Al-Hakam II

Type Figure Region Iberian Peninsula Time 915–976 Also known as al-Hakam II、Al-Hakam II、al-Hakam II of Córdoba

Córdoba caliph (r. 961–976), son of Abd al-Rahman III, famed for scholarship and for greatly expanding the court library.

Timeline

915–961Córdoba · CórdobaHe grew up in the Córdoba court and received an education in Islamic and classical learning, long assisting his father in government affairs, and had already begun systematically collecting and organizing books and documents, laying the basis for the later expansion of the court library.
961–976Córdoba · CórdobaAfter his accession he continued the prosperity of his father's rule, generously funding translation and scholarship; the court library's holdings reached hundreds of thousands of volumes, making it an important center of knowledge in the Islamic world of the time. He died in 976, and his young son Hisham II succeeded.