Córdoba, Caliphate Of

Caliphate of Córdoba, Muslim state that existed in Spain from January 16, 929, when ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III assumed the supreme title of caliph, to 1031, when the puppet ruler Hishām III was deposed by his viziers and the caliphate disintegrated into the so-called kingdoms of the taifa. During this century there were 12 caliphs, all except the first two of whom were puppets and most of whom died by violence.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III was followed by the studious al-Ḥakam II (961–976), who gathered a library of 400,000 catalogued volumes, founded 27 free schools in Córdoba, and attracted scholars from the east to teach in the university. His reign was succeeded by the dictatorship of Abū ʿĀmir al-Manṣūr (Almanzor), a courtier who achieved power through the favour of the Basque-born sultana Subh during the minority of her son Hishām II.

Al-Manṣūr’s rule (978–1002) marked a period of brilliant military successes abroad and increasing unrest at home. With his mercenary army he won a series of spectacular victories against the Christians, capturing Zamora (981), Barcelona (985), and Coimbra (987). In 997 he razed Santiago de Compostela and returned with the bells of the city’s cathedral to serve as braziers in the mosque of Córdoba. Popular opposition to al-Manṣūr’s successors degenerated into partisan warfare between the Cordobans, the Berbers, and the slave officials of the royal household, sometimes with Castilian intervention. All sides used the caliphs as pawns in the competition for control of the state. The last caliph was imprisoned with his family in a vault attached to the great mosque and reportedly reacted to the news of his deposition by begging for a crust of bread.

The collapse of the caliphate shortly after attaining its military zenith was partly due to the weakening of Umayyad authority by al-Manṣūr’s dictatorship but mostly due to continuous hostilities between Arabs, Berbers, slave officials, Jews, native Spanish converts to Islam, and Arabized Christians (Mozarabs). Under the caliphate, Muslim Spain was the most populous and prosperous country in Europe. Increased irrigation produced an agricultural surplus which, with manufactured luxury goods (such as Cordoban leather, Valencian pottery, and Damascus steel arms and woven silk from Toledo), was exported mainly eastward.