(Also: Abd al-Rahman I)
Islamic ruler of Spain from 767 to 788.
Following the Abbasid dynasty's takeover in Syria, Abd al-Rahman escaped the ensuing massacre, fleeing to Andalucia in Spain, where he founded the Umayyad dynasty, driving out the Abassid governor and making himself Emir of Córdoba in 756. Subduing tribal disputes and Berber uprisings, he also managed to stop Charlemagne's army at the Battle of Roncesvalles, in 778 (see the Chanson de Roland for the Frankish version of these events).