Almoravid dynasty
The Almoravid dynasty (Berber languages: ⵉⵎⵔⴰⴱⴹⵏ, Imrabḍen;
Arabic: ‫اﻟﻤﺮاﺑﻄﻮن‬, Al-Murābiṭūn) was an imperial Berber Muslim
dynasty centered in Morocco.[1][2] It established an empire in the
11th century that stretched over the western Maghreb and AlAndalus. Founded by Abdallah ibn Yasin, the Almoravid capital
was Marrakesh, a city the ruling house founded in 1062. The
dynasty originated among the Lamtuna and the Gudala, nomadic
Berber tribes of the Sahara, traversing the territory between the
Draa, the Niger, and the Senegal rivers.[3]
Almoravid dynasty
ⵉⵎⵔⴰⴱⴹⵏ, Imrabḍen
‫اﻟﻤﺮاﺑﻄﻮن‬, Al-Murābiṭūn
1040–1147
Flag
The Almoravid empire at its greatest extent, c. 1120.
Status
Ruling dynasty of Morocco
Capital
Aghmat (1040–1062)
Marrakesh (1062–1147)
Common languages
Berber, Arabic, Mozarabic
Religion
Islam (Sunni); minority Christianity
(Roman Catholic), Judaism
Government
hereditary monarchy
Emir
• 1040–1059
Abdallah ibn Yasin
• 1146–1147
Ishaq ibn Ali
History
• Established
1040
• Disestablished
1147
Currency
Preceded by
First Taifas period
Dinar
Succeeded by
Almohad Caliphate
Barghawata Confederacy Second Taifas period
Zenata kingdoms
The Almoravids were crucial in preventing the fall of Al-Andalus to
the Iberian Christian kingdoms, when they decisively defeated a
coalition of the Castilian and Aragonese armies at the Battle of
Sagrajas in 1086. This enabled them to control an empire that
stretched 3,000 kilometers (1,900 mi) north to south. However, the
rule of the dynasty was relatively short-lived. The Almoravids fell—
at the height of their power—when they failed to stop the
Masmuda-led rebellion initiated by Ibn Tumart. As a result, their
last king Ishaq ibn Ali was killed in Marrakesh in April 1147 by the
Almohad Caliphate, who replaced them as a ruling dynasty both in
Morocco and Al-Andalus.
Name
The term "Almoravid" comes from the Arabic "al-Murabitun"
(‫)اﻟﻤﺮاﺑﻄﻮن‬, which is the plural form of "al-Murabit"—literally
meaning "one who is tying" but figuratively meaning "one who is
ready for battle at a fortress". The term is related to the notion of
Ribat, a frontier monastery-fortress, through the root r-b-t (‫رﺑﻂ‬
"Rabat": to tie to unite or ‫" راﺑﻂ‬Raabat": to encamp).[4][5]
The name "Almoravid" was tied to a school of Malikite law called
"Dar al-Murabitin" founded in Sus al-Aksa, modern day Morocco,
by a scholar named Waggag Ibn Zallu. Ibn Zallu sent his student
Abdallah ibn Yasin to preach Malikite Islam to the Sanhaja Berbers
of the Sous and Adrar (present-day Mauritania). Hence, the name
of the Almoravids comes from the followers of the Dar alMurabitin, "the house of those who were bound together in the
cause of God."[6]
It is uncertain exactly when or why the Almoravids acquired that
appellation. al-Bakri, writing in 1068, before their apex, already
calls them the al-Murabitun, but does not clarify the reasons for it.
Writing three centuries later, Ibn Abi Zar suggested it was chosen
early on by Abdallah ibn Yasin[7] because, upon finding resistance
among the Gudala Berbers of Adrar (Mauritania) to his teaching,
he took a handful of followers to erect a makeshift ribat
(monastery-fortress) on an offshore island (possibly Tidra island,
in the Bay of Arguin).[8] Ibn Idhari wrote that the name was
suggested by Ibn Yasin in the "persevering in the fight" sense, to
boost morale after a particularly hard-fought battle in the Draa
valley c. 1054, in which they had taken many losses. Whichever
explanation is true, it seems certain the appellation was chosen by
the Almoravids for themselves, partly with the conscious goal of
forestalling any tribal or ethnic identifications.
