the suburb ⦗1⦘.

He was invested with authority at his father’s death, in Ṣafar of the year 180 AH. He proved to be one of the most overbearing and dissolute of kings, rebellious by temperament: an accomplished horseman, brave and ruthless, gifted with cunning and resolve yet marked by arrogance and injustice. He reigned for twenty-seven years.

At the beginning of his rule he conducted himself praiseworthily, following the path of his father, but he later changed course and began to flaunt his sins openly.

Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm said, “He was one who brazenly committed sins and spilled blood; he would seize handsome boys from the people, castrate them, and keep them for himself.”

He also composed fine poetry.

Al-Yasaʿ Ibn Ḥazm recounted: “The Byzantines set their sights on gains they had never before achieved, coveting the frontier districts; they broke the treaty, so al-Ḥakam prepared to confront them. He crossed the Sierra of Sāra, north of Toledo, and the Byzantines fled before him until they clustered at Zamora. When the two armies met, victory descended and unbelief was routed; they barricaded themselves inside the very large city of Zamora. The Muslims besieged it with mangonels until they captured it by storm, taking control of most of its streets. The troops busied themselves with the booty while the Byzantines gathered in another quarter of the city and burst out in a patriotic charge, killing many as they emerged. This expedition would have ranked among the greatest campaigns were it not for the negligence that later set in. The Byzantines sued for peace, but al-Ḥakam refused. He then withdrew from their land for fear of the snows, and when the following year arrived he made the greatest preparations,