WI: Abd-ar-Rahman was killed in the Abbasid Revolution

[SunKing105]

Abd-ar-Rahman was originally an Ummayad prince who was around 20 when the Abbasids took Damascus, and subsequently slaughtered 80 members of the Ummayad family at a feast in Abu-Futrus, but Abd-ar-Rahman managed to escape. Eventually he had to cross the Euphrates, where Abbasid troops caught up with them, and he narrowly escaped. He would go on to eventually wrest control of Al-Andalus from the governor there, Yusuf ibn Abd-ar-Rahman Al-Fihri, and established the Emirate of Cordoba, ruled by the Ummayad dynasty, which would last for over 250 more years after they were overthrown by the Abbasids back in the Near East. What if he failed to cross the river and was dispatched by the Abbasid horsemen? What happens to Al-Andalus? What happens to the Abbasids?

 

[Vinization]

Calling @Planet of Hats since he seems to be this site's residing Al Andalus expert, as shown by his excellent TL.

 

[Nivek]

Abd-ar-Rahman was originally an Ummayad prince who was around 20 when the Abbasids took Damascus, and subsequently slaughtered 80 members of the Ummayad family at a feast in Abu-Futrus, but Abd-ar-Rahman managed to escape. Eventually he had to cross the Euphrates, where Abbasid troops caught up with them, and he narrowly escaped. He would go on to eventually wrest control of Al-Andalus from the governor there, Yusuf ibn Abd-ar-Rahman Al-Fihri, and established the Emirate of Cordoba, ruled by the Ummayad dynasty, which would last for over 250 more years after they were overthrown by the Abbasids back in the Near East. What if he failed to cross the river and was dispatched by the Abbasid horsemen? What happens to Al-Andalus? What happens to the Abbasids?

@Planet of Hats since he seems to be this site's residing Al Andalus expert, as shown by his excellent TL.

Techically Andalus would remain a Wilaya of the Abbasaidis...what they do later on depends...They where happy their border unless tension with france make them to push north once again

 

[Vinization]

Techically Andalus would remain a Wilaya of the Abbasaidis...what they do later on depends...They where happy their border unless tension with france make them to push north once again

Maybe Andalus is fragmented into a bunch of squabbling taifas right from the get go, being slowly conquered by the Christian kingdoms from the north until/unless a giant Berber empire intervenes, much like the Almoravids did?

 

[Nivek]

Maybe Andalus is fragmented into a bunch of squabbling taifas right from the get go, being slowly conquered by the Christian kingdoms from the north until/unless a giant Berber empire intervenes, much like the Almoravids did?

Nope, Abbasadis did where more hand on with the wali semi-federative structure, so they would just put loyal Wali and keep them alone, if some try to break up, expect they raise troops to put them down.

 

[Vinization]

Nope, Abbasadis did where more hand on with the wali semi-federative structure, so they would just put loyal Wali and keep them alone, if some try to break up, expect they raise troops to put them down.

Who would raise troops. the wali or the Abbasids? Because if it's the latter, then the Berbers are in the way, and the caliphs have bigger fish to fry much closer to home, such as the Tang, Byzantines and eventually their own subjects (the Anarchy at Samarra, Zanj rebels, Saffarids, Tulunids and so on). However, if it's the latter, then it would be interesting to have an Al Andalus that is nominally subordinate to Baghdad/Samarra instead of having its own caliph.

They'd still have hurdles to deal with though. Didn't Charlemagne try to take Zaragosa sometime during the 770s? If he succeeds, that is already one major city (and maybe the entire Ebro valley) under the control of what would likely be a Christian Frankish vassal. A bigger Spanish March, perhaps?

 

[Nivek]

They'd still have hurdles to deal with though. Didn't Charlemagne try to take Zaragosa sometime during the 770s? If he succeeds, that is already one major city (and maybe the entire Ebro valley) under the control of what would likely be a Christian Frankish vassal. A bigger Spanish March, perhaps?

That is if he succeded at all, if anything i already mentioned, Abbasadid where happy their border but that assault means a Jihad and what better to integrated the waliyah than one? we could see flux of berbers and jundist in Andalusi..the butterflies would be endless

 

[Teutonic_Thrash]

My timeline deals with Abd al-Rahman dying during the revolution. There's obviously a lot more going on, with the PoD being Charles Martel's death, but al-Andalus remains under the control of the Fihrid who have, at best, an uneasy relationship with their nominal Abbasid overlords.

 

[Planet of Hats]

Well, what probably goes on here is that the Fihrids' relationship with the Abbasids proceeds without the interruption of Abd ar-Rahman. The Fihrids welcomed the Abbasid revolution, until the Abbasids rejected their offer of vassalage. At that point, the Fihrids really have few options other than to either assert their own claim - which has no real validity, given the lack of endorsement from a Umayyad claimant - or to bend the knee to the Abbasids and grumble about it all the while. There was a certain amount of infighting among the Fihrids; odds are that would continue.

At this point, North Africa had descended into infighting between Berber clans and was hard to control, and Al-Andalus was a distant border province even the Umayyads had considered abandoning. I would not be shocked if the Abbasids cut their losses in Iberia.

 

[Nivek]

I would not be shocked if the Abbasids cut their losses in Iberia.

I doubt it, Even if they stop the Ummayds Expansion, they still fought hard vs Greco-Romans and Hindi too, here they might take advantage of the far away of Al-Andalus and send people there, that way they could Withstand the franks easily.