The name might be related to the ribat of Waggag ibn Zallu in the
village of Aglu (near present-day Tiznit), where the future
Almoravid spiritual leader Abdallah ibn Yasin got his initial
training. The 13th-century Moroccan biographer Ibn al-Zayyat alTadili, and Qadi Ayyad before him in the 12th century, note that
Waggag's learning center was called Dar al-Murabitin (The house
of the Almoravids), and that might have inspired Ibn Yasin's choice
of name for the movement.[9][10]
Contemporaries frequently referred to them as the al-mulathimun
("the veiled ones", from litham, Arabic for "veil"). The Almoravids
veiled themselves below the eyes with a tagelmust, a custom they
adapted from southern Sanhaja Berbers. (This can still be seen
among the modern Tuareg people, but it was unusual further
north.) Although practical for the desert dust, the Almoravids
insisted on wearing the veil everywhere, as a badge of
"foreignness" in urban settings, partly as a way of emphasizing
their puritan credentials. It served as the uniform of the
Almoravids. It was worn in remembrance of the Sanhaja's escape
from Yemen disguised as women, thus making it simultaneously
an indication of their faith.[11] Under their rule, sumptuary laws
forbade anybody else from wearing the veil, thereby making it the
distinctive dress of the ruling class. In turn, the succeeding
Almohads made a point of mocking the Almoravid veil as
symbolic of effeminacy and decadence.
Origins
The Berbers of the Tamazgha in the early Middle Ages could be
roughly classified into three major groups: the Zenata across the
north, the Masmuda concentrated in central Morocco, and the
Sanhaja, clustered in two areas: the western part of the Sahara
and the hills of the eastern Maghreb.[12][13] The eastern Sanhaja
included the Kutama Berbers, who had been the base of the
Fatimid rise in the early 10th century, and the Zirid dynasty, who
ruled Ifriqiya as vassals of the Fatimids after the latter moved to
Egypt in 972. The western Sanhaja were divided into several
tribes: the Gazzula and the Lamta in the Draa valley and the
foothills of the Anti-Atlas range; further south, encamped in the
western Sahara desert, were the Massufa, the Lamtuna and the
Banu Warith; and most southerly of all, the Gudala (or Judala), in
littoral Mauritania down to the borderlands of the Senegal River.
The western Sanhaja had been converted to Islam some time in
the 9th century. They were subsequently united in the 10th century
and, with the zeal of neophyte converts, launched several
campaigns against the "Sudanese" (pagan peoples of subSaharan Africa).[14] Under their king Tinbarutan ibn Usfayshar, the
Sanhaja Lamtuna erected (or captured) the citadel of Awdaghust,
a critical stop on the trans-Saharan trade route. After the collapse
of the Sanhaja union, Awdagust passed over to the Ghana empire;
and the trans-Saharan routes were taken over by the Zenata
Maghrawa of Sijilmassa. The Maghrawa also exploited this
disunion to dislodge the Sanhaja Gazzula and Lamta out of their
pasturelands in the Sous and Draa valleys. Around 1035, the
Lamtuna chieftain Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Tifat (alias
Tarsina), tried to reunite the Sanhaja desert tribes, but his reign
lasted less than three years.
Around 1040, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, a chieftain of the Gudala (and
brother-in-law of the late Tarsina), went on pilgrimage to Mecca.
On his return, he stopped by Kairouan in Ifriqiya, where he met Abu
Imran al-Fasi, a native of Fes and a jurist and scholar of the Sunni
Maliki school. At this time, Ifriqiya was in ferment. The Zirid ruler
al-Muizz ibn Badis, was openly contemplating breaking with his
Shi'ite Fatimid overlords in Cairo, and the jurists of Kairouan were
agitating for him to do so. Within this heady atmosphere, Yahya
and Abu Imran fell into conversation on the state of the faith in
their western homelands, and Yahya expressed his
disappointment at the lack of religious education and negligence
of Islamic law among his southern Sanhaja people. With Abu
Imran's recommendation, Yahya ibn Ibrahim made his way to the
ribat of Waggag ibn Zelu in the Sous valley of southern Morocco,
to seek out a Maliki teacher for his people. Waggag assigned him
one of his residents, Abdallah ibn Yasin.
