The role of Hakem al-Mustansar (302-366 AH/914-976 AD) in promoting books and reading

Hakam al-Mustansir Be allah (r. 350-366 AH) is the most prominent Umayyad caliph in Al-Andalus, known for his dedication to knowledge, books, and the establishment of libraries. As a scholar himself, he paid special attention to books and libraries, actively inviting and supporting scholars, as well as spending significant resources on them. From the time of his regency, Al-Hakam sought to collect a diverse range of scientific books and established a private library for himself. None of the rulers of Al-Andalus had such a passion for gathering books; he collected many outstanding works from the East and rare writings on ancient and modern sciences, to the extent that exaggerated statistics about the size of his library have been mentioned. Al-Hakam studied many of the works in his library and wrote explanations or annotations about the authors or peculiarities of the books at the beginning or end of some of them. He made considerable efforts to further equip the palace library, utilizing scholars from the East and encouraging them to bring valuable and distinguished works from the Islamic East to Córdoba, for which he appointed specialists to purchase these works.