This paper will examine the life of Abd al-Rahman III, the first caliph of Spain. The first part of the paper will provide a general background to the rule of Abd al-Rahman, including a brief discussion of the Muslim conquest of Spain. The second part of the paper will examine the life of Abd al-Rahman, focusing upon his military accomplishments and his establishment of the caliphate in Spain. The third part of the paper will discuss the government of Moorish Spain, looking at the caliphate and the local government, and will briefly discuss the economy of Moorish Spain under Abd al-Rahman.
The Iberian Peninsula was settled by various groups throughout the period before the Muslim conquest in the Eighth Century. Iberians, Celts, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans conquered and/or settled the region before the beginning of Christianity. Modern civilization flourished under the Greeks and Romans, but urbanization gave way to peasant farming after the conquest by the Visigoths in 469. By this time, Christianity had taken root among the Spaniards and the Visigoths adopted the religion and much of the civilization of Christian Rome. Problems with governing a stratified society, however, eventually led warring factions in Spain to seek allies amongst the Muslims in North Africa.
As followers of a missionary religion, the Muslim leaders quickly discovered an opportunity to extend the domain of Islam into the western portions of the European continent. After some preliminary scouting expeditions in the first few years of the Eighth Century, large expeditions were landed in the Iberian Peninsula in 711 and 712. During the next ten years, the Muslim leaders marched their armies throughout the Peninsula, capturing cities and towns in the name of Allah and expanding their control over most of Spain. They then began to lead expeditions into France, where the Merovingian kingdom was rapidly disintegrating under weak kings. Between...