14 Happy Days of the Most Powerful Man in the World

10 min readJan 6, 2024

Musings on What is Worth Pursuing in Life

Abd al-Rahman III Receiving the Ambassador by Dionisio Baixeras Verdaguer (1862–1943 CE). 1885 CE. University of Barcelona

Abd al-Rahman III was one of the most powerful men of his time. Emir of Cordoba from 912 to 929, and later the Caliph of Cordoba from 929 to 961, he ruled over the Islamic state in Andalus, which covered most of today’s Spain and Portugal. The only rulers that could match his power at the time were probably the Byzantine kings in Constantinople and Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad.

Abd al-Rahman III became the Emir of Cordoba at the young age of 22. That was a difficult time for the emirate. Threatened by the Christian Kingdom of Asturias from the north and the Fatimids from the south, the emirate's territory was limited to barely beyond the city of Cordoba. The new emir sought to consolidate his rule and focused on uniting the Muslim lands of the Iberian peninsula. It took him 17 years to get to a point where he felt confident enough to declare himself Caliph and thus break the ties with the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad. In the next three decades of his rule, Abd al-Rahman III dealt with rebellions, waged wars, fought off enemies of all kinds and in all directions, and was eventually able to consolidate control of almost all of the Iberian peninsula.

The reign of Abd al-Rahman III is considered to be the pinnacle of the Muslim rule in Andalus. Abd al-Rahman III was a successful ruler by multiple metrics. He enjoyed military success and built the most powerful fleet in Europe. During his reign, Cordoba became a European and global cultural center. Scholars and artists flocked to Cordoba, one of the most populous cities in Europe. Cordoba was rich, filled with libraries and learning institutions.

Abd al-Rahman III was thus an example of success. In the sense that we traditionally understand what success is. Very few individuals throughout history have achieved what he achieved. But with all that power, money, and prestige, was he happy? Well, let’s first see what the man himself said about it.

The thing is, Abd al-Rahman III kept a meticulous DAILY diary. Every day, for close to fifty years, he committed his thoughts and feelings to writing. Although only fragments remain, one of his last diary entries goes as follows:

“I have now reigned above fifty years in victory and peace: beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen on my lot, they amount to fourteen: O man! place not thy confidence in this present world”.

Let it sink in. 14 days.

14 out of 50 years. That is more than 18,000 days.

Makes you wonder. What exactly were these 14 days? Abd al-Rahman III himself did not clarify which days exactly these were. American poet Samuel Hazo offers his version of what these 14 days were like in a poem he wrote in 2012 — he mentions the day the caliph met the love of his life, the day he married her, the day his son was born, and so on. That may well be the case. Could it be that these were the days of his most important military victories? Did they include the day he proclaimed himself Caliph? Or the day he built Madinat al-Zahra, a town near Cordoba that he commissioned?

We may never know exactly what these 14 days were.

Whatever they were though, here is another pertinent question, how come there were only 14 such days?

Were there only 14 because similarly to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Abd al-Rahman III viewed his life as a life of service and was never really in pursuit of happiness? Or was it that his reign was, again, in a way similar to someone like Marcus Aurelius, so rife with challenges that he rarely ever found peace?

Whatever the answer, just the math of it is worth thinking about.

Jim Carrey once said: “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer”.

Abd al-Rahman III was rich and famous. He had everything most of us dream about and more. Having experienced it all, he found that only 14 days brought him happiness. The moral of the story is easy to understand, but not easy to incorporate into our lives.

So then what should we aim at? What is our purpose?

Should we pursue happiness? Or meaning? Both? None?

Should we pursue something else instead? Pleasure? Joy? Peace? Love? Knowledge? Enlightenment? Wisdom?

Or should we just stop asking silly questions and get on with our lives? :)

Depending on your background, upbringing, and system of beliefs and values, your response will differ. You may believe our purpose is to serve the divine. And perform a specific role in this life in preparation for the afterlife. You may think there is no grand meaning to all this if you consider how tiny the probability of our world even existing in this vast universe is.

I am more on the side of seeking purpose and meaning right here and right now. When Voltaire wrote at the end of Candide: “Let us cultivate our garden”, I doubt he just meant to ignore everything else and just focus on our individual lives. We all have a sphere of influence, large or small. We all can make a difference and make things better around us. One day at a time. Instead of seeking meaning, create meaning. At whatever scale we can. For some of us, it is our family, our neighborhood. For others, it could be an entire country or the world.

Naval Ravikant said that happiness is more like poetry than algorithms. It means, of course, different things to different people. The phrase, “pursuit of happiness” became part of the vernacular after its inclusion in the American Declaration of Independence of 1776. The pursuit of happiness is presented in this document as an inalienable right. But the pursuit of happiness should not be understood as happiness for just you. It should be about human flourishing. It goes beyond personal pleasure.

A happy life is not without pain and problems. People we love will die. Unexpected natural disasters will occur and cause great suffering. Wars will take place as long as there are humans. Smaller scale things will frustrate us, humiliate us, and make us angry, or sad. Misery and suffering are part of life. Some of us will have more of it, some of us less. These are part of life and can help us grow — it is called post-traumatic growth.

We should think of the pursuit of happiness as something that goes beyond our own lives. It is about contributing to and facilitating the happiness of other people. We should think of this as a duty, as a service. We don’t achieve personal happiness. Happiness simply happens to us when we have set and reached an objective that is in line with our worldview of improving the world around us. When we experience positive events. When we experience love in a relationship and the joy of being part of a community. When we perform our duty — Stoicism got this right, if you ask me.

