1. Abd al- Rahman escaped in 750…
He fled to the Iberian Peninsula. There
he began to build a kingdom that would
match the Abbasid Empire in culture
and wealth

2. Essential Question
• How did the Umayyads create a strong Muslim
empire in Spain?

3. What did he find when he got to
Cordoba?
• Spain was divided.
– Several factions were competing for control of the
peninsula. None were strong enough to gain
control.

4. Abd al-Rahaman takes action…
• He quickly starts to unite the warring factions
– He could easily gain control for the following
reasons:
• Had a loyal following
• He made treaties with other Muslim groups
• When he felt he had enough support he attacked ruling
factions to gain control

5. Abd al-Rahman
Becomes Emir
• In 756 Abd al-Rahman declares himself Emir of
Cordoba and Cordoba as the capital.
• Umayyad loyalists begin to move to Spain
•
• Challenges
• Internal Revolts
• External threats from Northern Africa
• and Europe

6. 125 years later…
• Abd al-Rahman III helps Al- Andalus reach the
height of it’s power
– Many challenges: rebels, Christian armies, Muslim
armies
– Preservation of power: huge standing army,
strengthened the southern border by taking the
most north western tip of Africa, put down
internal revolts, protected the northern border
– Declared himself Caliph to send a message

8. The Glory of Cordoba
• By 1000’s Cordoba was the largest city in
Western Europe
• Paved streets, street lamps, public baths,
water system, and beautiful gardens

9. Economic
Center Advances in
Agriculture
Workshops that
produced in
demand goods
The GLORY of
Cordoba Advances in Math,
Science,
Philosophy,
Books, books, and
Geography, and
more books housed
Medicine
in libraries
Scholars lured
away from
Baghdad Cultural
Center

10. Golden Age in the West
• Built on or extened the
work of earlier
mathematicians
• Astronomers mapped the
stars and built large
planetariums
• Geographers wrote about
various regions
• Al- Idrisi – completed an
encyclopedia of
geographic knowledge
with maps and
descriptions

11. Golden Age in the West
Medicine Philosophy
• Borrowed ideas from Baghdad • Studied the works of Plato
• Doctor patient relationships and Aristotle and helped
• Wrote about ways to treat reintroduce classical Greek
diseases ex. Changes in diet philosophy to Europe
should always be tried before
medicine or other types of
treatment
• Al-Zahrawi – Wrote about
teeth, caring for children –
became required reading for
doctors throughout Europe

12. A Great Jewish Scholar
Maimonides
• Fled Cordoba when he was young because his
parents refused to give up their religion
• Wrote and taught about many subjects.
• Best known work, the Guide
for the Perplexed, was
published in 1190. He tried
to show that religious faith
could be supported by the
study of philosophy

13. The Decline
• 1204 – al- Andalus began
to fall apart
• Factions once again
fought for control
• Christians in the north
took advantage of the
disarray and launched
attackes
• By 1240 the pushed as far
south as Cordoba and
Seville. Christian forces
slowly regained control of
the Iberian Peninsula