- They are over there
- We found them.. we found them
- Come on!
> Brother al-Waleed, don't look back.
> They want to kill us.
> Jump in the water with me
= I'm tired of running away, brother
= Don't you see they're promising...
= ...not to hurt us?
> I beg you, stay with me!
> For I swear to God,I will not stop until I re-establish our state
= I cannot, brother! I'm weak,
= and in such a path, only the strong ones succeed.
= May Allah help you.
> Yes you can!
= Go, brother! Go!
> Stand up! Come with me...
- Ha ha ha ha ha
= Aaagh
Abd Al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya was born in the Levant
on the fifth of Ramadan 113 Hijri.
Upon the death of his father,
he was raised by his grandfather, the Umayyad Caliph,
Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik,
who undertook his education and enabled him to handle governance.
The eruption of conflicts, however, among the Umayyads over power
was the beginning of the end.
The Abbasids seized the opportunity to defeat their cousins
in the battle of the Zab.
They left no one alive.
At the age of nineteen, Abd al-Rahman escaped
the brutality of those who seek to kill him
He headed towards the lands of his maternal uncles in Cyrenaica.
Abd al-Rahman refused to hide in the far end of Africa.
His goal was beyond what the Abbasids had imagined.
That is Al-Andalus,
which was suffering from chaos and civil wars between governors,
and attacks from Christians in the north.
Abd al-Rahman's first move was to send his servant, Badr,
to the pro-Umayyad leaders
in order to form an alliance with them.
He also managed to form an alliance with the Berber tribes
who were suffering from Yusuf ibn Abd al Rahman al-Fihri's oppression,
and he promised them power and justice.
and finally, he made an agreement with the Yemeni tribes leader
Abu al-Sabah al-Yahsoubi, to confront governor al-Fihri.
In the middle of Ramadan 138 Hijri,
Ibn Mu'awiyah crossed the sea towards al-Andalus,
and entered it with unparalleled grandeur.
The Sevillians pledged allegiance to him.
Then, he defeated al-Fihri in the Battle of Alameda.
He took control over Córdoba, the capital of Al-Andalus,
to establish a strong emirate from scratch.
Thanks to his absolute genius that bewildered and amazed the Abbasids,
for which his rival, the Abbasid caliph, Abu Ja'far al-Mansour,
nicknamed him the "Hawk of Quraysh",
for his extreme savvy and relentless determination.
Abd al-Rahman gave himself the title, "the Entrant",
being the only Umayyad to arrive to al-Andalus after the Abbasids' revenge.
He began to organize his country's affairs.
He organized the army, trained it well, built weapon factories,
and established a naval shipyard to build ships.
He minted his own money
and built hospitals and schools.
Córdoba flourished quickly
and competed with Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasids,
and Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantines.
Andalusian scholars of his age
contributed to the development of different sciences.
The reign of "the Entrant" extended for thirty-four years,
during which there were more than twenty-five attempts for insurgency.
He dealt with them either through ruse, politics, or war.
The Hawk of Quraysh lived for fifty-nine years,
from which he spent nineteen in Damascus and Iraq
before the collapse of the Umayyads,
six years escaping from the Abbasids
and planning to enter al-Andalus,
and thirty-four years as ruler of al-Andalus.
He died in Córdoba and was buried in it.
The Umayyad state in al-Andalus lasted after him
for about 300 years,
as the collapse of states is a natural result
of injustice, corruption, and disputes over power.
After years of fighting
this led to its disintegration to several independent kingdoms.
The experience of the Hawk of Quraysh
gives us a living example
of the choices each of us can make,
even in their most distressful moments.
We are the ones who build the future.
We aspire to achieve substantial goals.
However, the challenges are immense,
the race is long,
and rivals are tough.
Other countries are developing at an incredible pace.
So will we continue to consume what others produce?
Or shall we build our renaissance with our own hands?