Caliphate of Cordoba

Abd al-Rahman III (891-961) inherited a collapsing emirate in 912, spent twenty years restoring it by force, and in 929 declared himself caliph. His fifty-year reign made Cordoba the strongest state in western Europe and built the palace-city of Madinat al-Zahra.

Al-Mansur ibn Abi Amir (c. 938-1002), known in Spanish tradition as Almanzor, rose from court clerk to chamberlain and ruled Al-Andalus for two decades while the caliph Hisham II remained a figurehead. He led some fifty campaigns and left the caliphate militarily dominant and politically hollow.