08-05-2004, 03:07 PM
bravo sister Ahlam...Yossuif ibn Tahfeen is the great Morabit Mujahid who saved the Muslims in Andlusia from slavery and humilation.
as for Abdul Rahman Al Nasser there is alot to say about him but i will brief
he is (in my humble opinion) one the same level of Saladin, Harun Ar rashid, Nour al deen Zenki..etc.
he is the Mujahid who restored the Muslim honor in Andalusia and stopped the civil war and gave triators real hard time.
he was one of the most God fearing caliphs in Islam history.
ruled Andalusia when he was 21 years old..he was the grandson of the Caliph and he became the caliph after his grandfather died because all of his uncles (the legitmate successors) refused to be caliphs because Andalusia was in big mess.
his father was killed when Abdul Rahman was 3 weeks old.
he established the greatest state in the world....all the kings o europe was seeking his friendship
he established the biggest library and education center in europe.
he built the great mosque of Qurtuba.
from an article about"Cordoba" which was the state capital then
In the era of Al-Nasser, the main library of Cordoba had a huge title index of forty-four 20-page sections. Averroës is known to have said - in a debate with Abu Bakr Ibn Zahr - that the books of deceased scholars of Seville are usually taken to Cordoba to be sold, while the instruments of deceased musicians of Cordoba are usually taken to be sold in Seville. He judged Cordoba to be the city with the largest number of books in the world.
A perfect educational system was established in Cordoba so much so <b>that in time the entire population came to be literate. </b>The city was notable for its scholars and poets, many of whom belonged to the government or the house of the ruling dynasty like Caliph Al-Hakam*, poet Abu Abdul Malik ibn Marwan the grandson of Abdul Rahman III, Caliph Al-Mustaeen Billah, Vizier Abul Ghaira ibn Hazm the cousin of the philosopher of Cordoba Muhammad ibn Hazm, Vizier Abdul Malik ibn Jahwar and Vizier Al-Mushafi. There were hundreds of scholars in various fields of knowledge like Ibn Tufail, Ibn Baja and Averroës (philosophy), Abu Abdullah Al-Qurtubi (Islamic theology), Abul Walid Al-Baji and Abul Hassan Ali ibn Al-Qattan Al-Qurtubi (Hadith, i.e., tradition of Prophet Muhammad of Islam), Munzir ibn Saeed the chief justice of Cordoba, Ziryab the musician, ibn Abd Rabbih and many others. Women too had a significant cultural role in Cordoba. Wallada, daughter of Caliph Al-Mustakfi was a poet and had her own famous literary saloon.
Another woman poet and author was Maryam bint Ya'qoub. Aisha bint Ahmed was the governess and tutor of the children of Al-Mansour ibn Abi Amer, the most famous and powerful Umayyad vizier in Andalusia.
* caliph al Hakam is Abdul Rahman Al Nasser son and he was as great as his father.
another pargraph.
Cordoba reached its golden age in the era of Abdul Rahman Al-Nasser, the first Umayyad Caliph in Andalusia, when the city was made the official capital. As the seat of the Caliph of Muslims in the western part of the world, <b>Cordoba became the greatest European city and a center of culture at the time.</b> As the renowned capital of Spain, <b>it was a Mecca for rulers and ambassadors offering tokens of loyalty and allegiance.</b> Up to the eleventh century, the Western Roman Empire was more of a protectorate of the Islamic state, during which time Cordoba's architectural and cultural glory made it rival other great cities of the Muslim world like Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad and Kairawan. No wonder the Europeans called it the "<b>Jewel of the World</b>".
http://www.islamonline.net/iol-english/dow...may-11/art4.asp
wa salam