Editing Abd al-Rahman I (section)

=== Social dynamics ===
Abd al-Rahman knew that one of his sons would one day inherit the rule of al-Andalus, but that it was a land torn by strife. In order to successfully rule in such a situation, Abd al-Rahman needed to create a reliable civil service and organize a standing army. He felt that he could not always rely on the local populace in providing a loyal army; and therefore bought a massive [[standing army]] consisting mainly of Berbers from [[North Africa]]<ref>W. Montgomery Watt. ''Islamic Surveys 4: A History of Islamic Spain''. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1965), p. 33</ref> as well as slaves from other areas. The total number of soldiers under his command was nearly 40,000.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

As was common during the years of Islamic expansion from Arabia, [[Religious toleration|religious tolerance]] was practiced. Abd al-Rahman continued to allow Jews and Christians and other monotheistic religions to retain and practice their faiths, in exchange for the ''[[jizya]]''. Possibly because of tribute taxes, "the bulk of the country's population must have become Muslim".<ref>Philip K. Hitti. ''Makers of Arab History''. (New York: St Martin’s Press), 1968. p. 71</ref> However, other scholars have argued that though 80% of [[al-Andalus]] converted to [[Islam]], it did not truly occur until near the 10th century.<ref>Thomas F. Glick. ''Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages''. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), pp. 33–35. Glick based this work on a prior scholar's work ([[Bulliet]]). On page 33 of this book, Glick writes that Bulliet said "that the rate of [[Religious conversion|conversion to Islam]] is logarithmic, and may be illustrated graphically by a logistic curve".</ref>

Christians more often converted to Islam than Jews although there were converted Jews among the new followers of Islam. There was a great deal of freedom of interaction among the groups: for example, Sarah, the granddaughter of the Visigoth king [[Wittiza]], married a Muslim man and bore two sons who were later counted among the ranks of the highest Arab nobility.<ref>Marianne Barrucand & Achim Bednorz. ''Moorish Architecture in Andalusia''. (London: Taschen, 2002)</ref>