The Caliphate Dismembered: Petty Dynasties in the West

Abstract

Five years after the foundation of the ‘Abbāsid caliphate the youthful ‘Abd-al-Raḥmān, sole distinguished scion of the Umayyads to escape the general massacre which signalized the accession of the new régime, reached Cordova in far-off Spain. A year later, in 756, he established there a brilliant dynasty. The first province was thereby for ever stripped off the ‘Abbāsid empire, still in its infancy. Others were soon to follow.