Abd al-Rahman III: the Cordoba caliph who founded Madinat al-Zahra

At the start of the 10th century, much of the Iberian Peninsula, today’s Spain and Portugal, was under Muslim rule and was known as Andalusia. Its capital was Córdoba, where a branch of the Umayyad family of Damascus had ruled since 756. In 912, a 21-year-old prince of the same family, Abd al-Rahman III, took the throne. He later became known by the title “al-Nasir li-Din Allah”. He ruled for nearly half a century, declared the caliphate in 929 and built a royal city near Córdoba called Madinat al-Zahra.

Early life

According to the World History Encyclopedia, Abd al-Rahman was born in the royal palace in Córdoba on 18 December 890, although some sources give his year of birth as 889 or 891. He was a grandson of Abdullah, the emir of Córdoba. His father, Muhammad, was killed when he was only a few days old. Emir Abdullah had several surviving sons, but he preferred his grandson. After his death in 912, Abd al-Rahman became emir.

Reuniting a fragmented state

The state Abd al-Rahman inherited had almost fallen apart. According to the World History Encyclopedia, local chiefs had set up independent states in their own areas, and the emir’s effective authority barely extended beyond the surroundings of Córdoba. Abd al-Rahman took command of the army himself and recruited foreign soldiers whose loyalty was not tied to local groups.

The biggest challenge was Umar ibn Hafsun, who had been in revolt since 880. After a major campaign in 914, Ibn Hafsun submitted in 915. His sons, however, continued to resist, and their stronghold of Bobastro fell in 928. Mérida then returned to central control in 929, Toledo in 932 and Zaragoza in 937. Muslim Andalusia was thus united once again under a single ruler.

Declaration of the caliphate

By this time the Fatimid caliphate had been established in North Africa. The Umayyads of Córdoba regarded it as a major threat. In 931, Abd al-Rahman seized Ceuta across the Strait of Gibraltar to block any possible attack. According to the Dutch historian Reinhart Dozy, a powerful fleet enabled him to face the Fatimids in the Mediterranean.

In January 929, Abd al-Rahman declared his caliphate by taking the title “Amir al-Mu’minin” (Commander of the Faithful). According to Lane-Poole, he adopted the title “al-Nasir li-Din Allah” on the same occasion. Before this, the Umayyad rulers of Córdoba were called only “emir”. According to the World History Encyclopedia, this was a clear political message to both the Abbasids and the Fatimids.

Relations with the northern states

To the north of the peninsula lay the Christian kingdoms of León and Navarre. According to the World History Encyclopedia, wars with them at this time were mostly territorial struggles. In 939, the caliph’s army suffered a heavy defeat at Simancas at the hands of Ramiro II of León. After 950, however, Córdoba’s superiority was established. In 950, Barcelona accepted his supremacy, and in 958 the rulers of León and Navarre came to Córdoba.

According to the British historian Stanley Lane-Poole, the queen of Navarre came to Córdoba with her son and her grandson Sancho, the deposed king of León. The caliph’s Jewish physician, Hasdai ibn Shaprut, treated Sancho, and in 960 Sancho regained the throne of León with the help of the caliph’s army. According to the World History Encyclopedia, Hasdai was also the caliph’s personal physician and secretary, and Christians and Jews held high posts in the administration in this period.

Madinat al-Zahra

Abd al-Rahman’s greatest architectural monument is the royal city of Madinat al-Zahra, built at the foot of Jabal al-Arus, west of Córdoba. According to Dozy and the World History Encyclopedia, construction began in 936, although modern research suggests the main building work may have begun around 940. Tradition holds that the city was named after “al-Zahra”, one of the caliph’s wives.

Both Lane-Poole and Dozy, citing Arab historians, write that about 10,000 workmen laboured daily on the project for years. According to Lane-Poole, the caliph spent a third of his revenue on it every year. Besides palaces, the city had government offices, gardens and a congregational mosque. Construction continued under his son, al-Hakam II.

In 949, envoys of the Byzantine emperor of Constantinople were received in the hall of this city. According to Lane-Poole, the envoys brought a letter from their emperor, Constantine, written in Greek “in gold letters on blue paper”.

The glory of Madinat al-Zahra did not last long. At the start of the 11th century, the caliphate of Córdoba fell into civil war. According to Lane-Poole, Berber troops seized Madinat al-Zahra in 1010, plundered it and set it on fire, and the city became a ruin. Regular excavation began there in 1911. So far only about ten hectares of the city’s roughly 112 hectares have been excavated. In 2018, UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List as the “Caliphate City of Medina Azahara”.

Córdoba and the final years

According to Dozy, Córdoba of this period was considered second only to Baghdad in size and splendour. Hroswitha, a German nun and poet of the time, called it the “ornament of the world”. The caliph also expanded the city’s library, which his son al-Hakam II enlarged further.

Abd al-Rahman al-Nasir died in October 961 and was succeeded by his son al-Hakam II. Lane-Poole, citing an Arab historian, writes that after the caliph’s death a paper in his own hand was found. On it he had counted the days of his long reign that were free of every sorrow. There were only 14.

Legacy

Historians generally regard Abd al-Rahman’s reign as the golden age of Muslim Andalusia. According to the World History Encyclopedia, he inherited a state whose authority barely reached beyond the walls of Córdoba. He united Muslim Andalusia and also established his superiority over the large Christian states of the north. According to the same source, the idea of people of different religions living together peacefully, known as “convivencia”, is sometimes described with exaggeration. Tensions between Arabs, Berbers and Saqaliba also began to develop in this period, and these later contributed to the decline of the caliphate.

Today the ruins of Madinat al-Zahra outside Córdoba recall that era.