Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu‘awiyah ibn Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn Hakam, better known as Abd al-Rahman I, was to be the first Muslim ruler of a European country as the founder of the Umayyad dynasty of Spain in the eighth century. The rule of Abd al-Rahman and his descendants lasted for nearly three centuries, and they became renowned for their patronage of learning, scholarship, arts and architecture in medieval Spain and across the rest of Europe.
