This section is from "The American Cyclopaedia", by George Ripley And Charles A. Dana. Also available from Amazon: The New American Cyclopędia. 16 volumes complete..
Abderrahman I., surnamed the Wise, the first ruler of the family of the Ommiyades in Spain, born at Damascus in 731, died in 787. After the massacre of his family in the East he retired to Mauritania, where he remained in privacy until he was called to Spain by a deputation of friends, who were tired of anarchy. Abderrahman with a handful of relatives landed at Almunecar on the coast of Andalusia in 755, and soon found himself at the head of a large army. He entered Seville, and was acknowledged as sovereign. Next he advanced against Yusuf el-Feri, the most powerful of the rival emirs, whose army, though of greatly superior numbers, he entirely defeated, firmly establishing himself on the throne of Cordova. It was during these internal dissensions in Spain that the Mohammedans were finally driven out of France, and forced to recross the Pyrenees. The eastern caliphs, who always kept up the idea of maintaining the right of spiritual and temporal rule over the Spanish Moors, anathematized Abderrahman, and despatched two expeditions against him, but in vain. The kingdom of Cordova was at peace when Charlemagne fruitlessly crossed the Pyrenees. Abderrahman built the magnificent mosque of Cordova, designed by himself, at which he is said to have labored an hour a day with his own hands.
He planted the first palm tree in Cordova, the stock from which all those now in Spain are descended.
 
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