Caliphate of Córdoba: A Visual History

The Caliphate of Cordoba was proclaimed in 929 by the Umayyad emir Abd al-Rahman III, who took the title in defiance of the Abbasids and Fatimids. It ruled most of Iberia and parts of Morocco, and Cordoba, with perhaps half a million people, its palace-city of Madinat al-Zahra, its Great Mosque and libraries, became the intellectual capital of the West. The vizier Almanzor (al-Mansur) raided the Christian north 50 times, sacking Santiago in 997. After his death in 1002 civil war (fitna) among Umayyads, Berbers and Slav soldiers destroyed the state, and in 1031 the caliphate was abolished, splitting into taifa kingdoms.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Caliphate of Cordoba. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Territory of the caliphate

Timeline of the Caliphate of Cordoba

1. 912
   Abd al-Rahman III becomes emir
2. 929
   Caliphate proclaimed
3. 936
   Madinat al-Zahra begun
4. 961
   Al-Hakam II
5. 978
   Almanzor takes power
6. 997
   Santiago sacked
7. 1002
   Almanzor dies
8. 1009
   Fitna begins
9. 1031
   Caliphate abolished

Abd al-Rahman III

Coming to the throne in 912 aged 21, Abd al-Rahman III subdued the rebel Ibn Hafsun and the provinces, checked the Christian kingdoms of Leon and Navarre and, in 929, proclaimed himself Commander of the Faithful. He built Madinat al-Zahra outside Cordoba, seized Ceuta and Tangier against the Fatimids, and made Cordoba a court that received embassies from Byzantium and Otto the Great, where his Jewish physician Hasdai ibn Shaprut handled diplomacy.

Al-Hakam II and Almanzor

Al-Hakam II (961-976) was a scholar-caliph whose library reportedly held 400,000 volumes; he enlarged the Great Mosque with its famous mihrab. After his death the chamberlain Muhammad ibn Abi Amir, Almanzor, sidelined the child caliph Hisham II and ruled as dictator, launching a jihad campaign almost every year: Barcelona in 985, Leon in 988, Santiago de Compostela in 997, whose bells he carried to Cordoba on Christian shoulders.

Fitna

Almanzor's sons could not hold his position; in 1009 a coup opened 20 years of civil war between rival Umayyads, Berber troops who sacked Madinat al-Zahra, and Slav (saqaliba) commanders. Cordoba was plundered repeatedly. In 1031 the notables abolished the caliphate; al-Andalus split into some 30 taifa kingdoms that would fall to Christian pressure and the Almoravids.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Emirate of Cordoba (756 to 929)
• Umayyad Caliphate (661 to 750)
• Fatimid Caliphate (909 to 1171)
• Almoravid dynasty (1040 to 1147)
• Kingdom of France (Middle Ages) (987 to 1498)
• Holy Roman Empire (800 to 1806)

Wars of the same era and region

• Reconquista (718 to 1492)

8 surprising things about the Caliphate of Cordoba

1. Cordoba around 1000 had street lighting, paved streets and hundreds of public baths when Paris and London were mud.
2. Al-Hakam II's library was said to have a 44-volume catalogue; most of it was sold or burned during the fitna.
3. Almanzor had the bells of Santiago carried to Cordoba as lamps; Ferdinand III sent them back on Muslim shoulders in 1236.
4. The Great Mosque of Cordoba has 856 columns; a cathedral was built inside it in the sixteenth century.
5. The nun Hroswitha of Gandersheim called Cordoba 'the ornament of the world'.
6. Madinat al-Zahra, one of the largest palaces ever built, was destroyed in 1010 and only rediscovered in 1911.
7. The caliphate's Slav slave-soldiers, saqaliba, were often eunuchs bought from Frankish traders in Verdun.
8. The Umayyads of Cordoba were the only branch of that family to survive the Abbasid massacre of 750.

Sources

• Caliphate of Cordoba Wikipedia
• Abd al-Rahman III Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Caliphate of Cordoba World History Encyclopedia
• Hugh Kennedy, Muslim Spain and Portugal (1996) Longman

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