Abdallah ibn Yasin was a Gazzula Berber, and probably a convert
rather than a born Muslim. His name can be read as "son of Ya
Sin" (the title of the 36th Sura of the Qur'an), suggesting he had
obliterated his family past and was "re-born" of the Holy Book.[15]
Ibn Yasin certainly had the ardor of a puritan zealot; his creed was
mainly characterized by a rigid formalism and a strict adherence
to the dictates of the Qur'an, and the Orthodox tradition.[16]
(Chroniclers such as al-Bakri allege Ibn Yasin's learning was
superficial.) Ibn Yasin's initial meetings with the Gudala people
went poorly. As he had more ardor than depth, Ibn Yasin's
arguments were disputed by his audience. He responded to
questioning with charges of apostasy and handed out harsh
punishments for the slightest deviations. The Gudala soon had
enough and expelled him almost immediately after the death of
his protector, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, sometime in the 1040s.
Ibn Yasin, however, found a more favorable reception among the
neighboring Lamtuna people.[16] Probably sensing the useful
organizing power of Ibn Yasin's pious fervor, the Lamtuna chieftain
Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni invited the man to preach to his
people. The Lamtuna leaders, however, kept Ibn Yasin on a careful
leash, forging a more productive partnership between them.
Invoking stories of the early life of Muhammad, Ibn Yasin
preached that conquest was a necessary addendum to
Islamicization, that it was not enough to merely adhere to God's
law, but necessary to also destroy opposition to it. In Ibn Yasin's
ideology, anything and everything outside of Islamic law could be
characterized as "opposition". He identified tribalism, in particular,
as an obstacle. He believed it was not enough to urge his
audiences to put aside their blood loyalties and ethnic differences,
and embrace the equality of all Muslims under the Sacred Law, it
was necessary to make them do so. For the Lamtuna leadership,
this new ideology dovetailed with their long desire to refound the
Sanhaja union and recover their lost dominions. In the early
1050s, the Lamtuna, under the joint leadership of Yahya ibn Umar
and Abdallah ibn Yasin—soon calling themselves the al-Murabitin
(Almoravids)—set out on a campaign to bring their neighbors over
to their cause.
Conquests
Northern Africa
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. 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 Umar was killed in a battle in
1057,[17] but Abdullah 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 conquered the tribes of the Atlas
Mountains. They then came in contact with the Berghouata, a
Berber tribal confederation, who followed an Islamic "heresy"
preached by Salih ibn Tarif three centuries earlier. The Berghouata
resisted. Abdullah ibn Yasin was killed in battle with them in 1059,
in Krifla, a village near Rommani, Morocco. They were, however,
completely conquered by Abu Bakr ibn Umar, and were forced to
convert to orthodox Islam.[18] Abu Bakr married a noble and
wealthy Berber woman, Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyat, who would
become very influential in the development of the dynasty.[19]
Zaynab was the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Houara,
who was said to be from Kairouan.[19]
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, and also assigning to him his
favourite wife Zaynab. Ibn Umar kept the task of suppressing the
revolts that had broken out in the desert. When he returned to
resume control, he found his cousin too powerful to be
superseded.[18] In November 1087,[20] Abu Bakr was killed in battle
– according to oral tradition by an arrow,[21][22] while fighting in the
historic region of the Sudan.[20]
Yusuf ibn Tashfin had in the meantime brought the large area of
what is now known as Morocco, Western Sahara, and Mauritania
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.[18]
Ghana Empire and the southern wing
According to Arab tradition, the Almoravids conquered the Ghana
Empire sometime around 1076 CE.[23] An example of this tradition
is the record of historian Ibn Khaldun, who cited Shaykh Uthman,
the faqih of Ghana, writing in 1394. According to this source, the
Almoravids weakened Ghana and collected tribute from the
Sudan, to the extent that the authority of the rulers of Ghana
dwindled away, and they were subjugated and absorbed by the
Susu, a neighboring people of the Sudan.[24] Traditions in Mali
related that the Soso attacked and took over Mali as well, and the
ruler of the Soso, Sumaouro Kanté, took over the land.[25]
However criticism from Conrad and Fisher (1982) argued that the
notion of any Almoravid military conquest at its core is merely
perpetuated folklore, derived from a misinterpretation or naive
reliance on Arabic sources.[26] According to Professor Timothy
Insoll, the archaeology of ancient Ghana simply does not show the
signs of rapid change and destruction that would be associated
with any Almoravid-era military conquests.[27]
Dierke Lange agreed with the original military incursion theory but
argues that this doesn't preclude Almoravid political agitation,
claiming that the main factor of the demise of Ghana empire
owed much to the latter.[28] According to Lange, the Almoravid
religious influence was gradual and not heavily involved in military
strife; there the Almoravids increased in power by marrying among
the nation's nobility. Lange attributes 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
Almoravid influence and Islamic pressures, but devoid of military
conversion and conquest.[29]
This interpretation of events has been disputed by later scholars
like Sheryl L. Burkhalter (1992), who argued that, whatever the
nature of the "conquest" in the south of the Sahara, the influence
and success of the Almoravid movement in securing west African
gold and circulating it widely necessitated a high degree of
political control,.[30]
The traditional position says that the ensuing war with the
Almoravids pushed Ghana over the edge, ending the kingdom's
position as a commercial and military power by 1100. It collapsed
into tribal groups and chieftaincies, some of which later
assimilated into the Almoravids while others founded the Mali
Empire.
