The prodigious rise and subsequent dramatic fall of royal houses has always been one of
the most reliable fonts of drama in history. From the destruction of the Achaemenids to the
fracturing of Han China, eras of dynastic collapse are notable as a time for change and renewal.
One of the most tumultuous and enthralling dynastic collapses in all of history afflicted
none other than the second dominion of Islam - the massive and ever-expansionist Umayyad Caliphate.
As the largest Islamic realm in world history started disintegrating in the middle of the
eighth century, a young member of the caliphate’s ruling dynasty found himself isolated and amongst
many enemies. This remarkable man - Abd al-Rahman; the Falcon of Quraysh, escaped,
and in a daring series of adventures eventually came to found a rival realm in the furthest
western edge of the Islamic world, beginning a golden age for al-Andalus: Muslim Spain.
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Check it all out, or crusader kings three in general, via the link in the description.
The year was 741AD, a time of transition across Eurasia. In the Frankish Kingdom,
Charles ‘the hammer’ Martell passed away after a great tenure of almost thirty years.
Leo III, savior of Constantinople, died also after a quarter-century reign as Byzantine Emperor,
initiating a round of civil strife in the Roman remnant. As these events unfolded elsewhere,
one of the world’s most powerful rulers sat working inside his kingly residence at Rusafa,
in northern Syria. That man was Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik - tenth caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate.
His realm, although colossal and powerful, had begun suffering issues both internal and external,
including a massive Berber revolt in Africa and military setbacks in both east and west. Suddenly,
a ten year old child entered the caliph’s chamber. He was Abd al-Rahman - the caliph’s grandson,
whose father was Hisham’s late son Mu’awiya, and whose mother was a captured Berber concubine.
These were, if the sources are to be believed, days in which capricious
Umayyad governors would frequently abduct comely womenfolk from Berber homes to fill
the harems of Syria - the Umayyads’ centre of power. Abd al-Rahman was not fully mature,
but already tall and athletic, he had all the hallmarks of physical greatness to come.
Curiously, the boy is also said to have had little to no sense of smell, for whatever reason. As
the child entered the chamber, caliph Hisham and his brother Maslama turned to regard him,
but the caliph did so with little patience, giving him a quick, familiar hand signal indicating that
al-Rahman should go away. The caliph was busy. As the child turned to depart, however, Maslama
went over and took his great nephew up in both hands, embracing the boy. The caliph’s brother was
believed to have the ability to see the destiny of individuals in their faces. Turning to Hisham,
Maslama said: “Let him stay, O Commander of the Faithful. He is a lord of the House of Umayya,
their refuge in the time of decline of their power. He will be the restorer of their realm
after its fall. Be good to him.” After this, al-Rahman was always regarded highly by Hisham.
The Caliph died two years later, and with him passed the last hope for the Umayyad line.
Seven years later, the armies of the final Umayyad caliph Marwan II were utterly crushed by the
brilliant ‘Abbasid’ general Abu Muslim at the Battle of Zab. The fourteenth and final caliph,
defeated in battle, fled from town to town until he was finally caught and killed at Busiris,
in Egypt. So great was the enmity with which the Umayyads were viewed that, after their fall,
a great slaughter of the family took place. Dozens of prominent members of the Banu Umayya
were massacred across the entire empire. Even the corpse of caliph Hisham, who had died in 743,
was dug up, lashed and then burned ignominiously. Abd al-Rahman, now in his late teens,
was forced to hide in a village close to the Euphrates river in Northeastern Syria.
But, the young man was betrayed by a slave of a man he trusted, and riders bearing the black
standard of the new Abbasid dynasty were on their way. Running for his life alongside a brother,
al-Rahman first fled into a riverside orchard, but was seen and pursued. With the usurpers’
cavalry at their heels, the two princes leapt into the river and began desperately swimming across.
At the midpoint, al-Rahman’s brother, who was not nearly his equal as a swimmer, began struggling
and panicked. When the onlooking horsemen shouted “Come back, you will not be harmed!”,
the prince’s brother went back and threw himself at the ground before them, begging for mercy.
When Abd al-Rahman reached the other bank, he turned and looked on helplessly. According to
him “They caught my brother who had come to them under the promise of amnesty. They cut
off his head. They took his head away, and I was watching.” Horrified, the older sibling turned and
sprinted blindly into a nearby forest, possessing the shirt on his back and a small bag of money.
