥÃÂjib ÿAbd al-Karëm led an expedition against Velasco, whom he describes as the "lord of Pamplona" (, á¹£ÃÂḥib) and the "enemy of God". There is no record of Velasco receiving any assistance from his Frankish allies. In fact, the Umayyad governor of Zaragoza, the future ÿAbd al-RaḥmÃÂn II, even sent an embassy to the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious that year, perhaps to forestall just such a Frankish reaction.
Velasco did receive assistance from the neighbouring Kingdom of Asturias. The Asturian contingent included some Basques from the region of ÃÂlava. After thirteen days of fighting "without truce" along the river Arum, Velasco was defeated and the ÃÂlavan leader, GarcÃÂa López (Garsiya ibn Lubb), was killed. This GarcÃÂa was a cousin of King Alfonso II of Asturias, who was himself half-Basque. The "best knight of Pamplona", Sancho, and a certain á¹¢altÃÂn, leader of the majà «s (idolaters), were also among those killed. Following their defeat, the Basques blocked the rivers and mountain passes, frustrating any further Umayyad advance. á¹¢altÃÂn was probably the leader of a faction of pagan Basques.
Nothing is heard of Velasco after his defeat in 816, but he was no longer lord of Pamplona by 824, when ÃÂñigo Arista was ruling there.