Abd al-Rahman I
The Umayyad dynasty was established in al-Andalus when Abd al-Rahman I took "Išbīliya" without violence in March 756, then won Córdoba in the Battle of Musarah where he defeated Yusuf al-Fihri, the governor of al-Andalus, who had ruled independently since the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750. After his victory Abd al-Rahman I proclaimed himself the Emir of al-Andalus, which later became part of the Caliphate of Córdoba when Abd ar-Rahman III proclaimed himself Caliph in 929, and "Išbīliya" was made the capital of a "kūra" (territory). Abd al-Rahman I appointed his Umayyad kinsman Abd al-Malik ibn Umar ibn Marwan governor of Seville. By 774 Abd al-Malik definitively crushed opposition to the Umayyads by the Arab garrisons and local elites of Seville and its territory. His family settled in the town and became a major component of the government in Cordoba, serving as viziers and generals of the successive emirs and caliphs, and some of his descendants attempted to wrest the caliphate from the descendants of Abd al-Rahman I.