Abd al-Rahman I
Lisbon became part of the Umayyad Caliphate based in Damascus, Syria, soon after the beginning of Muslim rule in Iberia. An ongoing rebellion (740–743) of the Berber or "Moorish" elite against the Umayyads had spread through the Maghreb (North Africa) and across the Strait of Gibraltar to al-Andalus, but needed reinforcements to defeat the caliphate. When the Umayyad dynasty was finally toppled by the Abbasid Revolution in 750, Abd al-Rahman I, an Umayyad prince, fled with his family from the capital in Damascus across North Africa to al-Andalus, and gained independence from the new Abbasid Caliphate. There he established the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba and Lisbon came under its dominion.