Abd al-Rahman I

‘Abd Al-Raḥmān I: Abū l-Muẓaffar ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Mu‘āwiya b. Hišām b. ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwān al-Dājil (the immigrant), Villa of al-‘Ulyà, place of Syria between Palmyra and Damascus (Syria) 731 – 788 C. Founder and first emir Omeya of Cordoba (independent), urbanizer of the territory, organizer of the administration and armies of the emirate, poet, eloquent and ingenious speaker and man of great culture.

It is not known exactly where he was born, some say in Dayr Ḥanīna and others, like Ibn Ḥayyān (whose opinion we bow to), in al-‘Ulyà, both relatively close to Damascus. Grandson of the caliph Hišām b. ‘Abd al-Malik, reigning between 105/724 and 125/745, his father Mu’āwiya died under the reign of said caliph. His mother Rāh (Joy) was a Berber slave originally from the Nafza tribe; this North African bond explains in large part the flight to the West, where he initially tried to take over a territory or province.

Little is known of his childhood and adolescence. When the Abbasids killed the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, on 7 July 750, Abderraman was barely 20 years old. The Abbasids, eager to destroy any Umayyad suitors, proclaimed a false amnesty for the members of the ruling family; but it was violated, and the massacre of Abu Futrus took place, not far from Jaffa in Palestine, where about eighty Umayyads lost their lives, only the grandchildren of caliph Hisham who had not believed in such amnesty escaping.

Yet one by one they fell, not being spared but the young Abderraman, his two sisters, Umm al-Asbag and Amat al-Raḥmān, and his four year old son Sulaymān, and some of their faithful, including his clients Badr and Sālim Abū Šuŷā’. First, he flees towards the Euphrates, perhaps with the purpose of misleading his pursuers, before heading for the isthmus of Suez to Egypt, where his sisters have settled. Abderramán continues his flight west with his son, in the company of his most loyal clients he takes refuge in Barqa (Cyrenaica), from there he heads to Ifrīqiya (present-day Tunisia), expecting to receive a good reception from the governor of the territory, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Ḥabīb al-Fihrī -close relative of Yūsuf al-Fihrī, Vali of al-Ándalus- in his capital of al-Qayrawān. Wary, however, The ambitions of the Umayyad princes for power, as others of their own family had come to the country before, and even though he had declared himself against the change of regime and the Abbasid dynasty, He intended to take advantage of the circumstances to transform his province into an independent state and inaugurate his own dynasty. Obviously, he tried to get rid of the Emigre who, He sought refuge among the Banū Mugīṭ, clients of the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan. But, feeling insecure, he passed into the territory of the Berber Miknasas. Retired in the place of Bāra, in the midst of great difficulties he was saved by the wife of Abū Qurra Wānsūs al-Barbarī, seeking refuge in Sabra among the Berbers Nafza, The Commission has been working on a number of proposals for the creation of a new European Community.

Indeed, Abderramán was able to implement political, fiscal, administrative, institutional and military measures in al-Andalus under not easy circumstances. According to the historian P. Chalmeta, it was between 756 and 757 when the pillars of what will be for centuries the Andalusian system were set. The system was set up on a regular and stable economic basis, and money issues were launched towards the 767. The Emigrant intensified the Arabization or, better to say, the Syrianization of al-Andalus, encouraging the immigration of Umayyads and clients, which led to the rise of the Ahl Qurajah, “the people of Qurays” as a socio-economic group and the emergence of a core of client families, in which the great posts of the Andalusian military and civil administration during the emirate and the caliphate would be recruited. The fiscal, judicial and army restructuring will shape the subsequent evolution of the state of Córdoba, while its buildings will be the model followed for centuries in the Maghreb.

Logically this whole organization had a greater tax pressure affecting differently the Muslims and protected (Christians, soon Mozarabic, and Jews) which gave rise to numerous revolts of all kinds, Arabs, Berbers, neo-Cavants, etc. The uprisings were in their years of unceasing reign. The old regime’s favourites were not easily resigned to the new state of affairs. Yusuf al-Fihrī initially resided in Cordoba, but later escaped by violating his promise and rising in a rebellion in the area of Merida in 758, where he recruited an army of 20,000 men, mostly Berbers and baladids, that is, first-time conquerors; but was defeated on his way to Cordoba by the loyal governors of Seville and Morón, even with fewer troops, not more than 1,500 men, but with greater strategic fighting capabilities, something that long characterized the Syrians coming with Balj to the country in a second wave. Yūsuf then headed for the lands of Toledo, where he wandered for several months, being finally betrayed by his supporters who murdered him in 759 and sent his head to the Emir, who soon got rid of al-Ṣumayl, who had just been imprisoned, being strangled in prison the same year.

