The foundations of Asturian culture and that of Christian Spain in the High Middle Ages were laid during the reigns of Silo and Mauregato, when the Asturian kings submitted to the authority of the Umayyad emirs of the Caliphate of Córdoba.

This was due in part to the fact that religious laws and regulations had lost much of their weight and credit, and the edicts of the Umayyad government had gained complete authority and power.

In a campaign lasting eight years, the whole of Iberia was subjected to Umayyad authority, except for the Asturias mountain range in the far northwest and the pockets of resistance in Navarre.

The Umayyad Mosque's prestige allowed the residents of Damascus to establish the city as a center for Sunni intellectualism, enabling them to maintain relative independence from Fatimid religious authority.

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.

Abd al-Rahman and a small selection of his family fled Damascus, where the center of Umayyad power had been ; people moving with him include his brother Yahiya, his four-year old son Sulayman, and some of his sisters, as well as his former Greek slave ( a freedman ), Bedr.

All along the way the path was filled with danger, as the Abbasids had dispatched horsemen across the region to try to find the Umayyad prince and kill him.

It may be assumed that he intended to go at least as far as northwestern Africa ( Maghreb ), the land of his mother, which had been partly conquered by his Umayyad predecessors.

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.

At first, he sought an understanding with the Abbasids, but when they refused his terms and demanded his submission, Ibn Habib broke openly with the Abbasids and invited the remnants of the Umayyad dynasty to take refuge in his dominions.

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

He feared the presence of prominent Umayyad exiles in Ifriqiya, a family more illustrious than his own, might become a focal point for intrigue among local nobles against his own usurped powers.

Around 755, believing he had discovered plots involving some of the more prominent Umayyad exiles in Kairouan, Ibn Habib turned against them.

Ibn Habib dispatched spies to look for the wayward Umayyad prince.

Among the Syrian junds were contingents of old Umayyad clients, numbering perhaps 500, and Abd al-Rahman believed he might tug on old loyalties and get them to receive him.

As a result, Bedr and the Umayyad clients sent out feelers to their rivals, the Yemenite commanders.

The emir Yusuf al-Fihri, had proven himself unable to keep the powerful al-Sumayl in check and several Yemenite chieftains felt their future prospects were poor, whether in a Fihrid or Syrian-dominated Spain, that they had a better chance of advancement if they hitched themselves to the glitter of the Umayyad name.

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.

Bedr returned to Africa to tell Abd al-Rahman of the invitation of the Umayyad clients in al-Andulus.

By March 756, Abd al-Rahman and his growing following of Umayyad clients and Yemenite junds, were able to take Sevilla without violence.

In an attempt to demoralize Abd al-Rahman's troops, al-Fihri ensured that his troops not only were well fed, but also ate gluttonous amounts of food in full view of the Umayyad lines.

Al-Sumayl in turn advanced his cavalry out to meet the Umayyad threat.

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

The Umayyad family would again grow large and prosperous over successive generations.

Far away in Baghdad, the current Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur, had long been planning to depose the Umayyad who dared to call himself emir of al-Andalus.

"( Charlemagne's ) army was enlisted to help the Muslim governors of Barcelona and Zaragoza against the Umayyad ( emir ) in Cordoba ..." Essentially Charlemagne was being hired as a mercenary, even though he likely had other plans of acquiring the area for his own empire.

He was intent on keeping his important northern border city within the Umayyad fold.

Zaragoza's famous white granite defensive walls were breached under a torrent of ordnance from the Umayyad lines.

Then they suggested Mu ' awiya ( founder of the Umayyad Caliphate ), but the Caliph again said no.

Only two Sultans in this period personally exercised strong political and military control of the Empire: the vigorous Murad IV ( 1612 – 1640 ) recaptured Yerevan ( 1635 ) and Baghdad ( 1639 ) from the Safavids and reasserted central authority, albeit during a brief majority reign.

Still, once recaptured and while awaiting transfer to civilian authority for crimes committed during their most recent period at large, they spent their last night in Canterbury drinking cider, eating crisps, and smoking cigarillos courtesy of the young national servicemen who were acting as their guards.

Sergeant Benton lets the Doctor escape, and when he is recaptured the Brigadier asserts his authority to take the Doctor into UNIT custody rather than the regular Army ’ s.

In response to the atrocious crimes committed by Imad-ul-Mulk and Sadashivrao Bhau ; Najib-ud-Daula and his firm alliance of principal Muslim nobles in the Mughal Empire recaptured Delhi and placed it under the nominal authority of Shah Alam II.

His authority extended to the far edge of the counter, no further.

Noticing my disappointment he attempted to salvage what scraps and shreds of authority he felt might still be clinging to his person.

To this end political authority is called upon to exercise its negative and coercive powers.

The three volumes brought to the fore a characteristic of Trevelyan's prose which remained conspicuous through his later works -- a genius for describing military action with clarity and with authority.

One historical authority presents laborious and circuitous testimony tending to arouse suspicion that Massachusetts was behind the clouds settling down on the embattled Gorton.

Their basis seems deeper than mere authority.

It is not the authority of God Himself which makes them true.

The NATO Council is available as an executive agency, the Standing Group as a high military authority.

The unofficial Conference of Parliamentarians is available as a potential legislative authority.

he has become Friday on Dragnet, a mouthpiece of arbitrary police authority.

In order to write with authority either about musicians, or as a musician, Patchen would have to soft pedal his characteristically outspoken anger, and change ( at least for the purposes of this poetry ) from a revolutionary to a victim.

Mass rapes, troop mutinies, uncontrolled looting and pillage and reckless military adventures, given no sanction by any political authority, have become almost daily occurrences.

If the indenture is accepted, the authority will proceed to validate a bond issue repayable from revenue.

The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know.

The integrity of the office not merely requires that the Secretary General shall be, as the Charter puts it, `` the chief administrative officer of the Organization '', but that neither he nor his staff shall seek or receive instructions from any government or any other authority `` external to the Organization ''.

But it would greatly strengthen any Mayor's executive powers, remove the excuse in large degree that he is a captive of inaction in the Board of Estimate, increase his budget-making authority both as to expense and capital budgets, and vest in him the right to reorganize city departments in the interest of efficiency and economy.

Thus there is a clearer division of authority, administrative and legislative.

Prof. C. H. Dodd, 76, a Congregational minister and a leading authority on the New Testament, is general director of the project and chairman of the New Testament panel.

Thanks to Spoken Arts Records, history buffs may hear Lincoln's `` most memorable speeches and letters '' in a two-disc set, interpreted by Lincoln authority and lecturer Roy P. Basler.

-- Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara has asked Congress for authority and funds to build fallout shelters costing about 200 million dollars.

Referring to Britain, he says, `` We see a nation that traditionally values sovereignty above all else willing to give up its economy, placing this authority in Continental hands ''.

`` I was told it on good authority '', Claire answered darkly.

In December I wrote her with authority that we would meet on the steps of the Hotel Astor, a rendezvous spot that I had learned was the most sophisticated.

The third credit service, Banks for Cooperatives, exists under authority of the Farm Credit Act of 1933.

These forty-seven special purpose governments have the authority to levy taxes, to borrow money, own property, sue and be sued, and in general to exercise normal corporate powers.