Abd al-Rahman I was born near Damascus, Syria in 731. Abd al-Rahman was the son of the Umayyad prince Mu'awiya ibn Hisham and his concubine Ra'ha, a Berber woman from the Nafza tribe, and thus the grandson of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, caliph from 724 to 743.
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 August 14, 755, Abd al-Rahman landed at Almuñécar and was soon acknowledged as chief by various settlements of Syrian immigrants, still loyal to his family.
Finally, after defeating the last governor of Islamic Spain, Yusuf al-Fihri, he entered the capital, Cordova, on May 15, 756, and was proclaimed emir in the main mosque there.
News of Abd al-Rahman's triumph spread quickly across the Islamic world, striking terror in the hearts of the rival Abbasids but gladdening thousands of Umayyad supporters, who soon flocked to Spain. Many of the prince's relations and Syrian aristocrats who had been removed from power in the East became the new upper crust of Cordovan society.
During his 32-year reign Abd al-Rahman had to deal with numerous uprisings, several of which were supported by the Abbasids.
One of the most serious was the revolt of the Yemenite Arab al-Ala ibn Mugith, whom Abd al-Rahman ordered decapitated.
From 768 to 776 the emir faced an even more serious revolt led by the Berber chief Shakya. Later, a coalition of disaffected Arab chiefs called on Charlemagne for help against the Umayyad ruler.
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.
On Sept. 30, 788, Abd al-Rahman I died in Cordova.
Known as "the Immigrant, " he established the rule of the Umayyad dynasty in the Iberian Peninsula. 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.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān secured his realm against external attack by defeating armies sent by Charlemagne and the ʿAbbāsid caliph. Although he faced a series of rebellions by Muslim Spaniards, Imazighen (Berbers) from the mountainous areas, and various Arab clans, his authority and dynasty remained firmly in power.
Abd al-Rahman allowed Jews and Christians and other monotheistic religions to retain and practice their faiths. They did, and have to pay a tribute tax for this privilege. Abd al-Rahman's policy of taxing non-Muslims, which was often carried out by later rulers, changed the religious dynamic of al-Andalus. Possibly because of excessive tribute taxes "the bulk of the country's population must have become Muslim". However, other scholars have argued that though 80% of al-Andalus converted to Islam, it did not truly occur until near the 10th century.
During his reign Christians more often converted to Islam than Jews although there were converted Jews among the new followers of Islam.
He was blond, habitually dressed in white, and blind in one eye.
Abd al-Rahman married a woman named Hulal. She is said to be the mother of Hisham. Abd al-Rahman was the father of several sons, but the identity of their mother(s) is not clear.
(fl. 725–737)
She was a Berber woman from the Nafza tribe.
(691 – 6 February 743)
He was the second Umayyad Emir of Cordoba, ruling from 788 to 796 in al-Andalus.
(died before 758)
(745–800)
