Abu al-As al-Hakam ibn Hisham ibn Abd al-Rahman () was
Umayyad Emir of Cordoba
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ceremo ...
from 796 until 822 in
Al-Andalus (
Moorish
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or se ...
Iberia).
Biography
Al-Hakam was the second son of his father, his older brother having died at an early age. When he came to power, he was challenged by his uncles Sulayman and Abdallah, sons of his grandfather
Abd ar-Rahman I. Abdallah took his two sons Ubayd Allah and Abd al-Malik to the court of
Charlemagne in
Aix-la-Chapelle
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
to negotiate for aid. In the meantime Sulayman attacked Cordoba, but was defeated and driven back to Mérida where he was captured and executed. Abdallah was pardoned, but was forced to stay in Valencia.
Al-Hakam spent much of his reign suppressing rebellions in Toledo, Saragossa and Mérida. The uprisings twice reached Cordoba. An attempt was made to dethrone Al-Hakam and replace him with his cousin, Mohammed ibn al-Kasim, but the plot was discovered. On 16 November 806, 72 nobles and their attendants (accounts talk of 5,000) were massacred at a banquet, crucified and displayed along the banks of the river Guadalquivir. Such displays of cruelty were not unusual during this period, with the heads of rebel leaders or Christian foes killed in expeditions to the north being put on show at the gates of Cordoba.
Following the rebellion in Cordoba, Al-Hakam established a personal bodyguard, the
Al-Haras
The haras ( ar, الحرس; "the Guard") was a personal bodyguard unit of the caliphs during the Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyads and the Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasids. The haras was also instituted in the Emirate of Córdoba in present-day Spain.
Orig ...
, led by the
Visigothic leader of the
Christians in Cordoba, the
Comes (Count) Rabi, son of Theodulf, who also served as the Emir's tax collector. Rabi was later removed and executed by
crucifixion for corruption.
In 818 he crushed a rebellion led by clerics in the suburb of on the south bank of the
Guadalquivir river. Some 300 notables were captured and crucified, while the rest of the inhabitants were exiled. Some moved to Alexandria in Egypt, some to Fez and Crete, where they formed
an emirate. Others joined the Levantine pirates.
[Nagendra Kr Singh, International encyclopaedia of Islamic dynasties, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2002]
Death
Al-Hakam I died in 822 after having ruled for 26 years.
Family
Al-Hakam was the son of
Hisham I, Emir of Cordoba and a concubine named Zokhrouf.
Al Hakam fathered five children with his wife Halawah:
*
Abd ar-Rahman II
Abd ar-Rahman II () (792–852) was the fourth ''Umayyad'' Emir of Córdoba in al-Andalus from 822 until his death. A vigorous and effective frontier warrior, he was also well known as a patron of the arts.
Abd ar-Rahman was born in Toledo, Spai ...
, Umayyad Emir of Córdoba 822–852
* al-Mughira
* Said
* Umayya
* al-Walid bin al-Hakam. He led an army to attack Galicia in 838.
Al-Hakam had a concubine named Ajab. She established a foundation for lepers in the suburbs of Cordoba.
[Caroline Goodson, Anne E. Lester, Carol Symes, Cities, texts, and social networks, 400-1500: experiences and perceptions of medieval urban space, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2010] The leper colony was funded by the proceeds of the Munyat 'Ajab, an estate built for or named after Ajab.
D. Fairchild Ruggles
D. (Dede) Fairchild Ruggles is a historian of Islamic art and architecture, and a professor in the University of Illinois Department of Landscape Architecture. She is known for her books on Islamic gardens and landscapes, her series of edited ...
, ''Gardens, landscape, and vision in the palaces of Islamic Spain'', Penn State Press, 2003
Ajab was the mother of:
* Abu Abd Al-Malik Marwan
Another concubine was named Mut'a. She established a cemetery which was still in existence in the 10th century.
References
External links
Arabic biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Hakam 01
Emirs of Córdoba
9th-century rulers in Europe
771 births
822 deaths
Year of birth unknown
8th-century Arabs
9th-century Arabs