Abd-ar-Rahman III

891–961

Abd-ar-Rahman III was the Umayyad ruler of al-Andalus who reigned from 912 to 961 and declared himself caliph in 929. His rule stabilised Muslim Iberia after a period of internal rebellion, strengthened Córdoba as a political and cultural centre, and made his court one of the major powers of tenth-century western Europe.

Abd-ar-Rahman III also held the offices or ranks of emir of Cordoba and caliph of Córdoba. Abd-ar-Rahman III belonged to the Umayyad dynasty and operated within Emirate of Córdoba; Caliphate of Córdoba.

Elizabeth Drayson’s Crucible of Light places Abd-ar-Rahman III’s Córdoba within the long exchange between Islamic societies and Europe, using the caliphate’s political and cultural power to challenge the idea of two permanently separate civilisations. Tim Hodkinson’s The Blazing Sea moves into the same world from a fictional Viking perspective: Einar and the Wolf Coats reach al-Andalus in the late 930s, where one of their companions is imprisoned under the Caliph of Córdoba and their escape draws them into the Muslim, Byzantine and northern rivalries of the Mediterranean.

Periods

Periods linked to Abd-ar-Rahman III

Al-Andalus711–1492 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Abd-ar-Rahman III (1 series)

The Whale Road Chronicles in Order

by Tim Hodkinson 8 books 4.4(26,996)

The Whale Road Chronicles follow the Icelandic warrior and poet Einar Unnsson through the North Atlantic world of the 930s. His journeys connect Iceland, Orkney, Norway, Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England, Francia, al-Andalus and Byzantium as Viking warbands, Christian kings and competing dynasties struggle for control of kingdoms and sea…