ISLAMIC SPAIN FOR THE NEXT 26 YEARS; THE REIGN OF HAKAM I (796–822A.D)
After the death of Hisham I, Al Hakam was crowned as the next Amir of Cordova, he was the second child of his father but his elder brother had died some years earlier. When he came to the throne, his two uncles Abdullah and Sulayman rose again to usurp the throne from him, Abdullah occupied Valencia while Sulayman occupied Tangiers in North Africa. In the meantime, sulayman attacked Cordova but he was defeated by Al Hakam, he escaped to Merida where he was captured and executed, he was then laid to rest beside his father Abdurrahman I in 798A.D. In the case of Abdullah, he had no choice but to occupy Valencia as a vassal state of Hakam.
Al Hakam was an iron man unlike his father; he never left offenders to go scot free unlike his father who usually forgive offences. He spent large portion of his reign suppressing revolts in Toledo and other places such as Merida and Saragossa. The people of Toledo who were mostly Christians of Gothic origin rebelled against the central Government and even captured the Umayyad governor of Toledo, series of armies were sent to put down the revolts, the revolts even spread to the capital after sometime but through the experience of Hakam, he was able to suppress it. The head of those involved was hanged on the gate of Cordova as was usually done to leaders of the enemies that are defeated in war.
In 818A.D, he crushed the rebellion organized by some clerics. About 300 people were captured and crucified upon his order while the rest were exiled to different places. The reign of Hakam also witnessed the conspiracy of the theologians to dethrone him since he does not pay attention to their opinions; he also had expelled them from the palace unlike his father who invited them to the palace and pay attention to them and take to their advices.
He also made series of developmental changes. Al-Ḥakam resolved to make the necessary arrangements for building a professional salaried full-time army, paid with the proceeds of taxation and recruited from expensive purchases in the slave market, a slow and costly process. This allowed the Amīr to have an efficient, compliant and faithful army, whose soldiers had neither links with nor loyalty towards al-Ḥakam’s subjects such as the Arabs, Berbers, and Christians etc. These men allowed him to resist and eventually quell the uprisings of the suburb.
Considering the private life of Hakam, it was said that he left about 20 sons and 20 daughters at his death from his several wives. Another report says he had just 5 children. One of the good qualities of Hisham I is that he encouraged all his wives to engage in public service, public welfare and charitable services. One of his wives named Ajab founded a colony in the suburb of Cordova to assist lepers. Another wife founded a cemetery which remained in existence even till the 10th century
Few days to his death, Al Hakam called his ministers together and he nominated one of his sons, Abdurrahman as his successor. He died on May 21,822A.D and was buried in the palace. His last advice to Abdurrahman was to rule the people with justice tempered with strictness.
