'Abd al-Rahman III : the first Cordoban Caliph

Abd Al-Rahmann III (891-961) was the greatest of the Umayyad rulers of al-Andalus (Islamic Spain and Portugal) and the first to take the title of Caliph.

A strong leader and an astute politicisn, he conducted campaigns against Muslim rebels within his own realm, fought the Christian kings in the North of the Iberian peninsula, confronted the Fatimids in North Africa anf founded the palatine town of Madinat al-Zahra.

By the time of his death in 961, 'Abd al-Rahman III had pacified the whole of al-Andalus and made Cordoba a capital city to rival the greatest of the age.