On his own, sheltering with generous shepherds, cowherds and other such lowly folks,
this ‘last Umayyad’ eventually arrived in Palestine, where he was joined by
two former slaves - his own - Badr, and the ex-slave of his sister, Salem. The latter had,
with considerable stealth, brought a small fortune of money and jewels to keep Abd al-Rahman
at the behest of his sister. Halting for a while in Palestine to prepare for the coming journey,
this veritable fellowship laid low to avoid detection by Abbasid partisans.
After some time had passed, they traveled south to Egypt and resided there incognito for a time.
For whatever reason, the fugitive prince and his band made their way to the ancient city of Barca
by the Mediterranean coast, and settled down for a while. Now far from the Mesopotamian core
of the new Abbasid Caliphate, the company of al-Rahman believed they could rest easier,
but there was another threat close at hand. The local governor was a man who shared the prince’s
name - Abd al-Rahman bin Habeeb. This magnate was closely advised by a Jewish councilor who
had previously lived in Syria, serving the former Umayyad caliph’s brother Maslama. Consequently,
this advisor was known for making prophecy-like predictions about what would happen in the future
like Maslama once had. One of his predictions was that a man from the Banu Umayya clan would seize a
realm of his own in Spain and start a new dynasty. His name, according to the Jew, would be Abd
al-Rahman, a prediction which gave the ambitious governor hope. The prudent advisor, however,
discouraged this line of his superior’s thinking by arguing that he was not of the correct clan.
Reluctantly acknowledging this fact, the viceroy set down his hopes for Spain. He was
still concerned by the prediction, primarily because his cousin and ally Yusuf governed
the territory of al-Andalus. Because of this fear, agents had been dispatched to many towns
and roads throughout the Maghreb, searching for any other Abd al-Rahmans in the region.
As the fugitive Umayyad prince was making his way through Tripoli, one of these henchmen managed
to locate him. The escapee was finally captured and brought to his namesake’s seat at Qairowan,
where he was brought into a hostile audience with the other Abd al-Rahman. Immediately
noticing the prince’s noble bearing, the viceroy whispered to his advisor “This is he.
I am going to kill him.” The Jewish councillor protested, stating in reference
to his own prediction “If you kill him, it is not he. If you let him go, it is he.”
Perhaps there was still some remnant of loyalty to the Umayyads in this advisor. Whatever the case,
the viceroy was so taken aback by this response that he allowed Abd al-Rahman to leave unharmed.
The Prince took the opportunity, speeding west as fast as he could with his two companions.
Passing into Berber country, Abd al-Rahman lived there for a while among the people of his mother
Ra’ha, around the area of modern Tiaret. He, Salem and Badr passed from tribe to tribe,
some of which welcomed him, while others treated him with suspicion. Meanwhile, the viceroy changed
his mind about sparing the Prince. While Abd al-Rahman was being sheltered by the Berber
chieftain Abu Qurrah Wanesus, soldiers of the other al-Rahman came to the village and began
scouring the whole encampment. As it became inevitable that he would be found and slain,
it is said that the chieftain’s wife Tekfah concealed al-Rahman within the folds of her dress
until the danger had passed. This protective act can only be explained by a great fondness which
the wanted Umayyad had engendered during his time among the native Africans. Immensely thankful,
Abd al-Rahman would never forget these Berbers during his later, more prosperous days. Driven
by the constant pursuit of the viceroy’s men, Abd al-Rahman fled to the Mediterranean coast in early
754, probably emerging somewhere in the vicinity of Ceuta, where his mother’s ‘Nafza’ tribe was
located. The prince could finally feel peace, being both out of the viceroy’s reach and in
the midst of loving kinsmen and women. Throughout the entire journey, Badr and Salem kept faithful.
From his new, relatively comfortable stomping grounds on the coastal region in the shadow of
the Atlas Mountains, news trickled across the straits from al-Andalus. Ever since the 730s,
Muslim Spain had been embroiled in civil war driven by a complex fusion of both Arab-Berber and
inter-Arab tribal feuds, supplemented by jealousy between old and new arrivals to the peninsula.
In this, the Prince saw opportunity. He knew that veteran Syrian jund contingents
with strong ties to his deposed family had been dispatched to deal with the unrest,
and were stationed at Granada and Jaen. These men represented the possible core of a conquest army.
