and they found no one among the younger Umayyads fit for the task except ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad, so they pledged allegiance to him. He asked them for money, but none was to be had; he requested equipment, and none was available. Yet good fortune continued to attend him until he personally marched out against Ibn Ḥafṣūn. He met him as the latter was crossing Wādī al-Tuffāḥ with more than twenty thousand cavalry—so reports Alyasaʿ, though I doubt that Ibn Ḥafṣūn was still alive at that date. He routed him, while Ibn Ḥafṣūn escaped with only a few followers and shut himself up in the fortress of Mubashshir.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān went on campaigning until he set crooked affairs straight, pacified the land, established justice, and made security widespread. He then dispatched an army to the Maghrib that conquered the Barghwāṭa near Salā (1), Sijilmāsa (2), and every district of al-Qibla; throughout, his word remained dominant, and Ibn Ḥafṣūn was killed.

Al-Andalus now became stronger and in better condition than ever before. With his front clear to face the Romans, he launched raids against the enemy and personally conducted twelve expeditions into their territory, subduing them, imposing tribute, and bringing their kings to acknowledge his authority. Among the terms he exacted was that twelve thousand men should labor on the construction of al-Zahrāʾ, the residential city he built a parasang from Córdoba.

He diverted rivers to it, pierced the mountain for its sake, and laid it out as a circle with three hundred towers whose battlements were hewn from single blocks of stone. He divided the city into three parts: the third that abutted the mountain contained his palaces; the second third comprised the quarters of the mamluks and servants—twelve thousand of them wearing belts of gold and mounting when he mounted; the remaining third was orchards lying beneath the palaces.

He built a hall overlooking these orchards, plating its columns with gold and inlaying them with rubies, emeralds, and pearls. Its floor was paved with carved marble, and before it he fashioned a circular pool.