Abd al - Rahman I Abd al - Rahman I , or , his full name by patronymic record , Abd al - Rahman ibn Mu ' awiya ibn Hisham ibn Abd al - Malik ibn Marwan ( 731 – 788 ) was the founder of a Muslim dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries ( including the succeeding Caliphate of Córdoba ) . The Muslims called the regions of Iberia under their dominion al - Andalus . Abd al - Rahman ' s establishment of a government in al - Andalus represented a branching from the rest of the Islamic Empire , which had been brought under the Abbasid following the overthrow of the Umayyads from Damascus in 750 . He was also known by appellations " al - Dakhil " ( " the Immigrant " ) , " Saqr Quraish " ( " the Falcon of the Quraysh " ) and the " Falcon of Andalus " . Variations of the spelling of his name include Abd ar - Rahman I , Abdul Rahman I and Abderraman I . Biography . Flight from Damascus . Born near Damascus in Syria , grandson of Hisham ibn Abd al - Malik , Abd al Rahman was the son of the Umayyad prince Mu ' awiya ibn Hisham and a Berber mother . He was twenty when his family , the ruling Umayyads , were overthrown by a popular revolt known as the Abbasid Revolution , occurring in the year 750 . Abd al - Rahman and a small selection of his family fled Damascus , where the center of Umayyad power had been ; people moving with him include his brother Yahiya , his four - year old son Sulayman , and some of his sisters , as well as his former Greek slave ( a freedman ) , Bedr . The family fled from Damascus to the River Euphrates . All along the way the path was filled with danger , as the Abbasids had dispatched horsemen across the region to try to find the Umayyad prince and kill him . The Abbasids were merciless with all Umayyads that they found . Abbasid agents closed in on Abd al - Rahman and his family while they were hiding in a small village . He left his young son with his sisters and fled with Yahiya . Accounts vary , but Bedr likely initially escaped with Abd ar - Rahman . Some histories indicate that Bedr met up with Abd al - Rahman at a later date . Abd al - Rahman , Yahiya and Bedr quit the village narrowly escaping the Abbasid assassins . Later , on the way south , Abbasid horsemen again caught up with the trio : Abd al - Rahman and his companions then threw themselves into the River Euphrates . While trying to swim across the dangerous Euphrates , Abd al - Rahman is said to have become separated from his brother Yahiya , who began swimming back towards the horsemen , possibly from fear of drowning . The horsemen beseeched the escapees to return , and that no harm would come to them . 17th century historian Ahmed Mohammed al - Maqqari poignantly described Abd al - Rahman ' s reaction as he implored Yahiya to keep going : " O brother ! Come to me , come to me " ! Yahiya returned to the near shore , and was quickly dispatched by the horsemen . They cut the head off their prize , leaving Yahiya ' s body to rot . Al - Maqqari quotes prior Muslim historians as having recorded that Abd al - Rahman said he was so overcome with fear at that moment , that once he made the far shore he ran until exhaustion overcame him . Only he and Bedr were left to face the unknown . Exile years . After barely escaping with their lives , Abd al - Rahman and Bedr continued south through Palestine , the Sinai , and then into Egypt . Abd al - Rahman had to keep a low profile as he traveled . It may be assumed that he intended to go at least as far as northwestern Africa ( Maghreb ) , the land of his mother , which had been partly conquered by his Umayyad predecessors . The journey across Egypt would prove perilous . At the time , Abd al - Rahman ibn Habib al - Fihri was the semi - autonomous governor of Ifriqiya ( roughly , modern Tunisia ) and a former Umayyad client . The ambitious Ibn Habib , a member of the illustrious Fihrid family , had long sought to carve out Ifriqiya as a private dominion for himself . At first , he sought an understanding with the Abbasids , but when they refused his terms and demanded his submission , Ibn Habib broke openly with the Abbasids and invited the remnants of the Umayyad dynasty to take refuge in his dominions . Abd al - Rahman was only one of several surviving Umayyad family members to make their way to Ifriqiya at this time . But Ibn Habib soon changed his mind . He feared the presence of prominent Umayyad exiles in Ifriqiya , a family more illustrious than his own , might become a focal point for intrigue among local nobles against his own usurped powers . Around 755 , believing he had