Almoravids

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Related to Almoravids: Almohads, Hausa States

Almoravids

(ălmôr`əvĭdz), Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled Morocco and Muslim Spain in the 11th and 12th cent. The Almoravids may have originated in what is now MauritaniaMauritania
, officially Islamic Republic of Mauritania, republic (2015 est. pop. 4,182,000), 397,953 sq mi (1,030,700 sq km), NW Africa. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean in the west, on Western Sahara in the northwest and north, on Algeria in the northeast, on Mali in the east
..... Click the link for more information. . The real founder was Abd Allah ibn Yasin, who by military force converted a number of Saharan tribes to his own reformed religion and then advanced on Morocco. After his death (c.1059), Yusuf ibn TashfinYusuf ibn Tashfin
, d. 1106, ruler in the dynasty of the Almoravids (c.1059–1106). A Muslim, he led the Berbers in N Africa, continued the conquest of Morocco, took Algeria, and founded (1062) Marrakech, which became his capital.
..... Click the link for more information. and his brother Abu BakrAbu Bakr
, 573–634, 1st caliph, friend, father-in-law, and successor of Muhammad. He was probably Muhammad's first convert outside the Prophet's family and alone accompanied Muhammad on the Hegira.
..... Click the link for more information. came to power. MarrakechMarrakech
or Marrakesh
, city (1994 pop. 672,478), W central Morocco. The city, renowned for leather goods, is one of the principal commercial centers of Morocco and a major tourist center.
..... Click the link for more information. was founded in 1062 and was the center of a powerful empire. Called by the Moors in Spain to help stem Christian reconquest, Yusuf entered Andalusia and defeated (1086) Alfonso VI of Castile. He later subdued the local Muslim rulers and governed Muslim Spain and N Morocco (Abu Bakr ruling over S Morocco). The dynasty also pushed south, destroying the ancient state of GhanaGhana
, ancient empire, W Africa, in the savanna region of what is now E Senegal, SW Mali, and S Mauritania. The empire was founded c.6th cent. by Soninke peoples and lay astride the trans-Saharan caravan routes. Its capital was Kumbi Salih (in present-day SE Mauritania).
..... Click the link for more information. . The Almoravids were rough and puritanical, contemptuous of the luxurious Muslim courts in Spain. Their rule was never entirely stable and in the 12th cent. was attacked by the AlmohadsAlmohads
, Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled Morocco and Spain in the 12th and 13th cent. It had its origins in the puritanical sect founded by Ibn Tumart, who stirred up (c.1120) the tribes of the Atlas Mts. area to purify Islam and oust the Almoravids.
..... Click the link for more information. , who finally (by 1174) won both Morocco and Muslim Spain.

References in periodicals archive ?

578/1183), was in his late thirties at the time of Ibn Barrajdn's death and although he wrote his biographical dictionary under both the Almoravids and the Almohads, he makes no reference to Ibn Barrajan.

"Al-Ghazali of al-Andalus": Ibn Barrajan, Mahdism, and the Emergence of Learned Sufism on the Iberian Peninsula

Chapter five, "Economy and Trade within and beyond Imperial Frontiers, 1050-1250," which includes discussion of taxes and coins, situates the Almoravids and Almohads in the diverse terrain of their domains and the long duree of agricultural production, outlines their place in the history of urbanization in the Islamic West, and illustrates the importance of trade routes and networks to their emergence and the maintenance of their power.

The Almoravid and Almohad Empires

Heir to the Huddid family that once ruled the taifa of Zaragoza, of which he was dispossessed by the Almoravids in 1110 before taking refuge in the fortress of Rueda de Jalon, 'King Zafadola' then became a close collaborator of Alfonso VII and the leader of the Muslim resistance against the Maghrebi Berbers.

Histories of the Islamic World in the Chronicles of the Kingdom of Leon (End-Ninth to Mid-Twelfth Centuries)

In 1091, the Abbasid kingdom fell into the hands of the Almoravid dynasty, a Berber imperial dynasty of Morocco.

Is British Queen a descendant of Prophet Mohammad?

Born in the 12th century in Seville, Ibn Zuhr conducted original research in therapeutics, tumours, and abscesses while serving as a physician to both the Almoravid and Ahmohad courts.

When Africa civilized Europe (Part III)

Ibn Khaldun was able to show how periods of urbane tolerance and laxity by Muslims in the western Mediterranean were regularly interrupted by the arrival and rule of rigorous fundamentalists such as the Almoravids and the Almohads, who strictly and brutally enforced sharia.

The Muslim invasions of Europe

The Almoravids (1040-1147), and the Almohads (1121-1269) after them, also occupied parts of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula.

Muslim science as the source of the Portuguese age of discoveries

Sueur, J 2005, 'Decolonizing "French universalism": reconsidering the impact of the Algerian war on French intellectuals', in J Clancy-Smith (ed.), North Africa, Islam and the Mediterranean world: from the Almoravids to the Algerian war, Frank Cass, London.

Ismail Besikci as a discomforting intellectual

We have been like this since the Almoravids, if not the Idrissids before them.

Four Reasons Why Morocco is An Exception

In some respects, one can see both sides of this argument, because, as Payne indicates, the eleventh and twelfth centuries' Almoravids and Almohads were fanatical Islamic forces who perpetrated violent acts against nonbelievers.

Spain: A Unique History

And whether the Moroccans want to connect the event to the city of Marrakesh, the capital of Almoravids and Almohads; or whether the Algerians want to cling to that the idea was born in Zeralda, what is certain is that the detente in the relationships of the two countries was behind the rebirth of that momentum that had nearly turned into an illusion.

Algeria and the Islamists of Morocco

The Almoravids rejected the lavish decoration that had dominated the architectural style of their predecessors the Umayyad, and built on a practical rather than a monumental scale - piety prevented them from erecting elegant or magnificent buildings.