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Abd al-Rahman, one of the last of the Umayyad family, was able to escape the massacres after the Abbasid Revolution and take over at Cordoba in al-Andalus a few years later. However, the Abbasids never forgot about him and sent an army to deal with him. The army besieged him at Carmona, where he was able to sortie and defeat the Abbasid Army.

What would have happened to al-Andalus had the Abbasids defeated him? Keep in mind his control over the Emirate (and it was not officially a Caliphate until one of his successors declared himself Caliph) was never absolute, and he constantly had to deal with rebellions and asserting (and reasserting) his authority of the northern regions of Spain under Muslim rule. I do wonder, of course, if the Umayyad Caliphate's reputation for Arab Supremacist Racism played into the lack of immediate authority over al-Andalus. The proportion of Arabs to Berbers to Visigoths and Hispano-Romans in the 700s could not have been good for an Umayyad to have to deal with.

Is it possible that a Visigothic revolt could at some point occur? Would the Abbasids attempt to centralize the province under direct rule from Baghdad? Would the Dominant Arab Warrior class clash with the Berbers (again)? Would Iberia make a fruitful target for Charlemagne eventually to attempt to assert more control over?
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