Contents
Flag
Capital Aghmat (1040-1062), Marrakech(1062-1147) & Córdoba
Language(s) Berber languages (predominant), Classical Arabic, Mozarab, Hebrew language, African Romance & Andalusian Arabic
Religion Malikite Islam (predominant), Roman Catholic, Ibadi, Judaism & Sufism
Government Monarchy
Caliph
- 1040-1059 Abdallah ibn Yasin
- 1146–1147 Ishaq ibn Ali
History
- Established 1040
- Disestablished 1147
Area
- 1147 est. 3,300,000 km2 (1,274,137 sq mi)
Currency Dinar & Maravedi
Part of a series on
History of Morocco
Ancient Morocco
Prehistoric Morocco
Mauretania Tingitana
Byzantine Empire
Arab Caliphates (654-780)
Rashidun Caliphate · Umayyad Caliphate
Abbasid Caliphate · Caliphate of Córdoba
Moroccan Dynasties (780-current)
Idrisid dynasty · Almoravid dynasty
Almohad dynasty · Marinid dynasty
Wattasid dynasty · Saadi dynasty
Alaouite dynasty
European Protectorate (1912-1956)
Treaty of Fez · French Morocco
Spanish Morocco · Rif Republic
Modern Morocco (since 1956)
Mohammed V · Hassan II
Sand War · 1970s
Green March · Madrid Accords
1980s · 1990s
Mohammed VI · 2000s
Historical Figures
Uqba ibn Nafi · Tariq ibn Ziyad
Idris I · Yaqub al-Mansur
Ibn Battuta · Ahmad al-Mansur
Abd al-Malik I · Al Rashid
Ismail Ibn Sharif · Hassan I
Related Topics
Economic history · Military history
Postal history · Imperial cities
The Almoravids was a Berber dynasty of Sahara, which lived between the current Senegal and south of the current Morocco.[1]
It is affiliated to the Berber tribe of Sanhaja and Lamtuna. From the eleventh century to the twelfth century, they ruled the Sahara, part of North Africa and part of the Iberian Peninsula.
In his book The Muslim Conquest and Settlement of North Africa and Spain, the author Abd al-Wahid Dhannūn Taha, based on several sources including bibliographic of Ibn Khaldun, provides, on pages 26 and 29 of his book, information on the geographical distribution of Sanhaja tribes. He does the same for the different tribes and tribal Berber branch of the Maghreb and information on the different tribes or ethnic groups (Arabs, Berbers and sub-Saharan African) who participated in the Muslim conquest of Visigoth Spain.[2]
Under this dynasty the Moorish empire was extended over present-day Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Gibraltar, Tlemcen (in Algeria) and a great part of what is now Senegal and Mali in the south, and Spain and Portugal to the north in Europe. At its greatest extent, the empire stretched 3,000 kilometres north to south (an all-time latitude spanner until Spanish America).
“Almoravids” is a Spanish transliteration of the Arabic Al-Murābiṭūn. The exact meaning of "Murābiṭ" is a matter of controversy. Some have suggested that the word might be derived from the Arabic ribaṭ, meaning fortress (a term with which it shares the root r-b-ṭ). Most historians, however, now believe that it refers to ribat, meaning "ready for battle" (cf. jihad).[3][4]
Introduction
When the Almoravids began their political rise, the Kingdom of Fez (Morocco's first name) of the Idrisid dynasty was split into a series of small emirates located mainly north of the country, and headed by relatives of the royal family.
According to French historian Bernard Lugan and others, the lure of wealth from trade in the South (Sahara) and marketed to the North (the West) attracted various tribes to crossroads city such as Marrakech, which become the capital of various dynasties, especially those from the South (Almoravids, Almohads, Saadian).
The current name of Morocco derives in fact from Marrakesh role as the Almoravid capital.