The Arab geographer Al-Zuhri wrote that the Almoravids ended
Ibadism in Tadmekka in 1084 and that Abu Bakr "arrived at the
mountain of gold" in the deep south. After the death of Abu Bakr
(1087), the confederation of Berber tribes in the Sahara was
divided between the descendants of Abu Bakr and his brother
Yahya, and would have lost control of Ghana.[31] Sheryl Burkhalter
suggests that Abu Bakr's son Yahya was the leader of the
Almoravid expedition that conquered Ghana in 1076, and that the
Almoravids would have survived the loss of Ghana and the defeat
in the Maghreb by the Almohads, and would have ruled the Sahara
until the end of the 12th century.[32]
Southern Iberia and the northern wing
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Almoravid gold dinar coin from Seville, Spain, 1116. (British Museum); the
Almoravid gold dinar would set the standard of the Iberian maravedi.
In 1086 Yusuf ibn Tashfin was invited by the Muslim taifa princes
of Al-Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula to defend their territories
from the encroachment of Alfonso VI, King of León and Castile. In
that year, Yusuf ibn Tashfin crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to
Algeciras, and defeated Castile at the Battle of az-Zallaqah (Battle
of Sagrajas). He was prevented from following up his victory by
trouble in Africa, which he chose to settle in person.
He returned to Iberia in 1090, avowedly for the purpose of
annexing the taifa principalities of Iberia. He was supported by
most of the Iberian people, who were discontented with the heavy
taxation imposed upon them by their spendthrift rulers.[18] Their
religious teachers, as well as others in the east, (most notably, alGhazali in Persia and al-Tartushi in Egypt, who was himself an
Iberian by birth from Tortosa), detested the taifa rulers for their
religious indifference. The clerics issued a fatwa (a non-binding
legal opinion) that Yusuf was of sound morals and had the
religious right to dethrone the rulers, whom he saw as heterodox
in their faith. By 1094, Yusuf had annexed most of the major
taifas, with the exception of the one at Saragossa. The Almoravids
were victorious at the Battle of Consuegra, during which the son
of El Cid, Diego Rodríguez, perished. Alfonso, with some Leónese,
retreated into the castle of Consuegra, which was besieged for
eight days until the Almoravids withdrew to the south.
After friendly correspondence with the caliph at Baghdad, whom
he acknowledged as Amir al-Mu'minin ("Commander of the
Faithful"), Yusuf ibn Tashfin in 1097 assumed the title of Amir al
Muslimin ("Commander of the Muslims"). He died in 1106, when
he was reputed to have reached the age of 100. The Almoravid
power was at its height at Yusuf's death: the Moorish empire then
included all of Northwest Africa as far eastward as Algiers, and all
of Iberia south of the Tagus and as far eastward as the mouth of
the Ebro, and including the Balearic Islands.[33]
In 1108 Tamim Al Yusuf defeated the Kingdom of Castile at the
Battle of Uclés. Yusuf did not reconquer much territory from the
Christian kingdoms, except that of Valencia; but he did hinder the
progress of the Christian Reconquista by uniting al-Andalus. In
1134 at the Battle of Fraga the Almoravids dynasty was victorious
and even succeeded in slaying Alfonso I of Aragon in the battle.
Decline
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Three years afterwards, under Yusuf's son and successor, Ali ibn
Yusuf, Sintra and Santarém were added, and he invaded Iberia
again in 1119 and 1121, but the tide had turned, as the French had
assisted the Aragonese to recover Zaragoza. In 1138, Ali ibn Yusuf
was defeated by Alfonso VII of León, and in the Battle of Ourique
(1139), by Afonso I of Portugal, who thereby won his crown.