So, in the middle of June 754, al-Rahman dispatched his ever-faithful companion Badr
across the strait to Spain. Over the course of a year, while his banu Umayya escapee master
resided comfortably on the African coast, Badr laboured with peerless grit and determination.
He put out feelers and tested for allies, while raising support and spreading the word that
the great Umayyads were about to return and put al-Andalus to rights. The Syrian divisions were on
board, as were many Arab Yamanite1 clans and other factions who opposed the rule of governor Yusuf -
cousin of Abd al-Rahman’s old pursuer. With the stage set, Badr sent a ship to pick up al-Rahman.
It was on the afternoon of August 14th 755 that the fugitive prince landed at Almuñécar on the
Andalucian coast. On his arrival, supporters poured out to meet him, supposedly offering him
wine and women, both of which he turned out in acts of ascetic, princely virtue. As al-Rahman
was rallying the sympathetic tribes, clans and military units of al-Andalus to his side,
Yusuf and his cunning chief captain Sumail were debating on how to stop him. The latter wished
to march on al-Rahman immediately before winter set in. Eventually however, to Sumail’s dismay,
the vacillating governor decided to ensnare the Umayyad with a marriage to his own daughter,
which was swiftly denied. Winter swept in, and Yusuf’s opportunity to win quickly was gone.
Throughout the winter of 755 and into early 756, Abd al-Rahman embarked on a final flurry of
activity, drawing in whatever clients he could and concentrating forces at Granada for the decisive
clash. He went from city to city, Archidona to Ronda to Medina-Sidonia and then Jerez,
receiving welcomes and recruiting more warriors as he did so.
By the time al-Rahman reached Seville in early April, his army was about 3,000 strong. After
receiving the allegiance of the citizens and that of the entire southwestern region of Spain,
known as the Gharb, the would-be conqueror called a council of prominent generals, advisors and
chiefs. Messengers had just brought in news that Yusuf and his forces were on the march.
The council agreed that it was time to meet the governor in a decisive battle and crush him.
At the beginning of May 756, al-Rahman advanced northeast from Seville along the southern bank
of the Guadalquivir River towards Córdoba. The army’s strength is almost entirely unknown, but it
consisted of Banu Umayya and their client junds, who were mostly from Syria, most of the Yamanite
wing of the tribal division, some Muzarites who hated Yusuf and a large Berber contingent from
the Gharb. The march along the river’s edge continued, Umayyad forces on the south bank,
while Yusuf’s hugged the north. Before long, the two armies encountered one another about halfway
between Seville and Córdoba. The Guadalquivir however, swollen by recent heavy rainfall,
couldn’t be forded, and so both forces simply stared at one another. Logistics began exerting
strain almost immediately. Yusuf’s troops were better organised and therefore better provisioned,
whereas al-Rahman was leading a hungry army with little supply. He needed an early conclusion
before hunger started prompting desertions. Aiming at precisely this kind of decisive stroke, the
Umayyad prince force marched directly towards the near-undefended capital at Córdoba, but Sumail saw
through this strategy and simply shadowed along the other bank. This parallel march continued for
a few days until Yusuf came to a stop at a place called Musara, where there was a usable ford.
Checkmated, Abd al-Rahman’s starving army was blocked from crossing the ford,
nor could it march on to Córdoba, which was guarded. So, sending entreaties across the river,
the prince outlined that it had all been a misunderstanding. Yusuf’s offer was generous,
but had merely not been explained clearly enough by al-Rahman’s emissaries. Negotiations and an
inevitable acceptance could take place, but it would, of course, be far easier to negotiate
if he could cross the river unhindered. For some inconceivably naive reason,
perhaps underestimating the young man, both Yusuf and Sumail were overjoyed with the prospect of
peace and allowed al-Rahman’s force to cross the Guadalquivir without opposition. By nightfall of
May 13th 756, all of al-Rahman’s army were across and encamped west of the governor’s.
When dawn came, however, the truth was revealed in the form of a fully battle-arrayed enemy force.
It had, somewhat obviously, all been a trick. In what became known as the brief and bloody Battle
of Musara, the surprised and beleaguered force under Yusuf and Sumail was shattered
and scattered by Abd al-Rahman’s hodgepodge army. Soon after, the erstwhile Prince entered Córdoba.
What followed was the foundation of an extremely prosperous Emirate,
and later Caliphate. Centered in Córdoba, this illustrious polity came to represent
not only the golden age of Islamic high culture in Iberia, but perhaps the entire Muslim world.
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