Emirate of Córdoba: A Visual History

The Emirate of Cordoba was founded in 756 by Abd al-Rahman I, a grandson of the Umayyad caliph Hisham who fled the Abbasid slaughter of his family in 750, crossed North Africa and won Spain from its Arab governor. Independent of Baghdad in fact though not yet in title, the emirs ruled al-Andalus for 173 years, fighting Christian kingdoms in the north, Frankish incursions (Charlemagne's Roncevaux) and repeated internal revolts of Berbers, muwallads (Iberian converts) and Mozarabs. Abd al-Rahman II presided over a cultural flowering; Abd al-Rahman III ended the emirate by proclaiming himself caliph in 929.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Emirate 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.

Emirate territory under effective control

Timeline of the Emirate of Cordoba

1. 750
   Abbasid massacre of the Umayyads
2. 756
   Abd al-Rahman I takes Cordoba
3. 778
   Roncevaux
4. 785
   Great Mosque of Cordoba begun
5. 801
   Franks take Barcelona
6. 822
   Abd al-Rahman II
7. 844
   Viking raid on Seville
8. 880
   Ibn Hafsun's revolt begins
9. 929
   Caliphate proclaimed

The Falcon of the Quraysh

Abd al-Rahman, about 20, escaped the Abbasid killings, was chased across the Euphrates and, after five years among his mother's Berber people, landed at Almunecar in 755. He defeated the governor Yusuf al-Fihri near Cordoba in 756 and spent his 32-year reign crushing revolts and an Abbasid-backed invasion, whose leader's head he sent to the caliph in Mecca. He built the Great Mosque of Cordoba on the site of a Visigothic church and wrote homesick poems to a palm tree.

Charlemagne and the frontier

Charlemagne came to Zaragoza in 778 at the invitation of rebels, failed, and lost his rearguard at Roncevaux; the Franks later took Barcelona (801) and created the Spanish March. The emirs launched summer campaigns against Asturias and the March, and held a frontier of border lords in Toledo, Zaragoza and Merida who were often in revolt.

Culture and crisis

Abd al-Rahman II (822-852) welcomed the musician Ziryab from Baghdad, who introduced new fashions, cuisine and the lute, and repelled a Viking raid on Seville in 844. The Cordoba martyrs' movement of Christians seeking death by insulting Islam troubled his reign. Under his successors the muwallad rebel Umar ibn Hafsun held the mountains around Bobastro for 40 years and the state nearly disintegrated, until Abd al-Rahman III restored it and took the caliphal title.

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

• Umayyad Caliphate (661 to 750)
• Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258)
• Caliphate of Cordoba (929 to 1031)
• Francia (Frankish kingdoms) (481 to 843)
• Visigothic Kingdom (418 to 720)

Wars of the same era and region

• Reconquista (718 to 1492)

8 surprising things about the Emirate of Cordoba

1. Abd al-Rahman I is said to have swum the Euphrates to escape Abbasid horsemen who called out promises of pardon to lure him back; his brother turned back and was killed.
2. The Abbasid caliph al-Mansur called him 'the Falcon of the Quraysh' for surviving and founding a state alone.
3. The Great Mosque's red and white striped arches were begun under Abd al-Rahman I using Roman and Visigothic columns.
4. Ziryab is credited with introducing toothpaste, deodorant, three-course meals and asparagus to Europe.
5. The Song of Roland turns the Basque ambush at Roncevaux into a battle against 400,000 Saracens.
6. The Vikings who attacked Seville in 844 were driven off; the emir sent an embassy to their king afterwards.
7. The Cordoban martyrs, 48 Christians executed in the 850s, deliberately blasphemed to seek martyrdom.
8. The Umayyads of Cordoba never recognised the Abbasids and prayed in the name of no caliph until they made themselves one.

Sources

• Emirate of Cordoba Wikipedia
• Abd al-Rahman I Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Umayyad dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Hugh Kennedy, Muslim Spain and Portugal (1996) Longman

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