Alhakam (الحكم المستنصر بالله) the second Caliph of Alandalus

The year is 961 CE and Alhakam II (الحكم المستنصر بالله) rose to power as the second Caliph of Alandalus. Two centuries have passed since the Umayyads regained power over Alandalus, and now it has reached a pinnacle of prosperity and strength. A true kingdom of heaven was blossoming, a time where the ruling was just, the people were satisfied, peace spanned the land, and learning took precedent. Cordoba, more specifically, was the place to be.

Pupils and scholars, Muslims or otherwise, Priests and Rabbis were all welcomed, and in fact encouraged to come learn and share their knowledge in Alandalus. Although learning for Muslims was typically done at the mosque, but many schools were built at that time, like Ziryab’s music school. ‫Ziryab was in the Abbasid’s court in Baghdad where he had a quarrel and wanted to flea to Alandalus, he sent a letter to the Caliph Alhakam II ‬ who welcomed him with open arms and enabled him to build his school where he flourished and became an icon of music and etiquette in Alandalus.

Alhakam II heard about The Book of Songs (كتاب الأغاني) by Abu Alfaraj Alisfahani (أبو الفرج الأصفهاني الأموي القرشي) and sent a sum of money to help Abu Alfaraj finish the book and send a copy of it to Alandalus, which ended up being the first copy before even coming out in Baghdad. It was known that Alhakam II was obsessed with knowledge in every form and enabled his people to seek it, like Lubna (لبنى القرطبية) who was a great mathematician and a personal assistant and advisor to the Caliph, and Aisha bint Ahmad (عائشة بنت أحمد بن محمد بن قادم) who was a renowned poet and calligrapher.

The Caliph was a writer and a collector of books from around the world, his library had an index that spanned 44 volumes with only the names of books he had. It was mentioned that when he built his new library, it took six months to transfer the books (where he apparently had more than four hundred thousand single books - including volumes). Alhakam II was a product of a sophisticated civilization, but unfortunately his death was the event that started the domino effect of the fall of unity and thus lack of peace in Alandalus.