Emirate of Crdoba: 756-929 Dynasty: Ummayad Dynasty of Emirs of Crdoba: 756-929 Also: Ummayad Dynasty of Caliphs of Crdoba: 929-1031

Former Country native_name : conventional_long_name : Emirate of Crdoba common_name : Crdoba capital : Crdoba continent : Europe continent2 : Africa region : Iberia government_type : Monarchy year_start : 756 year_end : 929 event_start: Ummayad Abd al-Rahman I proclaimed ''Emir'' of Crdoba event_end : Ummayad Abd-ar-Rahman III proclaimed ''Caliph'' of Crdoba Then: Umayyad Caliphate of Crdoba common_languages : Classical Arabic, Berber, Mozarabic, Medieval Hebrew Andorra The '''Emirate of Crdoba''' was an independent emirate in the Iberian Peninsula between 756 and 929 with Crdoba as its capital. After the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711718, the Iberian Peninsula was established as a province under the Umayyad Caliphate. These rulers established their capital in Crdoba and received from the Ummayad Caliph of Damascus the title of wali or emir. In 756 Abd-ar-Rahman I fled from the Abbasid caliphs in Damascus and became an independent emir of Crdoba. He had been on the run for six years after the Umayyads had lost the position of caliph held in Damascus in 750. Intent on regaining a position of power, he defeated the existing Islamic rulers of the area who defied Umayyad rule and united various local fiefdoms into an emirate. However, this first unification of al-Andalus under Abd-ar-Rahman took still more than 25 years to complete (Toledo, Zaragoza, Pamplona, Barcelona) For the next century and a half, his descendants continued as emirs of Crdoba, with nominal control over the rest of al-Andalus and sometimes even parts of western North Africa, but with real control, particularly over the marches along the Christian border, their power vacillating depending on the competence of the

individual emir. Indeed, the power of emir Abdallah ibn Muhammad (circa 900), for example, did not extend beyond Crdoba itself. Upon arrival to the throne, his grandson Abd-al-Rahman III, who succeeded him in 912, the political decline of the emirate was obvious. Abd-al-Rahman III rapidly restored Umayyad power throughout al-Andalus and extended it into western North Africa as well. In 929, to impose its authority and end the riots and conflicts that ravaged the Iberian Peninsula, he proclaimed himself caliph, elevating the emirate to a position in prestige not only with the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad but also the Shi'ite Aghlabid Caliph in Ifriqiya (Tunis) with whom he was competing for control of North Africa.