discovered plots involving some of the more prominent Umayyad exiles in Kairouan , Ibn Habib turned against them . At the time , Abd al - Rahman and Bedr were keeping a low profile , staying in Kabylie , at the camp of a Nafza Berber chieftain friendly to their plight . Ibn Habib dispatched spies to look for the wayward Umayyad prince . When Ibn Habib ' s soldiers entered the camp , the Berber chieftain ’ s wife Tekfah hid Abd al - Rahman under her personal belongings to help him go unnoticed . Once they were gone , Abd a - Rahman and Bedr immediately set off westwards . In 755 , Abd al - Rahman and Bedr reached modern day Morocco near Ceuta . Their next step would be to cross the sea to al - Andalus , where Abd al - Rahman could not have been sure whether or not he would be welcomed . Following the Berber Revolt of the 740s , the province was in a state of confusion , with the Muslim community torn by tribal dissensions among the Arabs and racial tensions between the Arabs and Berbers . At that moment , the nominal ruler of al - Andalus , emir Yusuf ibn ' Abd al - Rahman al - Fihri ( another member of the Fihrid family , and a favorite of the old Arab settlers ( " baladiyun " ) , mostly of south Arabian or ' Yemenite ' tribal stock ) was locked in a contest with his vizier ( and son - in - law ) al - Sumayl ibn Hatim al - Qilabi , the head of the new settlers ( " shamiyum " , the Syrian " junds " or military regiments , mostly of north Arabian Qaysid tribes , which had arrived only in 742 ) . Among the Syrian junds were contingents of old Umayyad clients , numbering perhaps 500 , and Abd al - Rahman believed he might tug on old loyalties and get them to receive him . Bedr was dispatched across the straits to make contact . Bedr managed to line up three Syrian commanders – Obeid Allah ibn Uthman and Abd Allah ibn Khalid , both originally of Damascus , and Yusuf ibn Bukht of Qinnasrin . The trio approached the Syrian arch - commander al - Sumayl ( then in Zaragoza ) to get his consent , but al - Sumayl refused , fearing Abd al - Rahman would try to make himself emir . As a result , Bedr and the Umayyad clients sent out feelers to their rivals , the Yemenite commanders . Although the Yemenites were not natural allies ( the Umayyads are a Qaysid tribe ) , their interest was piqued . The emir Yusuf al - Fihri , had proven himself unable to keep the powerful al - Sumayl in check and several Yemenite chieftains felt their future prospects were poor , whether in a Fihrid or Syrian - dominated Spain , that they had a better chance of advancement if they hitched themselves to the glitter of the Umayyad name . Although the Umayyads did not have a historical presence in the region ( no member of the Umayyad family was known to have ever set foot in al - Andalus before ) and there were grave concerns about young Abd al - Rahman ' s inexperience , several of the lower - ranking Yemenite commanders felt they had little to lose and much to gain , and agreed to support the prince . Bedr returned to Africa to tell Abd al - Rahman of the invitation of the Umayyad clients in al - Andulus . Shortly thereafter , they set off with a small group of followers for Europe . When some local Berber tribesmen learned of Abd al - Rahman ' s intent to set sail for al - Andalus , they quickly rode to catch up with him on the coast . The tribesmen might have figured that they could hold Abd al - Rahman as hostage , and force him to buy his way out of Africa . He did indeed hand over some amount of dinars to the suddenly hostile local Berbers . Just as Abd al - Rahman launched his boat , another group of Berbers arrived . They also tried to obtain a fee from him for leaving . One of the Berbers held on to Abd al - Rahman ' s vessel as it made for al - Andalus , and allegedly had his hand cut off by one of the boat ' s crew . Abd al - Rahman landed at Almuñécar in al - Andalus , to the east of Málaga , in September 755 ; however his landing site was unconfirmed . Fight for power . Upon landing in al - Andalus , Abd al - Rahman was greeted by clients Abu Uthman and Ibn Khalid and an escort of 300 cavalry . He was able to take advantage of the rivalry between the Qais and the Yaman tribes . During his brief time in Málaga , he was able to amass local support quickly . Waves of people made their way to Málaga to pay respect to the prince they thought was dead , including many of the aforementioned Syrians . One famous story which persisted through history related to a gift Abd al - Rahman was given while in Málaga . The gift was a beautiful young slave girl , but Abd al - Rahman humbly returned her to her previous master . News of the prince ' s arrival spread like wildfire throughout the peninsula . During this time , emir al - Fihri and the Syrian commander al - Sumayl , pondered what to do about the new threat to their shaky hold on power . They decided to try to marry Abd al - Rahman into their family . If that did not work , then Abd al - Rahman would have to be killed . Abd al - Rahman was apparently sagacious enough to expect such a plot . In order to help speed his ascension to power , he was prepared to take advantage of the feuds and dissensions . However , before anything could be done , trouble broke out in northern al - Andalus . Zaragoza , an important trade city on the Upper March of al - Andalus , made a bid for autonomy . Al - Fihri and al - Sumayl rode north to quash the rebellion . This might have been fortunate timing for Abd al - Rahman , since he was still getting a solid foothold in al - Andalus . By March 756 , Abd al - Rahman and his growing following of Umayyad clients and Yemenite junds , were able to take Sevilla without violence . He managed to break the rebellion attempt in Zaragoza , but just about that time the Cordovan governor received news of a Basque rebellion in Pamplona . An important detachment was sent by Yusuf ibn ' Abd al - Rahman to quash it , but his troops were annihilated . After the setback , al - Fihri turned his army back south to face the " pretender " . The fight for the right to rule al - Andalus was about to begin . The two contingents met on opposite sides of the River Guadalquivir , just outside the capital of Córdoba on the plains of Musarah . The river was , for the first time in years , overflowing its banks , heralding the end of a long drought . Nevertheless , food was still scarce , and Abd al - Rahman ' s army suffered from hunger . In an attempt to demoralize Abd al - Rahman ' s troops , al - Fihri ensured that his troops not only were well fed , but also ate gluttonous amounts of food in full view of the Umayyad lines . An attempt at negotiations soon followed in which it is likely that Abd al - Rahman was offered the hand of al - Fihri ' s daughter in marriage and great wealth . Abd ar - Rahman , however , would settle for nothing less than control of the emirate , and an impasse was reached . Even before the fight began , dissension spread through some of Abd al - Rahman ' s lines . Specifically , the Yemeni Arabs were unhappy that the prince was mounted on a fine Spanish steed . And the prince ' s mettle was untried in battle , after all ! The Yemenis observed significantly that such a fine horse would provide an excellent mount to escape from battle . Being the ever - wary politician , Abd al - Rahman acted quickly to regain Yemeni support , and rode to a Yemeni chief who was mounted on a mule named " Lightning " . Abd al - Rahman averred that his horse proved difficult to ride and was wont to buck him out of the saddle . He offered to exchange his horse for the mule , a deal to which the surprised chief readily agreed . The swap quelled the simmering Yemeni rebellion . Soon both armies were in their lines on the same bank of the Guadalquivir . Abd al - Rahman had no banner , and so one was improvised by unwinding a green turban and binding it round the head of a spear . Subsequently the turban and the spear became the banner and symbol of the Andalusian Umayyads . Abd al - Rahman led the charge toward al - Fihri ' s army . Al - Sumayl in turn advanced his cavalry out to meet the Umayyad threat . After a long and difficult fight “ Abd ar - Rahman obtained a most complete victory , and the field was strewn with the bodies of the enemy ” . Both al - Fihri and al - Sumayl managed to escape the field ( probably ) with parts of the army too . Abd al - Rahman triumphantly marched into the capital , Córdoba . Danger was not far behind , as al - Fihri planned a counterattack . He reorganized his forces and set out for the capital Abd al - Rahman had usurped from him . Again Abd al - Rahman met al - Fihri with his army ; this time negotiations were successful , although the terms were somewhat changed . In exchange for al - Fihri ' s life and wealth , he would be a prisoner and not allowed to leave the city limits of Córdoba . Al - Fihri would have to report once a day to Abd al - Rahman , as well as turn over some of his sons and daughters as hostages . For a while al - Fihri met the obligations of the one - sided truce , but he still had many people loyal to him ; people who would have liked to see him back