to one of Sulayman’s allies, a man named al-Husayn ibn Yahiya. The temptation was too much for al-Husayn, who murdered his colleague Sulayman. As promised, al-Husayn was awarded Zaragoza with the expectation that he would always be a subordinate of Córdoba. Within two years, however, al-Husayn broke off relations with Abd al-Rahman and announced that Zaragoza would be an independent city-state.
Once again Abd al-Rahman had to be concerned with developments in the Upper March. He was intent on keeping his important northern border city within the Umayyad fold. By 783 Abd al-Rahman’s army advanced on Zaragoza. It appeared as though Abd al-Rahman wanted to make clear to this troublesome city that independence was out of the question. Included in the arsenal of Abd al-Rahman’s army were thirty-six siege engines. Zaragoza’s famous white granite defensive walls were breached under a torrent of ordnance from the Umayyad lines. Abd al-Rahman’s warriors spilled into the city’s streets, quickly thwarting al-Husayn’s desires for independence.
Military and social reforms and constructions works:
After the aforementioned period of conflict, Abd al-Rahman continued in his improvement of al-Andalus’ infrastructure. He ensured roadways were begun, aqueducts were constructed or improved, and that a new mosque was well funded in his capital at Córdoba. Construction on what would in time become the world famous Great Mosque of Córdoba was started circa the year 786. Abd al-Rahman knew that one of his sons would one day inherit the rule of al-Andalus, but that it was a land torn by strife. In order to successfully rule in such a situation, Abd al-Rahman needed to create a reliable civil service and organize a standing army. He felt that he could not always rely on the local populace in providing a loyal army; and therefore bought a massive standing army consisting mainly of Berbers from North Africa as well as slaves from other areas.
The total number of army-men under his command were nearly 40,000. As was common during the years of Islamic expansion from Arabia, religious tolerance was practiced. Abd al-Rahman continued to allow Jews and Christians and other monotheistic religions to retain and practice their faiths. They did, however, have to pay a tribute tax for this privilege. Abd al-Rahman’s policy of taxing non-Muslims, which was often carried out by later rulers, changed the religious dynamic of al-Andalus. Possibly because of excessive tribute taxes “the bulk of the country’s population must have become Muslim”. However, other scholars have argued that though 80% of al-Andalus converted to Islam, it did not truly occur until near the 10th century.
Christians more often converted to Islam than Jews although there were converted Jews among the new followers of Islam. There was a great deal of freedom of interaction between the groups: for example, Sarah, the granddaughter of the Visigoth king Wittiza, married a Muslim man and bore two sons who were later counted among the ranks of the highest Arab nobility.
Conclusion:
The date of Abd al-Rahman’s death is disputed, but is generally accepted to be sometime around 785 through 788. Abd al-Rahman died in his adopted city of Cordoba and was supposedly buried under the site of the Mezquita. Abd al-Rahman’s alleged favorite son was his choice for successor and would later be known as Hisham I. Abd ar-Rahman’s progeny would continue to rule al-Andalus in the name of the house of Umayyah for several generations, with the zenith of their power coming during the reign of Abd al-Rahman III.
Legends:
In his lifetime, Abd al-Rahman was known as al Dakhil (“the immigrant”). But he was also known as Saqr Quraish (“The Falcon of the Quraish”), bestowed on him by one of his great enemies, the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur.
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Abd al-Rahman III (890-961): The Umayyads ruled the Muslim world from 661 to 750, but when the Abbasids came to power they put most of the Umayyad princes to the sword. Only a handful of the Umayyad princes escaped the ensuing massacre. Abd al-Rahman, the grandson of Umayyad ruler Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, was one of them. He fled Damascus and travelled on foot and by ship for many years before he finally reached North Africa, where he received a warm welcome from the Berber tribe of Banu Nafisa (in present-day Morocco). In 756, he led an army into battle and defeated the governor’s forces before proceeding to Cordova, the capital of al-Andalus, and in so doing inaugurated Umayyad rule in Spain. Abd al-Rahman and his descendants went on to rule Muslim Spain for nearly three centuries. During this period Muslim Spain produced a number of influential rulers, but the most outstanding of them all was Caliph Abd al-Rahman III.
Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad, better known as Abd al-Rahman III, was born in Cordova during the reign of his grandfather, Amir Abdullah. Young Abd al-Rahman grew up under the care of his Frankish mother, Muzna, and his grandfather, Amir Abdullah. His mother, Muzna, and grandmother, Iniga, were of European origin. Young Abd al-Rahman was aware of the difficult challenges which confronted his country and contributed as much as he could to alleviating the problems until Amir Abdullah died in 912.
Abd al-Rahman succeeded his grandfather at the age of twenty-two and became the new ruler of Islamic Spain. Immediately after becoming Caliph, his main priority was to restore political stability and civil order across al-Andalus. The Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, he reminded his people, would not come to their aid should the neighboring Christian powers decide to attack al-Andalus. His message to his people was very loud and clear: unite or you will be consigned to the dustbin of history.
After establishing political and civil order across Cordova and its immediate surroundings, Abd al-Rahman turned his attention to other major cities like Seville and Toledo. But when these self-appointed rulers rejected his conciliatory measures, he launched military actions against them. Since Ordono II, the Christian ruler of Leon, was the chief instigator of these raids, Abd al-Rahman sent an expedition and inflicted a crushing defeat on his forces in 923. After successfully subduing these cities, Abd al-Rahman finally restored peace, order and security across much of al-Andalus. In 929, at the age of thirty-nine, he became the undisputed master of Islamic Spain and adopted the title of al-Khalifah al-Nasir li-din Allah (‘the Caliph, the Defender of the Religion of God’).
Indeed, under Abd al-Rahman’s stewardship, Spain became a beacon of light for the rest of Europe. When there was hardly a college or library worth its name in Europe, al-Andalus boasted some of the finest, and also largest, libraries and educational institutions in the Western world. He transformed the Academy in Cordova into one of the world’s most dazzling centers of higher education and research. The thriving and tolerant civil society, known as the convivencia, fostered by Caliph Abd al-Rahman enabled everyone including Muslims, Jews and Christians to live and work together in peace and tranquility. Renowned Jewish thinkers such as Ibn Gabirol and Judah Halevi also lived and thrived in Islamic Spain.
Then, in 936, Caliph Abd al-Rahman ordered the construction of a new palace city which became known as Madinat al-Zahra (or ‘the dazzling city’). This mammoth project took more than forty years to complete. It was in fact Caliph al-Hakam, his son and successor, who finally achieved this in 976.
For nearly eight centuries, under her Mohammedan rulers, Spain set to all Europe a shining example of a civilized and enlightened State. Mathematics, astronomy and botany, history, philosophy and jurisprudence were to be mastered in Spain, and Spain alone.
His reign of forty-nine years was therefore a truly remarkable period in the history of Islamic Spain and Europe as a whole. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III died in Cordova at the age of seventy-one. Al-Andalus began to decline after his death and the Umayyads of Spain were eventually ousted from power in 1031.
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Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman al Saud (1879-1953): founder and king of Saudi Arabia. Born in Diraiya, central Arabia, Abdul grew up in Kuwait, where his ruling al Saud
