Almoravids

Almoravides (In Arabic المرابطون al-Murabitun, sing. مرابط Murabit), was a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that flourished over a wide area of Africa and Europe during the 11th century.

Under this dynasty the Moorish empire was extended over Morocco, Mauritania, Gibraltar, Tlemcen (in modern Algeria) and a great part of what is now Senegal and Mali in the south, and Spain and Portugal in the north. The name is not derived from the Arabic ribat, or fortress, but seems to be derived from the Quranic meaning of the root r-b-t which is very close to that of waging djihad. Like djihad the term also contains the idea of pious acts, dedication to the cause of Islam.

In several aspects, the Almoravids can be considered the Islamic equivalents of the Christian world's Knights Templar.

Beginnings

The most powerful of the tribes of the Sahara, south of the river Dra to the Senegal river was the Lamtuna, whose region of origin was 'Wadi Noun' (Nul Lemta), South Morocco. They later spread as far as the upper Niger River region, where they founded the city of Aoudaghost. In many respects they resembled their eastern neighbours the Tuareg (originally called Tarka and - like the Lamtuna - a sub-tribe of the Sanhadja). They had been converted to the Islam in the 7th century, but their adherence to the Islam did not go very far and most of them did not follow the traditions of the Shariah, or Islamic law.

Influence of orthodox Islam

About the year 1040 (or a little earlier) one of their chiefs, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, made the pilgrimage to Mecca. On his way home, he attended the teachers of the mosque at Kairouan, in Tunisia, 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 Kairawan, one of whom was from Fez, Yahya was provided with a missionary, Abd Allah ibn Yasin, a zealous partisan of the Malikis, one of the four Madhhab; orthodox legal schools of Islam.

His preaching was before-long rejected by the Lamtunas; so on the advice of Yahya, who accompanied him, he retired to the Western Sahara, where he founded a ribat, or Islamic monastery, from which as a centre his influence spread. There was no element of heresy in his creed, which was mainly distinguished by a strict obedience to the letter of the Qur'an, and the orthodox tradition or Sunnah.

Ascendence of Militarism

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; even on the chiefs. 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; and was supported by camelmen and horsemen on the flanks.

Military Successes

From the year 1053, the Almoravids began to impose their orthodox and puritanical religion on the Berber tribes of the desert, and on the pagan black Africans. 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 from Morocco at the northern end in 1054, and Aoudaghost from the Ghana Empire 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 Berber people 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, who had the reputation of being a sorceress. 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; so he had to go back to the Sahara, where-in 1087,having been wounded with a poisoned arrow, he died fighting the pagan black Africans.

Morocco and Western Sahara

Yusuf ibn Tashfin had in the meantime brought what is now known as Morocco and the Western Sahara into complete subjection; and in 1062, had 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

In 1075, the Almoravids declared "jihad" on the Ghana Empire. 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 Almoravides.

Spain

In 1086 Yusuf ibn Tashfin was invited by the Muslim princes in Spain to defend them against Alfonso VI, King of Castile and León. In that year, Yusuf ibn Tashfin passed the straits to Algeciras, inflicted a severe defeat on the Christians at the az-Zallaqah. He was prevented from following up his victory by trouble in Africa, which he had to settle in person.

When he returned to Spain in 1090, it was avowedly for the purpose of deposing the Muslim princes, and annexing their states. He had in his favour the mass of the inhabitants, whom had been worn out by the oppressive taxation imposed by their spend-thrift rulers. Their religious teachers, as well as others in the east, (most notably, al-Ghazali in Persia and al-Tartushi in Egypt, who was himself a Spaniard by birth, from Tortosa), detested the native Muslim princes for their religious indifference, and gave Yusuf a fatwa -- or legal opinion -- to the effect that he had good moral and religious right, to dethrone the heterodox rulers, who did not scruple to seek help from the Christians, whose habits they had adopted. By 1094, he had removed them all, except for the one at Zaragoza; and though he regained little from the Christians except Valencia, he re-united the Muslim power, and gave a check to the reconquest of the country by the Christians.

The Prince of the Muslims

After friendly correspondence with the caliph at Baghdad, whom he acknowledged as Amir al-Mu'minin (Prince of the Faithful), Yusuf ibn Tashfin in 1097 assumed the title of Amir al Muslimin (Prince 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, and the Moorish empire then included all North-West Africa as far as Algiers, and all of Iberia south of the Tagus, with the east coast as far as the mouth of the Ebro, and included the Balearic Islands.

Decline

Three years afterwards, under Yusef's son and successor, Ali ibn Yusuf, Sintra and Santarém were added, and Spain was again invaded in 1119 and 1121, but the tide had turned; the French having assisted the Aragonese to recover Zaragoza. In 1138, Ali ibn Yusuf was defeated by Alfonso VII of Castile and León, and in the Battle of Ourique (1139), by Afonso I of Portugal, who thereby won his crown; and Lisbon was recovered by the Portuguese in 1147.

Ali ibn Yusuf was a pious non-entity, who fasted and prayed while his empire fell to pieces under the combined action of his Christian foes in Spain and the agitation of Almohades (the Muwahhids) in Morocco. After Ali ibn Yusuf's death in 1142, his son Tashfin ibn Ali lost ground rapidly before the Almohades, and in 1146 he was killed by a fall from a precipice, while endeavouring to escape after a defeat near Oran.

His two successors Ibrahim ibn Tashfin and Is'haq ibn Ali are mere names. The conquest of the city of Marrakesh by the Almohades in 1147 marked the fall of the dynasty, though fragments of the Almoravids (the Banu Ghanya), continued to struggle in the Balearic Islands, and finally in Tunisia.

Interestingly, family names such as Morabito, Murabito and Mirabito are common in western Sicily, the Aeolian Islands and southern Calabria in Italy. These names may have appeared in this region as early as the 11th century, when Robert Guiscard and the Normans defeated the Saracens (Muslims) in Sicily. In addition to southern Italy, there are also sizable populations of Mourabit (also spelled Murabit) in modern-day Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania.

The amirs of the Almoravid dynasty were as follows:

Yusuf ibn Tashfin (1061-1106)
Ali ibn Yusuf (1106-1142)
Tashfin ibn Ali (1142-1146)
Ibrahim ibn Tashfin (1146)
Ishaq ibn Ali (1146-1147)

External links

Almoravids Dynasty Berber dynasty

References

General History of Africa, Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, Ed. M. Elfasi, Ch. 13 I.Hrbek and J.Devisse, The Almoravids (pp. 336-366), Unesco, 1988

Almoravides

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