When you have had a bad night and you have not been able to sleep, it is said that you have spent a night in Toledo . This popular saying has its origin in an event that occurred in Toledo in the year 797, when Al-Hakam I (grandson of Abd al-Rahman I) was Emir of Córdoba.
The people of Toledo have always been a rebellious and insubordinate people against their oppressors and have always tried to live with a certain independence. Al-Hakam I decided to put an end to this "rebellion" for the faster and bloodier life. He sent a new governor to Toledo, named Amrus , to carry out his plans. The new governor's orders were to make them believe that he would govern independently of Córdoba and that, furthermore, he would take into account and study their demands. His goal, to gain his trust.
Amrus arrived with good words and was a good governor until the nobles of Toledo became overconfident and Al-Hakam's plan began to take shape. With the excuse of the arrival of the crown prince to the throne of Córdoba, Abd al-Rahman II, Amrús invited all the nobility to his residence to entertain the visit of the heir with a dinner. The nobles, confident, put on their best clothes and there they presented themselves. The prince's personal guard was waiting behind a door through which the nobles of Toledo were entering, one by one. Behind the door a pit awaited them, dug for that purpose, where they were thrown after being slaughtered.
Many were slaughtered (some chronicles speak of hundreds, others of thousands) until someone shouted:
Toledans, it is the sword, I pray to God, that causes that vapor (of blood) and not the smoke from the kitchens!
Those who had not yet entered were able to escape, but Al-Hakam I achieved his goals and Toledo calmed down for many years.