Jonathan Haidt put it well in his book The Happiness Hypothesis — “happiness is not something you can find, acquire, or achieve directly. You have to get the conditions right and then wait. We need love, work, and a connection to something larger. If we get these things right, a sense of purpose and meaning will emerge.”

So are there specific things we can do to feel more positive? To improve our life satisfaction? To have, perhaps, more than 14 happy days in your whole life? Let’s see:

Allocate your attention smartly. You are what you focus on. Try to focus on the positive. To see the beauty and good around you. To deal with the negative constructively — from the perspective of “what can I do about it?”. The present is where meaning, fulfillment, and true happiness are found. Do not overthink the past — learn your lessons, and collect good memories, but do not dwell on things too much. Do not overthink the future — make plans, and have dreams, but do not live in the future at the expense of what you need to be doing in the present. Focus on everyday actions that move you in the right direction. Build systems and habits that help you with that. Remember, people with better, more positive emotions live longer, are in better health, have more successful careers, are generally more productive, and have happier relationships.
Invert. Identify what you need to remove from your life. A bad job or a toxic relationship. A bad habit or the wrong attitude. Whatever reliably brings bad things into your life, see if you can drop it. As Charlie Munger says: “Be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent”.
Take care of your health. Exercise or just introduce daily movement into your life. Sleep well. Eat reasonably healthy. Get rid of (or at least reduce) smoking, drinking, and drugs. Spend time outdoors. Get some sunlight. Take a walk.
Find the right job. Jobs are important. They are a big part of your identity. At the right job, you get a sense of being useful and contributing to something good — if you don’t feel that, move. The right job has a direct impact on confidence and happiness. So do not waste time at the wrong job, unless you are really out of options. At the same time, do not fetishize workaholism. Being good at what you do is good, but at what cost?
Desire less. Know how much is enough. The more you get of something, you will start noticing diminishing returns. For example, money is important (don’t listen to those who say it is not), but beyond a certain point, money does not buy any more happiness. Think of money as something that buys you more choices, more freedom, and more control over your time, as opposed to more things. So keep your spending habits in check.
Build relationships. I don’t mean throw yourself into the nightlife. Pick up the phone and call your parents and family. Reconnect with friends you drifted away from just because you live far from each other. Buy flowers for your wife. Watch a movie with your husband. Spend some time with your kids without having work thoughts in the background. Invest time and effort in your most important relationships. Become part of a community — neighbors, people sharing your interests, a volunteer group, whatever. These days, a popular debate is whether to have children or not — with each side of the argument presenting a narrative that is essentially dictated by their larger political or social views. Screw the narrative. If you have children, have them for the right reasons. They can give you a purpose, but they are not responsible for your happiness.
Learn always. Money can buy more control over your life, but so can skills. Upgrade yourself. Make yourself more valuable. As you grow, your influence on the world around you grows. Most importantly, read. Read good books.
Find activities that bring you joy. Get good at them. Do research, train, hire a coach, attend a course, and practice — it might take away from fun at the beginning, but over time it will make it all the more enjoyable. Invest in your hobbies.
Be generous. Giving is one of the proven ways to add positivity to our lives. Seek opportunities for giving and act on them immediately. Contributing to the well-being of others can generate happiness as a side effect. Generosity enhances a sense of purpose and distracts from personal problems and anxiety. It also ensures you are not only focused on yourself.
Keep things simple. Relax about the small stuff. Someone said something. Someone broke something. Let it go. Always remember Hanlon’s Razor — never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity or incompetence. So don’t jump to conclusions, or blow things out of proportion. Keep in mind, positive small things contribute to happiness — laughter with your partner, a smile from a baby, time spent with a pet, a moment when you helped someone and heard a genuine thank you.

Don’t overthink it. Just make a good choice after a good choice and you will be well on your way.

One good reason not to overthink the meaning of life is the role of randomness and luck. We would like to think the world is predictable and orderly, but it is anything but. The events that most affect people’s lives — no one sees them coming. I’ll give you a few examples — the Arab Spring, COVID-19, the Ukraine war, the 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, and the conflict in Gaza.

Here we are, at the beginning of 2024. A new year, new hopes. It is in our nature to expect the positive. For things to get better. As the Matrix character the Architect puts it, hope is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of humans’ greatest strength, and our greatest weakness. Hope is important, but it is not enough.

A philosophy, a religion, a mindset, an attitude. None of it gets us anywhere without action. Rather than just being optimistic about how things will turn out, let’s be optimistic about what we are capable of and how much we can grow and do. Let’s also add a healthy dose of pessimism into the equation — about how things might turn out. Pessimism is not always bad. It gets us to watch out, stay alert, and remain focused on action. Don’t be a blissful optimist. Don’t be a hopeless pessimist. Be a rational optimist (shout out to Matt Ridley).

So instead of just wishing you a good 2024, I wish you to have the strength, the focus, and the determination to make 2024 good for you and those around you. I wish you have more than 14 happy days in your life.

If you liked this read, check out my home page for articles about philosophy, learning, self-improvement, literature, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and more. Here are some you may be interested in:

14 Happy Days of the Most Powerful Man in the World

Written by Rational Badger