CORDOBA, CALIPHATE OF. In AH 138/756 CE, after the fall of the Umayyad dynasty inDamascus, `Abd al-Rahman I ibn Mu’awiyah, an Umayyad prince, established himself inCordobaas ruler of theIberian Peninsula(al-Andalus). The country thus achieved independence from the `Abbasid caliphate ofBaghdad, although the name of the `Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur, continued for a time to be mentioned