This did not prevent him from having to face successive rebellions of different kinds: On the one hand, there would be those provoked by those who had lost the preponderance of formerly and by nostalgic for the old regime, much less oppressive; On the other hand, the Yemenis who had raised the new emir did not like to be called to exercise power; on the other hand, the Berbers could not stand being relegated and, In short, others allied themselves with external enemies.

Three years after the death of the last Vali of al-Andalus, in effect, Toledo rose to the command of the chief fihrí Hišam b. ‘Urwa, who ruled on his own the ancient capital of the Visigoths. This uprising would not be quelled until 764 when the Umayyad army, commanded by Badr and Tammām b. ‘Alqama, He restored the new order. The main seditious ones were taken to Cordoba where they would be crucified. Still at the end of Abderraman’s reign, the only surviving son of Yusuf al-Fihrī, the blind Abu l-Aswad Muḥammad, rose up in Toledo against the Umayyad power; but would be defeated by the emir himself on September 11, 785.

Abderramán I also had to fight against the Yemeni Arabs or Kalbis, his early allies, Not having been rewarded for their support as they had hoped, and without being able to exercise any influence over the sovereign, they took part in quite a few conspiracies against his regime. In 763 the Arab chief al-‘Alā’ b. Mugīṭ rose against the emir in the district of Beja (southern Portugal) hoisting the black flag of the Abbasid caliphs. Provided with money and precise instructions by the caliph al-Mansūr had landed in al-Andalus with the promise of obtaining the government of the country if he succeeded in dethroning the usurper Umayyad. This attracted him not few supporters especially Yemeni, the Umayyad emir came to be besieged in Carmona, but a lucky exit gave him victory, al-‘Alā’ perished in the combat, as well as prominent leaders of the insurgency. The heads of all of them were embalmed and placed in a sack, together with the investiture diploma and the black Abbasid flag. A merchant left such a gift overnight in the market of al-Qayrawān (present-day Tunisia), the domain of the Abbasid at that time. It seems that the caliph upon hearing the news in Baghdad exclaimed: “Praise be to God, who has put the sea between me and this devil”.

Not because of that the Yemenis lost hope to shake off the yoke of the Umayyad emir and continued participating in other rebellions (Seville in 766; attempted capture of Cordoba in the absence of the emir in 774). It can be said that the Yemeni uprisings did not cease until 780.

Abderramán also had to face various Berber revolts in Santaver (province of Cuenca), in the Levant, in Coria, etc. The most important was the insurrection promoted by “el fatimí” Šaqyā b. ‘Abd al-Wāḥid al-Miknāsī in 768, who would come to dominate the region that extends between the basins of the Tagus and the Guadiana. After, from the city of Santaver took over the squares of Coria, Medellín and Mérida, settling in Sopetrán (present-day province of Guadalajara). The emir could only end this rebellion by means of treason and bribery. Saqya was killed by two of his supporters in 776. These rebellions speak so much of antagonisms racial, as of the distress of the Berbers to be relegated, having been they the first conquerors of al-Andalus.

It is noted, however, that much of the north of the peninsula and the entire quadrant of the northwest after the central system, escape the domain of Abderramán. “The first independent emir could no longer devote himself to conquering that part of the territory which had escaped him, and if he had done so he would never have founded a dynasty. It had to fight too many dissidents, while at the same time countering the centrifugal forces that threatened its alliances”. Even the Marwānīs themselves sometimes tried to dethrone him, violating the rules of hospitality and loyalty, as happened in 779-780 with the Umayyad ‘Abd al-‘Salām b. Yazīd and the emir’s own nephew, ‘Ubayd Allāh b. Aban, who paid for his boldness with their lives. Four years later, the son of his brother al-Walīd, al-Mugīra and a son of al-Ṣumayl conspired against the emir, being executed for this.

