Abderramán I was a Muslim Emir of al-Andalus from 756 to 787. He was born in the year 734 in Damascus . He was the grandson of Caliph Hixem (724-743). When the last Umayyad caliph, Meruán II (744-750), died, the Abbasids killed the entire Umayyad family; but the young Abderramán was the only survivor of that massacre because he was absent. He then went to take refuge in Africa, in the city of Tahart, with the Zenetes tribe, the most important of the Berbers; Two sheikhs (Teman ben Alkamah and Wahib ben Zahir) went there from al-Andalus to offer him, on behalf of the main sheikhs of al-Andalus, the sovereignty of all his Muslim tribes. Abderramán accepted and, on April 8, 756, landed in Almuñécar (Granada). So he had to fight against Wali Yusuf, who refused to recognize him; but he was defeated along the Guadalquivir on May 15, 756; This victory gave Abderramán the domain of al-Andalus, although the war continued against Yusuf, who finally surrendered and gave his title and power to Abderramán; but later he revolted, but was killed in the year 759.
Also, in this year, Pepin the Short expelled the Muslims from Septimania and incorporated it into his Frankish kingdom. Abderramán I had to suffocate many rebellions; Charlemagne (742-814), king of the Franks, called by the governor of Zaragoza (Soleim ben Yactán el Arabí) to dethrone Abderramán I participated in one of them; but, when Charlemagne returned to France, after not being received in Zaragoza, he suffered the famous defeat at Roncesvalles on August 15, 778. In the year 779, Abderramán I annexed the kingdom of Todmir and, in 787, he proclaimed successor to his third son Hixem, and died on September 30 of the same year in Mérida; he had eleven sons and nine daughters; he began the construction of the Mosque of Córdoba, on which he worked an hour a day. He divided al-Andalus into six military districts (Córdoba, Mérida, Murcia, Toledo, Valencia and Zaragoza), and, for the direction of the defense of the southern coasts, created the position of admiral (emir-al-ma; emir of the sea).