Lisbon was conquered by the Portuguese in 1147.[34]
According to some scholars, Ali ibn Yusuf was a new generation
of leadership that had forgotten the desert life for the comforts of
the city.[35] He was defeated by the combined action of his
Christian foes in Iberia and the agitation of Almohads (the
Muwahhids) in Morocco. After Ali ibn Yusuf's death in 1143, his
son Tashfin ibn Ali lost ground rapidly before the Almohads. In
1146 he was killed in a fall from a precipice while attempting to
escape after a defeat near Oran.[34]
His two successors were Ibrahim ibn Tashfin and Ishaq ibn Ali, but
their reigns were short. The conquest of the city of Marrakech by
the Almohads in 1147 marked the fall of the dynasty, though
fragments of the Almoravids continued to struggle throughout the
empire.[34] Among these fragments, there was the rebel Yahya AlSahrāwiyya, who resisted Almohad rule in the Maghrib for eight
years after the fall of Marrakech before surrendering in 1155.[36]
Also in 1155, the remaining Almoravids were forced to retreat to
the Balearic Islands and later Ifriqiya under the leadership of the
Banu Ghaniya, who were eventually influential in the downfall of
their conquerors, the Almohads, in the Eastern part of the
Maghrib.[37]
Military organization
Abdallah ibn Yassin imposed very strict discipline measures on
his forces for every breach of his laws.[38] The Almoravids' first
military leader, Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni, 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;[39] and was supported by camelmen and horsemen on
the flanks.[18][39] They also had a flag carrier at the front who
guided the forces behind him; when the flag was upright, the
combatants behind would stand and when it was turned down,
they would sit.[39]
Al-Bakri reports that, while in combat, the Almoravids did not
pursue those who fled in front of them.[39] Their fighting was
intense and they did not retreat when disadvantaged by an
advancing opposing force; they preferred death over defeat.[39]
These characteristics were possibly unusual at the time.[39]
Legends
After the death of El Cid, Christian chronicles reported a legend of
a Turkish woman leading a band of 300 "Amazons", black female
archers. This legend was possibly inspired by the ominous veils
on the faces of the warriors and their dark skin colored blue by the
indigo of their robes.[40]
Almoravids dynasty
Rulers
Abdallah ibn Yasin (1040–1059) – founder & spiritual leader
Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni (c. 1050–1056)
Abu Bakr ibn Umar (1056–1087) – partitioned reign from 1072.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin (c. 1072–1106)
Ali ibn Yusuf (1106–43)
Tashfin ibn Ali (1143–45)
Ibrahim ibn Tashfin (1145–1147)
Ishaq ibn Ali (1147)
Family tree
Tashfin
Yusuf ibn
Tashfin
Ibrahim
(3)
Ali ibn Yusuf Muhammad
(4)
Tashfin ibn
Ali
(5)
ibn A'isha
Dawud
Tamin ibn
Ishaq ibn Ali
(7)
Abu Bakr
Ibrahim
A'isha
Fatim
Ibrahim ibn
Muham
Tashfin
(6)
Timeline
Notes
1. G. Stewart, Is the Caliph a Pope?, in: The Muslim World, Volume
21, Issue 2, pages 185–196, April 1931: "The Almoravid dynasty,
among the Berbers of North Africa, founded a considerable empire,
Morocco being the result of their conquests"
2. Sadiqi, Fatima, The place of Berber in Morocco, International
Journal of the Sociology of Language, 123.1 (2009): 7–22 : "The
Almoravids were the first relatively recent Berber dynasty that ruled
Morocco. The leaders of this dynasty came from the Moroccan
deep south."
3. Extract from Encyclopedia Universalis on Almoravids .
4. Nehemia Levtzion, "Abd Allah b. Yasin and the Almoravids", in:
John Ralph Willis, Studies in West African Islamic History, p. 54.
5. P. F. de Moraes Farias, "The Almoravids: Some Questions
Concerning the Character of the Movement", Bulletin de l’IFAN,
series B, 29: 3–4 (794–878), 1967.
6. Messier, Ronald A. The Almoravids and the meanings of jihad,
Santa Barbara, CA. Praeger Publishers, 2010.