Abd Rahman II

(822 - 852)

It was a period of prosperity which muslim spain had not enjoyed before,But it was also a period when Christians began to challenge the rule of the Muslims.

Revolt of his grand uncle::his uncle resided at tangier in Africa. When he ascended throne he invaded his kingdom and he hoped that his sons who were in service of the Emir and held high posts would support his revolt but they didn’t. having failed in revolt against Emir fled to Valencia but then on advice of his sons took oath of allegiance at Emirs hand and Emir appointed him governor of Murcia.


Norman Invasion in 844: They were pagans or non Christians who dwelt in Scandinavia in the north Europe.
They were seafaring and piratical people.They first appeared on the coast of Lisbon and attacked cadiz plundered then Seville and medonia Sedonia through river of Guadalquivir.
The Emir sent an army against them which drove them out.later a shipyard was set up in Seville and other coastal town were foritified with watch towers to put end to the menace of the Norman invaders.

Revolt in Merida: Christian majority in the town of Merida revolted on the question of taxes in 822.The Frankish king Charlemagne incited the Christians.Finally revolt was crushed and 700 miscreant killed.


Revolt in Toledo:Revolt led by a blacksmith a Neo Muslim Hashim supported by Frankish ruler .ARII himself led a an army against rebels.After a fierce battle rebels were defeated and Hashim killed.

Taking of leon 845: The mountainous region in the north of peninsula was always in a state of perpetual warfare with Muslim spain.
Leon was the capital of the kingdom of the christians in the north Its king Alfonso II had attacked Medinat Salim in Aragon following him other Christians also started attacking raiding and plundering muslim lands.
A strong force was sent to leon was then attacked and captured .a heavy fine was imposed on its Christian ruler.

Arabicized Christians:More than a century had passed since muslim conquest of Spain .Islam and Arabic culture and language had deeply influenced the Spanish Christians.Most of them adopted Arab dress manners,.They were known as Mozarabs though Strongly opposed by fanatical elements of Christians.

Balsphemy during his reign:

Christian fanatics publicly denounced Holy prophet as false prophet and raged the Muslims of Cordova it was a deliberate violation of law.
Fanatics were duly punished with death.

Four favourites:

He was dominated by a theologian,a musician,a woman,and a eunuch.

Yahya bin Yahya theologian:He acquired influence on the Emir and thus introduced Malikism in the country.Yahya never misused his influence ,he applied himself to the administration of justice in the light of fiqh of Imam malik.He appointe maliki fiqh so malikism became the dominated fiqh in Islamic Spain.

Second favourite was ziryab:

Other two favourites were Sultana Turab and eunuch Nasr:Turab was one of his numerous wives and slave girls the sultan had married.But she was most favourite .She had borne him a son named Abdullah.She was very clever ,scheming,and greedy woman.she had captivated her heart.She wanted his son to be nominated by Emir as his successor.But sultan had no good opinion of him as he wanted his other son Muhammad as his successor.She made a plot with nasr eunuch to finsh both Sultan and other son but failed.

His Character:
Abdur Rahman II was a wise and sagacious ruler endowed with political insight,administrative acumen and military far sightedness.
He was a lover of art and music and patronize great musicians like Ziryab.
His court was attended by men of arts and learning.

His Achievements:
Abdur RahmanII devoted his 30 years of peaceful reign to works of peace and of war with the enemies of Islam.He led personally war expeditions to north Christians,in all these expeditions large quantities of booty and great number of captives were broughtback to the capital.

Built Navy:
He raised a navy and shipyards at Seville , Malaga,Valencia to defend kingdom from Normans and Fatimis.

Foreign policy:
Diplomatic Alliance with Byzantines against Charlemagne Frankish kings diplomatic Alliance with Abbasides.

His patronage of Arts ,Science and Learning.

With equally significant with war and foreign policy was ARII lavish patronage of the artists,scientists and philosophers.

Ziryab The famous musician

Abbas ibn Firnas was a scientish attached to his court.

Another courtier in ARII was Hakkam al Ghazal.
He was a man of great learning and poet also interested in Botany.
He went to the Byzantine Emperor as Ambassador of ARII.
On return He brought with him seeds of FIG tree secretly wrapped in Book.He planted and watered it it bore fruits,He showed it to Emir as a present.