In the 10th century, Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi carried out observations on the stars and described their positions, magnitudes and star color, and gave drawings for each constellation, in his Book of Fixed Stars.

Abd al-Rahman I, or, his full name by patronymic record, Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu ' awiya ibn Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ( 731 – 788 ) ( Arabic: عبد الرحمن الداخل ) was the founder of the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba ( 755 ), a Muslim dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries ( including the succeeding Caliphate of Córdoba ).

Born near Damascus in Syria, Abd al-Rahman, grandson of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, was the son of the Umayyad prince Mu ' awiyah ibn Hisham and a Berber mother.

Abbasid agents closed in on Abd al-Rahman and his family while they were hiding in a small village.

Some histories indicate that Bedr met up with Abd al-Rahman at a later date.

Abd al-Rahman, Yahiya and Bedr quit the village narrowly escaping the Abbasid assassins.

Later, on the way south, Abbasid horsemen again caught up with the trio: Abd al-Rahman and his companions then threw themselves into the River Euphrates.

While trying to swim across the dangerous Euphrates, Abd al-Rahman is said to have become separated from his brother Yahiya, who began swimming back towards the horsemen, possibly from fear of drowning.

Al-Maqqari quotes prior Muslim historians as having recorded that Abd al-Rahman said he was so overcome with fear at that moment, that once he made the far shore he ran until exhaustion overcame him.

After barely escaping with their lives, Abd al-Rahman and Bedr continued south through Palestine, the Sinai, and then into Egypt.

Abd al-Rahman had to keep a low profile as he traveled.

At the time, Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib al-Fihri was the semi-autonomous governor of Ifriqiya ( roughly, modern Tunisia ) and a former Umayyad client.

Abd al-Rahman was only one of several surviving Umayyad family members to make their way to Ifriqiya at this time.

At the time, Abd al-Rahman and Bedr were keeping a low profile, staying in Kabylia, at the camp of a Nafza Berber chieftain friendly to their plight.

When Ibn Habib's soldiers entered the camp, the Berber chieftain ’ s wife Tekfah hid Abd al-Rahman under her personal belongings to help him go unnoticed.

In 755, Abd al-Rahman and Bedr reached modern day Morocco near Ceuta.

Their next step would be to cross the sea to al-Andalus, where Abd al-Rahman could not have been sure whether or not he would be welcomed.

At that moment, the nominal ruler of al-Andalus, emir Yusuf ibn ' Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri ( another member of the Fihrid family, and a favorite of the old Arab settlers ( baladiyun ), mostly of south Arabian or ' Yemenite ' tribal stock ) was locked in a contest with his vizier ( and son-in-law ) al-Sumayl ibn Hatim al-Qilabi, the head of the new settlers ( shamiyum, the Syrian junds or military regiments, mostly of north Arabian Qaysid tribes, which had arrived only in 742 ).

Abd ar-Rahman's appointed governor in Sevilla took up the chase, and after a series of small fights, managed to defeat al-Fihri's army.

The mosque was originally a small prayer house built by the Rashidun caliph Umar, but was rebuilt and expanded by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and finished by his son al-Walid in 705 CE.

A small Taifa state at Alpuente was founded by Abd Allah ibn Qasim.

Various small shrines dot the area, such as the shrine of Abd as-Samad.

The governor, Abd al-Malik agreed, which allowed the selection of a patriarch to take top priority.

Although the Umayyads did not have a historical presence in the region ( no member of the Umayyad family was known to have ever set foot in al-Andalus before ) and there were grave concerns about young Abd al-Rahman's inexperience, several of the lower-ranking Yemenite commanders felt they had little to lose and much to gain, and agreed to support the prince.

They decided to try to marry Abd al-Rahman into their family.

In the meantime, a call went out through the Muslim world that al-Andalus was a safe haven for friends of the house of Umayya, if not for Abd al-Rahman's scattered family that managed to evade the Abbasids.

Abd al-Rahman probably was quite happy to see his call answered by waves of Umayyad faithful and family.

Abd al-Rahman placed his family members in high offices across the land, as he felt he could trust them more than non-family.

Various Arab and Berber tribes fought each other for varying degrees of power, some cities tried to break away and form their own state, and even members of Abd al-Rahman's family tried to wrest power from him.

Revenge for the massacre of his family at the hands of the Abbasids must surely have been the driving factor in Abd al-Rahman's war plans.

Abd al-Rahman's mother was a member from the Nafza Berbers with whom he found refuge after the murder of his family in 750.

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was born in the town of Al-Awja, 13 km ( 8 mi ) from the Iraqi town of Tikrit, to a family of shepherds from the al-Begat tribal group, a sub-group of the Al-Bu Nasir ( البو ناصر ) tribe.

According to tradition, the Umayyad family ( also known as the Banu Abd-Shams ) and Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor, Abd Manaf ibn Qusai and they are originally from the city of Mecca.

The only surviving member of the Umayyad royal family, which had been all but annihilated, ultimately made his way to Spain where he established himself as an independent Emir ( Abd ar-Rahman I, 756 ).

The Yemen War resulted in serious complications for the Saudi monarchy when a pro-Nasser clique in the royal family was formed, culminating in the declaration of the Free Princes by Talal ibn Abd al-Aziz.

Emir Abd ar-Rahman II of Córdoba likewise had to face Viking invaders, as well as internal rebellions led by Musa ibn Musa, of the Banu Qasi family.

He was also related to Iraq's first Prime Minister, Abd al-Rahman al-Kayyali, though the two parts of the family were estranged.

On July 14, 1958, the royal family including King Faisal II ; the Prince ' Abd al-Ilah ; Princess Hiyam, Abdullah's wife ; Princess Nafisah, Abdullah ’ s mother, Princess Abadiyah, the king ’ s aunt, and several servants were attacked as they were leaving the palace.

Salam Abdulmunem ( the name he uses now, based on Abd al-Munim ) was born to a well-to-do secular family in Baghdad in 1973.

On July 14, 1958, when Colonel Abdul Karim Qassim took control of the Kingdom of Iraq by a coup d ' état, the royal family was ordered to leave the palace in Baghdad: King Faisal II ; Crown Prince ' Abd al-Ilah ; Princess Hiyam, Abdul Ilah's wife ; Princess Nafeesa, Abdul Ilah ’ s mother, Princess Abadiya, the king ’ s aunt ; and several servants.

The trilogy follows the life of the Cairene patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad and his family across three generations, from 1919 – the Egyptian Revolution against the British colonizers – to the end of the Second World War in 1944.

Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz was born in a Sunni Muslim family in Baghdad.

Awni Abd al-Hadi of the ‘ Abd al Hadi family.