Prince Abd al-Rahman had traveled into North Africa by 755, with his servant Bedr. The governor of Ifriqiyah then was a great-grandson of Uqba, the original rapid conqueror during the earliest Umayyad years. His given name was the same as the prince’s, so history remembers him as Ibn Habib and his family as the al-Fihris. They had been power players in North Africa and Andalusia for four generations.
Emir Ibn Habib’s first response to the Abbasid revolution was to put out feelers for support, then cut ties and declare himself independent. He forbade prayer for the new Abbasid Caliph in Ifriqiyyah’s mosques. He welcomed Umayyad refugees like Abd al-Rahman.
Abd al-Rahman lived with the Nafza Berber chieftain during this time, in Algeria far to the west. Still, even at that distance, his presence as a leading Umayyad was felt as a threat by the Emir. Ibn Habib changed his mind about sheltering Umayyads and sent men to arrest Abd al-Rahman, but the Berbers hid him. He escaped farther west to Ceuta, Morocco. Now he was right on the coast, facing al-Andalus.
His companion Bedr crossed over to talk to Umayyad generals who still held various cities in Spain. Some Syrian Arab generals were interested in making common cause with the Umayyad prince, but others were wary. They had a lot of independence already, what could Abd al-Rahman add but another layer of taxation? On the other hand, Yemenite Arabs felt pushed aside by the Syrians. They were happy to make a deal to support Abd al-Rahman. He crossed over to Malaga and began his new campaign; it was 755 and he was 25 years old.
Emir Ibn Habib al-Fihri came to Andalusia to put down an unrelated rebellion in the northern city of Zaragoza. But then he was in a good position to confront his new rival. Commanders of units all over Andalusia had to choose sides, and eventually they all met across the Guadalquivir River near Cordoba. In negotiations, Abd al-Rahman was offered the Emir’s daughter in marriage, but he chose to conquer.
The nervous Yemenites on his side noticed that he rode a very fine horse, and they feared he would use it to abandon the battle and save himself at their expense. The prince swapped mounts with a Yemeni chieftain, and that convinced his fighters of his commitment. They unwound a green turban, tied it around a spear as a banner, and followed him into battle. They won.
The many battles to take control of all Andalusia lasted until 779. But long before this, the other Emir’s head had been cut off during a battle at Toledo. It was nailed to a bridge at Cordoba. From that day, Abd al-Rahman was effectively the Emir of Andalusia, though he did not claim the title Caliph. He created a non-tribal “modern” state, rewarding anyone who supported him, instead of restricting rewards to ethnic groups or families as the earlier Umayyads had done.
In 763, Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur sent an appointed Emir to Sevilla to take back central power. Now there had to be a final military showdown. Al-Rahman did something completely new and unexpected: he trained a slave army. He chose imported Slavs, blond and blue-eyed, to be his shock troops, but he also had a personal bodyguard of Sudanese Africans. The slave army had no tribal ties to Yemenis, Berbers, Syrians, or anyone; they would live or die only as they helped him win. At the fortress of Carmona, near Sevilla, the slave army defeated the Abbasid envoy’s army.
Abd al-Rahman took no prisoners; all were executed. He had a special fate for the top officials. Cutting off their hands first, then their heads, he pickled all of these in brine and mailed them to Mecca, in time for Caliph al-Mansur to receive it while on Hajj. By tradition, he responded, “Praise Allah, He placed a sea between me and him!” Later, when asked who he considered to be the bravest of Mohammed’s clan, he named Abd al-Rahman Saqr Quraysh, “the Falcon of the Quraysh.” Because, he said, he rose to power without any support, against all odds, by his cleverness and ferocity.
- God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215, David Levering Lewis