... In the former, after some interval of submission to the Abbassides, nominal or real descendants of Ali and Fatima sprang up in quick succession, and finally established independent dynasties and thrones; but in Spain, the elevation of the Abbassides to the Khalifate was almost immediately the signal of revolt.   Into that country Abdalrahman, a prince of Ommiaden race, escaping the general massacre of his house, after being hunted from the banks of the Euphrates to the deserts of Mauritania, was invited by the Emirs of the white faction, and welcomed by the acclamations of the people, who were excited by the pride of national independence to abjure their allegiance to the distant throne of Syria.   Abdalrahman became the first Ommiaden Khalif of Spain, or the West; and from his success is usually and appropriately dated, although it preceded the final separation of Africa by near half a century, the commencement of the triple division of the Khalifate. (History of the Ottoman Empire, Jacob, 1854)