163 – al-Mustansir Billah al-Hakam ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Umayyad *

He bore the honorifics “Commander of the Faithful” and “al-Mustansir Billah,” and his kunya was Abū al-ʿĀṣ. His full name was al-Hakam, son of al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Muḥammad al-Umayyad al-Marwānī, sovereign of al-Andalus and heir to its dynasty of kings.

His reign lasted 16 years, and he lived to the age of 63.

Of excellent conduct and abundant virtue, he was generous to all who visited him. He had an ardent passion for reading and for acquiring rare and valuable books, whether sound or unsound, until their number approached nearly 200,000 volumes. Beneath this outward love of learning he possessed genuine piety and goodness.

He received (hadith) from Qāsim ibn Aṣbagh, Aḥmad ibn Duḥaym, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Khushanī, Zakariyyā ibn Khattāb, and others besides them.

Thābit ibn Qāsim al-Sarqusṭī granted him an ijāza (formal authorization to transmit).

He would lavish gold in the pursuit of books, giving any bookseller whatever price he asked, until his treasuries could no longer contain them; he took pleasure in nothing else.