Beginnings
The most powerful of the tribes of the Sahara near the Sénégal River was the Lamtuna, whose culture of origin was 'Wadi Noun' (Nul Lemta). They later came together as the upper leger River culture, which founded the city of Aoudaghost. They converted to Islam in the 9th century.
About the year 1040 (or a little earlier) one of their chiefs, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, made the pilgrimage to Makkah. On his way home, he attended the teachers of the mosque at University of Al-Qayrawan, today's Kairouan in Tunisia; the first Arab-Muslim city in North Africa, who soon learnt from him that his people knew little of the religion they were supposed to profess, and that though his will was good, his own ignorance was great. By the good offices of the theologians of Al Qayrawan, one of whom was from Fez, Yahya was provided with a missionary, Abdallah ibn Yasin, a zealous partisan of the Malikis, one of the four Madhhab, Sunni schools of Islam.
His preaching was before long rejected by the Lamtunas; so on the advice of Yahya, who accompanied him, he retired to Saharan regions from which his influence spread. His creed was mainly characterized by a rigid formalism and a strict adherence to the dictates of the Qur'an, and the Orthodox tradition.
Abd-Allah ibn Yasin imposed a penitential scourging on all converts as a purification, and enforced a regular system of discipline for every breach of the law, including the chiefs themselves. Under such directions, the Almoravids were brought into excellent order. Their first military leader, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, gave them a good military organization. Their main force was infantry, armed with javelins in the front ranks and pikes behind, which formed into a phalanx; it was supported by camelmen and horsemen on the flanks.
Military successes
From the year 1053, the Almoravids began to spread their religious way to the Berber areas of the Sahara, and to the regions south of the desert. They converted Takrur (a small state in modern Senegal) to Islam, and after winning over the Sanhaja Berber tribe, they quickly took control of the entire desert trade route, seizing Sijilmasa at the northern end in 1054, and Aoudaghost at the southern end in 1055. Yahya ibn Ibrahim was killed in a battle in 1056, but Abd-Allah ibn Yasin, whose influence as a religious teacher was paramount, named his brother Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar as chief. Under him, the Almoravids soon began to spread their power beyond the desert, and subjected the tribes of the Atlas Mountains. They then came in contact with the Berghouata, a branch of the Zenata of central Morocco, who followed a "heresy" founded by Salih ibn Tarif, three centuries earlier. The Berghouata made a fierce resistance, and it was in battle with them that Abdullah ibn Yasin was killed. They were, however, completely conquered by Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar, who took the defeated chief's widow, Zainab, as a wife.
In 1061, Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar made a division of the power he had established, handing over the more-settled parts to his cousin Yusuf ibn Tashfin, as viceroy, resigning to him also his favourite wife Zainab. For himself, he reserved the task of suppressing the revolts which had broken out in the desert, but when he returned to resume control, he found his cousin too powerful to be superseded. He returned to the Sahara, where, in 1087, having been wounded with a poisoned arrow, he died.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin had in the meantime brought what is now known as Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauretania into complete subjection. In 1062 he founded the city of Marrakech. In 1080, he conquered the kingdom of Tlemcen (in modern-day Algeria) and founded the present city of that name, his rule extending as far east as Oran.
Ghana Empire
There has been a belief by some that the Almoravids conquered the Ghana Empire sometime around 1075 AD. According to Arab tradition, the ensuing war pushed Ghana over the edge, ending the kingdom's position as a commercial and military power by 1100, as it collapsed into tribal groups and chieftaincies, some of which later assimilated into the Almoravids while others founded the Mali Empire. However, the Almoravid religious influence was gradual and not heavily involved in military strife, as Almoravids increased in power by marrying among the nation's nobility. Scholars such as Dierk Lange attribute the decline of ancient Ghana to numerous unrelated factors, only one of which can be likely attributable to internal dynastic struggles that were instigated by Almalvorid influence and Islamic pressures, but devoid of any military conversion and conquest.[5]
Conquest of southern Iberia
History of al-Andalus