Editing Almanzor (section)

=== Defense of religious orthodoxy and legitimation of power ===
One of the instruments Almazor used to strengthen his power was his court,{{Sfn|Valdés Fernández|1999|p=14}} at which writers and poets celebrated his virtues—praise that was used as propaganda among the people.{{Sfn|Echevarría Arsuaga|2011|p=208}}

[[File:Prayer in the Mosque.jpg|thumb|right|Praying in the mosque. Among the gestures that Almanzor made in service of his image as Defender of the Faith was the expansion of [[Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba|Córdoba's mosque]].]]
The stability and prosperity of the regime and its rigorous defense of Islam, which Almanzor showed through various pious gestures, gave him popular support.{{Sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=119}} Also numbered among these gestures were copying a Koran that he took with him during his campaigns,{{Sfn|Lévi Provençal|1957|p=407}}{{Sfn|Bariani|2003|p=216}} and the expansion of the [[Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba|mosque of Cordoba]] (987–990).{{Sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=119}}{{Sfn|Fletcher|2000|p=54}} The political ambitions of the chamberlain had important repercussions on culture and religion, which he was forced to support.{{Sfn|Echevarría Arsuaga|2011|p=208}} His image as Islam's leader led to the censorship of some sciences considered non-Islamic, and to the purging from Al-Hakam's important library of works considered heretical.{{Sfn|Lévi Provençal|1957|p=407}}{{Sfn|Bariani|2003|p=104}}{{Sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=119}}{{Sfn|Echevarría Arsuaga|2011|p=209}}{{Sfn|Valdés Fernández|1999|p=36}} His political interests required him to ingratiate himself with the lawyers when his power was still unsteady, and led him to censure logic, philosophy and astrology, despite his appreciation for culture.{{Sfn|Bariani|2003|p=105}} His meddling in religious matters led to the appointment of his own uncle, himself a veteran qadi, as the principal qadi after the death of the hostile Ibn Zarb, who had opposed some of his proposals.{{Sfn|Echevarría Arsuaga|2011|p=219}} The main expression of his defense of religion, however, was his military campaigns against the Christian states, a method of legitimization that the caliphs had used before but which Almanzor took to extremes.{{Sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=119}} Successive victories, despite their transient benefits to the realm, had a great propaganda effect,{{Sfn|Bariani|2003|p=226}} both in the Caliphate and in the enemy states of the north.{{Sfn|Kennedy|1996|p=120}} To each crisis of his political career, he responded with large and/or multiple military campaigns.{{Sfn|Bariani|2003|p=226}}

The campaigns also had a beneficial economic effect because of the loot – especially abundant slaves – obtained by them and because of the security they granted to the borders.{{Sfn|Bariani|2003|p=225}}