Biography of Abd al-Rahman, I

Name: Abd al-Rahman, I
Birth Date: 731
Death Date: September 30, 788
Place of Birth: Damascus, Syria
Nationality: Syrian
Gender: Male
Occupations: emir

Abd al-Rahman, I

Abd al-Rahman I (731-788) was emir of Islamic Spain from 756 to 788. Known as "the Immigrant," he established the rule of the Umayyad dynasty in the Iberian Peninsula.Born near Damascus, Syria, Abd al-Rahman I was the son of the Umayyad prince Muawiya ibn Hisham and a Berber concubine named Rah. In 750 he was one of the few members of his family to escape slaughter by the Abbasids, and thus, as the Umayyad line was extinguished in the East, he made his way to the western Islamic world to establish a base of power. Accompanied by his freedman Badr, he traveled across North Africa, finally gaining refuge among his mother's tribe, the Nafza Berbers of Morocco. Using this base, he sent Badr to Spain to prepare the groundwork for his political aspirations.On Aug. 14, 755, Abd al-Rahman landed at Almuñécar and was soon acknowledged as chief by various settlements of …showed first 150 words…

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…showed last 150 words…The Frankish king vainly besieged Saragossa in 778, and part of his army was wiped out in the Pass of Roncesvalles by a Basque ambush as it returned to France, an episode chronicled in the Song of Roland.Through his policy of attracting opposing interest groups and dealing sternly with rebellion, Abd al-Rahman achieved a modicum of stability. He perfected the Syrian administrative bureaus introduced earlier in the century and further centralized government operations in Cordova, which by the end of his reign began to resemble a great capital. Blond, habitually dressed in white, and blind in one eye, he was skilled in oratory and poetry no less than in the military arts. On Sept. 30, 788, Abd al-Rahman I died in Cordova. Further Reading A short biography of Abd al-Rahman I is in Philip K. Hitti, Makers of Arab History (1968). For general background see W. Montgomery Watt, A History of Islamic Spain (1965).

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