Main

|Abd ar-Rahman I|    |al-Hakam I|   |Abd ar-Rahman II and III|    |al-Hakam II|    |Conclusion|

     In the summer of 710, a small force of 7000-strong men under the command of Tariq ibn Ziyad landed to the west of Gibraltar.  Tariq was given orders from his superior Musa ibn Nusair in Damascus to conquer as much land as he could northwards of the peninsula from the hands of a declining Visgothic kingdom, and, upon Tariq's fateful arrival on the shores of the peninsula, he set ablaze to all his ships while  commandingly quoting to his troops : "behind you lies the crashing waters and ahead lies your enemy."  Tariq and his conquerors began their campaigns while experiencing little organised resistance and achieved their success by occupying Cordova and Toledo shortly after, where they decided to give the name al-Andalus to the region.  Tariq's military exploits are unquestionably of great importance historically and it is with his honour that Gibraltar takes its name from (Jabal Tariq, Tarik's Mountain).  When news arrived to Damascus of Tariq's success, Musa ibn Nusair was quick to come to the aid of Tariq when he crossed the straits with an army of 18,000 men.  His ambition to share some prominence as well as fighting for the Islamic cause, quickly saw the conquering of other neighbouring towns and cities, but his advance was soon halted to the extreme North where he was defeated at the battle of Poitiers by the French.  Nevertheless, the conquest of most of Spain was complete with the joint efforts of these two figures.

Gibraltar Landmark-Jabal Tariq (Tariq's Mountain) Tariq's military campaigns is what set in motion a dynasty that was to set its roots deep historically in the province for 800 years.  This landmark was erected in commemoration to a leader who initially directed the Islamic conquest of Spain.

    The fourty years that follow the conquests are a little muddled and all that is noted is of numerous quarrels that took place between  Arabs and Berbers and Medinans and Damascenes.  This suggests that the population of al-Andalus was very multi-cultural that saw the settlement of people from the Arabian peninsula all the way across North Africa, but this made society extremely fragmented and the local government found it hard to enforce its authority and progress politically and financially.  However, luck was soon to befall al-Andalus from the surprising arrival of a wandering figure of royalty who escaped with his life amidst political turbulence in his native Syrian homeland.  Abd ar-Rahman I, was barely 20-years old when he saw the massacre of his ruling Umayyad dynasty by the Abassids in Syria.  He was the only person who managed to escape with his life from his homeland and after wandering for almost 4 years away from home, he sought his fortune in Spain.  After settling in Spain, many clients (Mawali) of the Umayyads had settled and it was to them that the fugitive Abd ar-Rahman significantly enhanced the appreciation of the public majority. 

    Thus, after enforcing his cause, Abd-ar-Rahman was pronounced Emir of al-Andalus in the Grand Mosque of Cordova and proceeded later by building his Emir's palace (dar al-Imara) on the banks of the Guadalquivir, as well as ordering the erection of city walls and smaller mosques around the residential provinces.  However, despite his celebrated accomplishments in al-Andalus, Abd ar-Rahman still maintained a lifelong attachment to his Syrian homeland and his nostalgia for Syria is quite apparent in a poetic verse he wrote in Rusafa, one of which reads:

"In Rusafa I came upon a palm; here in the Western lands a sight so rare, I said; You stand alone, like me so far from home, you miss the children and our loved ones there; you have not grown tall in native soil.  Like you I must breath the alien air."

    Nevertheless, neither he nor a single one of his successors managed to reclaim their Syrian homeland, but there is no doubt that Abd-ar-Rahman restored political and financial order in the province along with the development of the local infrastructure.  The literature of al-Andalus is inexhaustible in its praise of Abd ar-Rahman, the "Flacon of the Umayyads." His splendor is praised upon by the Abassid Caliph in Baghdad when he quotes:

"The Falcon of the Quraish is Abd-ar-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya; he traveled over the sea, crossed the desert, and came to a country which was not of the Arabs.  Left entirely to his own resources, he founded cities, gathered troops, and organised the government.  Having lost his throne here, he acquired a realm there, and all by his virtue of his clever mind and his brave heart......Abd-ar-Rahman all alone-his only helper was his cause, his only friend was his will- founded the emirate of al-Andalus, he conquered border castles, he brought death to the heretics and forced reluctant tyrants to do his will."

Continue