in power . Al - Fihri eventually did make another bid for power . He quit Córdoba and quickly started gathering supporters . While at large , al - Fihri managed to gather an army allegedly numbering to 20 , 000 . It is doubtful , however , that his troops were " regular " soldiers , but rather a hodge - podge of men from various parts of al - Andalus . Abd ar - Rahman ' s appointed governor in Sevilla took up the chase , and after a series of small fights , managed to defeat al - Fihri ' s army . Al - Fihri himself managed to escape to the former Visigoth capital of Toledo in central al - Andalus ; once there , he was promptly killed . Al - Fihri ' s head was sent to Córdoba , where Abd al - Rahman had it nailed to a bridge . With this act , Abd ar - Rahman proclaimed himself the emir of al - Andalus . However , one final act to take over southern Iberia had to be performed : al - Fihri ' s general , al - Sumayl , had to be dealt with , and he was garroted in Córdoba ' s jail . Now most of central and northern al - Andalus ( Toledo , Zaragoza , Barcelona , etc . ) was out of his rule , with large swathes remaining in the hands of Yusuf ibn ' Abd al - Rahman al - Fihri ' s supporters until 779 ( submission of Zaragoza ) . Rule . Indeed , Abd al - Rahman only proclaimed himself as emir , and not as caliph . This was likely because al - Andalus was a land besieged by many different loyalties , and the proclamation of caliph would have likely caused much unrest . Abd al - Rahman ' s progeny would , however , take up the title of caliph . In the meantime , a call went out through the Muslim world that al - Andalus was a safe haven for friends of the house of Umayya , if not for Abd al - Rahman ' s scattered family that managed to evade the Abbasids . Abd al - Rahman probably was quite happy to see his call answered by waves of Umayyad faithful and family . He was finally reacquainted with his son Sulayman , whom he last saw weeping on the banks of the Euphrates with his sisters . Abd ar - Rahman ' s sisters were unable to make the long voyage to al - Andalus . Abd al - Rahman placed his family members in high offices across the land , as he felt he could trust them more than non - family . The Umayyad family would again grow large and prosperous over successive generations . However , by 763 Abd ar - Rahman had to get back to the business of war . Al - Andalus had been invaded by an Abbasid army . Far away in Baghdad , the current Abbasid caliph , al - Mansur , had long been planning to depose the Umayyad who dared to call himself emir of al - Andalus . Al - Mansur installed al - Ala ibn - Mugith ( also known as al - Ala ) as governor of Africa ( whose title gave him dominion over the province of al - Andalus ) . It was al - Ala who headed the Abbasid army that landed in al - Andalus , possibly near Beja ( in modern day Portugal ) . Much of the surrounding area of Beja capitulated to al - Ala , and in fact rallied under the Abbasid banners against Abd al - Rahman . Abd al - Rahman had to act quickly . The Abbasid contingent was vastly superior in size , said to have numbered 7 , 000 men . The emir quickly made for the redoubt of Carmona with his army . The Abbasid army was fast on his heels , and laid siege to Carmona for approximately two months . Abd al - Rahman must have sensed that time was against him as food and water became scarce , and his troops morale likely came into question . Finally Abd al - Rahman gathered his men as he was " resolved on an audacious sally " [ 15 ] . Abd al - Rahman hand - picked 700 fighters from his army and led them to Carmona ' s main gate . There , he started a great fire and threw his scabbard into the flames . Abd al - Rahman told his men that time had come to go down fighting than die of hunger . The gate lifted and Abd ar - Rahman ' s men fell upon the unsuspecting Abbasids , thoroughly routing them . Most of the Abbasid army was killed . The heads of the main Abbasid leaders were cut off . Their heads were preserved in salt , and identifying tags pinned to their ears . The heads were bundled together in a gruesome package and sent to the Abbasid caliph who was on pilgrimage at Mecca . Upon receiving the evidence of al - Ala ' s defeat in al - Andalus , al - Mansur is said to have gasped , “ God be praised for placing a sea between us ” ! Al - Mansur hated , and yet apparently respected Abd al - Rahman to such a degree that he dubbed him the " Hawk of Quraysh " ( The Umayyads were from a branch of the Quraysh tribe ) . Despite such a tremendous victory , Abd al - Rahman had to