Abderramán had to secure the upper frontier of which Septimania was not part, especially its center, that is, the city of Zaragoza, whose Arab lords Husayn b. Yaḥyā al-Anṣārī and his partner Sulaymān b. Yaqẓān to avoid the dominion of the Umayyad, this second, proposed to seek help from Charlemagne, through Ibn al-‘Arābī, a notable who had broken the idea. The intervention of Charlemagne in al-Andalus occurred in May 778, without the expected results; since hoping not to find resistance in Zaragoza, He didn’t come equipped with war machines to take it. Behind its walls Husayn b. Yaḥyā al-Anṣārī who had not participated in the pacts of his adlaters with Charlemagne, knowing that they would ultimately strip him from his domains, He allied with Abderramán in deciding the resistance. Charlemagne, encountering unexpected resistance and feeling betrayed, took his country to Sulayman and Ibn al-‘Arabi, retreating through a gorge in the valley of Echo, where part of the rear of the second army “was first arrested and then annihilated”.

After the episode of the Frankish invasion the emir organized a campaign from Zaragoza in 781 and he spent to travel the lands crossed by the Franks in their retreat, with the clear purpose of restoring Andalusian hegemony over these regions, imposing tributes and forcing local magnates to hand over hostages. The areas subdued then were the Ribera, La Rioja, Navarra and Cerretania, which sources mark as land of infidels, and which, in effect, were beyond the limits of al-Ándalus, and constituted frontier lands (tagr), being outside the political-social and cultural formation of what will be al-Ándalus. Years later (782-783) Abderramán must have taken the city of Zaragoza by force, beating it with almajaneques. Its inhabitants were expelled for a few days from the city. Ḥusayn was executed, as well as his accomplices, appointing his paternal uncle ‘Alī b. Ḥamza as governor of Zaragoza to be relieved not long after.

Abderramán I had to procure money from clients and Umayyads, especially land, hence he tried to recover the state property; also, as Chalmeta points out, reduced the estates of Artoba, Witiza, from 899 or 599, to twenty, and suppressed the quasi-independent enclave of Tudmir (Teodomiro), recognized by a pact during the conquest of al-AramariaAndalus; which brought greater wealth to the emir, but also dissidence. Dissent that would be conjured up either badly or by enlisting a private army. The emir understood that if he wanted to gain a stable and independent power, he had to have a force that depended only on him. Since the victory of al-Muṣāra (138/756) who gave him the dominion of Cordoba, warned Abderraman that his Yemeni allies were plotting to assassinate him, was surrounded by a guard of 700 men recruited from his clients, Cordobeses, Berbers and even neo-Crenses; this would be the core of his elite troops. Eight years later, in order to end Hišām b. ‘Urwa uprooted in Toledo, the emir ordered to extend the permanent shifts of troops under arms for six months instead of three.

Later, in 764, after the last great Yemeni revolt was ended, he began to buy slaves (mamālik) and to recruit massively Berbers for his army, Some say that their number was forty thousand, which would lead to the decline of the traditional army, recruited within the country and its gradual replacement by mercenaries, essential in the subsequent caliphal victories of the time of Almanzor. The maintenance would lead to higher tax requirements, as well as the establishment of a system of territorial concessions (iqtā’āt).

It is obvious, on the other hand, that the transformation of a province into an independent kingdom or state brought with it demands of various kinds, such as defensive, urbanistic and sumptuous. The walls of Cordoba and other cities, especially those of the Marches or borders were repaired. Extra-urban palace residences were built (al-Rušāfa and Munyat al-Nā’ūra). The emir builds, rebuilds, structures. It is the political-administrative centre of the Alcázar of Córdoba, after the demolition and remodeling of the old dār al-imāra, the “house of command”, primitive Visigoth palace. He also erected a post house (dār al-burud) and the urbanization and distribution of markets. Finally, the emir erected the building which, after successive extensions, due to its later architectural influence, would be the most important in al-Andalus’ history. Indeed, in the year 785 was built the first mosque aljama, on the site of the basilica of San Vicente (This one was demolished after the purchase of half of it, which had been in Christian hands since the time of the conquest) spending on its construction the figure of eighty to one hundred thousand gold dinars.

Abderramán I’s reforms were many and of uneven scope, without it being possible to specify the dates and modalities of their implementation. It seems certain that there was an administrative redistribution, creating a series of provinces or coras, from what used to be a single province. It is certain that during his reign the urbanization and arabization of al-Andalus intensified and that its buildings and many of its administrative measures would be imitated, The European Community has a long tradition of being a leader in the field of education.