The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abd-er-Rahman I

ABD-ER-RAHMAN I, äbd-er-rā′mạn, founder of the Moorish emirate (later caliphate) of Cordova (q. v.): b. Damascus, 731; d. 788. He was a grandson of the Ommiad caliph Hishám, and having fled to Africa escaped the frightful massacre of his family (see Ommiads and Abbassides) by Abu ’l-Abbas; a hunted fugitive in the desert, but faithfully protected by the tribesmen, who respected his blood and pitied his misfortunes. Meanwhile Spain was seething with anarchy; each new caliph sent a new emir there; the governor of Africa claimed the right to interfere on the ground that the African governors had captured it; the native chiefs were unwilling to submit to a constant succession of interlopers with no interest but their own, and at last the situation became so intolerable that the Spanish Arabs determined to choose a ruler with his residence in Spain. They selected the wandering heir of the overthrown house, and seeking him out in Africa offered him the place. He landed in Spain 25 Sept 755, and fixed his royal seat at Cordova. His reign was one of incessant warfare. Hosein ben-Yahya, the Abbasside emir, driven from Spain, fled to Charlemagne and implored his assistance: it was granted and Hosein was re-enthroned at Saragossa, but while the Frankish army was returning through the Pyrenees, the Basque mountaineers fell upon the rear-guard and annihilated it in the pass of Roncesvalles, with its commander Roland. Saragossa was taken after two years’ siege, Hosein put to death as a rebel, and Spain to the Pyrenees subdued. A formidable rising in 786 was crushed, and Abd-er-Rahman had two years of life to devote to the arts of peace and the building of his famous mosque at Cordova (now used as a cathedral), with its rows of cupolas supported by 850 pillars of jasper.