continuously put down rebellions in al - Andalus . Various Arab and Berber tribes fought each other for varying degrees of power , some cities tried to break away and form their own state , and even members of Abd al - Rahman ' s family tried to wrest power from him . During a large revolt , dissidents marched on Córdoba itself ; However , Abd al - Rahman always managed to stay one step ahead , and crushed all opposition ; as he always dealt severely with dissidence in al - Andalus . However , this assumption needs to be in perspective , since in 756 he was in charge of a limited number of southern strongholds and he faced resistance to submit from other towns during the next 25 years , rather than revolts . Despite all this turmoil in al - Andalus , Abd al - Rahman wanted to take the fight back east to Baghdad . Revenge for the massacre of his family at the hands of the Abbasids must surely have been the driving factor in Abd al - Rahman ' s war plans . However his war against Baghdad was put on hold by more internal problems . The city of Zaragoza on the Upper March remained out of reach of the Umayyad leader since the times of Yusuf ibn ' Abd al - Rahman al - Fihri , bidding for autonomy . Little could Abd al - Rahman have known that as he set off to settle matters in that northern city , his hopes of warring against Baghdad would be indefinitely put on hold . Problems in the Upper March . Zaragoza proved to be a most difficult city to reign over for not only Abd ar - Rahman , but his predecessors as well . In the year 777 – 778 , several notable men including Sulayman ibn Yokdan al - Arabi al - Kelbi , the self - appointed governor of Zaragoza , met with delegates of the leader of the Franks , Charlemagne . " ( Charlemagne ' s ) army was enlisted to help the Muslim governors of Barcelona and Zaragoza against the Umayyad ( emir ) in Cordoba . . . " Essentially Charlemagne was being hired as a mercenary , even though he likely had other plans of acquiring the area for his own empire . After Charlemagne ' s columns arrived at the gates of Zaragoza , Sulayman got cold feet and refused to let the Franks into the city . It is possible that he realized that Charlemagne would want to usurp power from him . Charlemagne ' s force eventually headed back to France via a narrow pass in the Pyrenees , where his rearguard was wiped out by Basque and Gascon rebels ( this disaster inspired the epic Chanson de Roland ) . Now Abd al - Rahman could deal with Sulayman and the city of Zaragoza without having to fight a massive Christian army . In 779 Abd ar - Rahman offered the job of Zaragoza ' s governorship 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 engine s . Zaragoza ' s famous white granite defensive wall s 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 , constructions works , and improvements . 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 . Abd al - Rahman I was able to forge a new Umayyad dynasty by standing successfully against Charlemagne , he Abassid s , the Berbers , and other Muslim Spaniards . There is some dispute as to what exactly it was that he created : an extension of the Umayyad Dynasty or the new Caliphate of Cordoba . 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 Córdoba , 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 Umayyad for several generations , with the zenith of their power coming during the reign of Abd al - Rahman III . Family . Abd al - Rahman was the son of Mu ' awiya , son of Hisham , son of Abd al - Malik according to Abd el - Wahid Merrakechi when reciting his ancestry . Abd al - Rahman ' s mother was a member from the Nafza Berbers with whom he found refuge after the murder of his family in 750 . Abd al - Rahman married a woman named Hulal . She is said to be the mother of Hisham . Abd al - Rahman was the father of several sons , but the identity of their mother ( s ) is not clear : 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 greatest enemies , the Abbasid caliph al - Mansur . According to the chroniclers , the Abbasid caliph al - Mansur once asked his courtiers who deserved the exalted title of " Falcon of the Quraysh " ( " Saqr Quraish " , foremost of the Prophet ' s tribe ) . The obsequious courtiers naturally replied " You , oh Commander of the Faithful ! " , but the Caliph said no . Then they suggested Mu ' awiya ( founder of the Umayyad Caliphate ) , but the Caliph again said no . Then they suggested Abd al - Malik ibn Marwan ( one the greatest of the Umayyad caliphs ) , but again no . Then who , they asked , and the Caliph al - Mansur replied :