THe Almohads

The dynasty originated with Ibn Tumart, a member of the Masmuda, an Amazigh tribe of the Atlas Mountains. Ibn Tumart was the son of a lamplighter in a mosque and had been noted for his piety from his youth; he was small, ugly, and misshapen and lived the life of a devotee-beggar.

As a youth he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca (or "Makkah"), whence he was expelled on account of his severe strictures on the laxity of others, and thence wandered to Bagdad, where he attached himself to the school of the orthodox doctor al-Ash'ari. But he made a system of his own by combining the teaching of his master with parts of the doctrines of others, and with mysticism imbibed from the great teacher Ghazali. His main principle was a rigid Unitarianism which denied the independent existence of the attributes of God, as being incompatible with his unity, and therefore a polytheistic idea. Ibn Tumart in fact represented a revolt against what he perceived as anthropomorphism in the Muslim orthodoxy, but he was a rigid predestinarian and a strict observer of the law.

Foundation of the Empire

After his return to Morocco at the age of twenty-eight, he began preaching and agitating, heading riotous attacks on wine-shops and on other manifestations of laxity. He even went so far as to assault the sister of the Almoravid emir `Ali III, in the streets of Fez, because she was going about unveiled after the manner of Amazigh women. `Ali, who was very deferential to any exhibition of piety, allowed him to escape unpunished. Ibn Tumart, who had been driven from several other towns for exhibitions of reforming zeal, now took refuge among his own people, the Masmuda, in the Atlas. It is highly probable that his influence would not have outlived him, if he had not found a lieutenant in Abd al-Mu'min al-Kumi, another Amazigh, from Algeria, who was undoubtedly a soldier and statesman of a high order.

When Ibn Tumart died in 1128 at the monastery or ribat which he had founded in the Atlas at Tinmal, after suffering a severe defeat in the Almoravids, Abd al-Mu'min kept his death secret for two years, till his own influence was established. He then came forward as the lieutenant of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart. Between 1130 and his death in 1163, 'Abd-el-Mumin not only rooted out the Almoravids, but extended his power over all northern Africa as far as Egypt, becoming emir of Marrakech in 1149. Muslim Spain followed the fate of Africa, and in 1170 the Almohads transferred their capital to Seville, a step followed by the founding of the great mosque, now superseded by the cathedral, the tower of which they erected in 1184 to mark the accession of Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur. From the time of Yusuf II, however, they governed their co-religionists in Spain and Central North Africa through lieutenants, their dominions outside Morocco being treated as provinces. When their amirs crossed the Straits it was to lead a jihad against the Christians and to return to their capital, Marrakech.

Time of Conquest

The Almohad princes had a longer and a more distinguished career than the Almoravids. Yusuf II or "Abu Ya'qub" (1163-1184), and Ya'qub I or "al-Mansur" (1184-1199), the successors of Abd al-Mumin, were both able men.

They were fanatical, and their tyranny drove numbers of their Jewish and Christian subjects to take refuge in the growing Christian states of Portugal, Castile and Aragon. But in the end they became less fanatical than the Almoravides, and Ya'qub al Mansur was a highly accomplished man, who wrote a good Arabic style and who protected the philosopher Averroes.

THE VICTORY OF ALARCOS

The Battle of Alarcos was a battle between an alliance of Almohads led by Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur and some Castilian cavalry led by Pedro Fernández de Castro versus King Alphonse VIII; also referred as In 1190 the Almohad caliph Abu Yusuf Yaqub forced an armistice on the Christian kings of Castile and Leon, after repulsing their attacks on Muslim possessions in Spain. At the expiration of the truce, and having received news that there was revolt in North Africa, King Alphonse VIII of Castile decided to attack the region of Sevilla. A strong host under the arch-bishop of Toledo (Martín López de Pisuerga) and which included the military Order of Calatrava, ravaged the province and took much booty. The governors of al-Andalus asked for help with such insistence, that Abu Yusuf decided to leave his North African capital, Marrakech, and led himself an expedition against the Christians.

On the first day of June, 1195, he landed at Tarifa, and crossing the Sevilla province the main Almohad army reached Córdoba on June 30, reinforced by the few troops raised by the local governors and by a Christian cavalry contingent under Pedro Fernández de Castro, who held a personal feud against his King. On July 4th Ya'qub moved out of Córdoba; his army crossed the pass of Muradal (Despeñaperros) and advanced through the plain of Salvatierra. A cavalry detachment of the Order of Calatrava, plus some knights from nearby castles, tried to gather news about the Almohad strength and its heading; they were surrounded by Muslim scouts and almost exterminated, but supplied enough information to seriously alarm the Castilian king. Alphonse hurriedly gathered his forces at Toledo and marched down to Alarcos (al-Arak, in Arabic), near the Guadiana river, a place which marked the Southern limit of his kingdom and where a fortress was under construction. He was determined to bar the enemy access to the rich Tajo valley, and in his haste he did not wait for the reinforcements the kings Alphonse IX of León and Sancho of Navarra were sending. When on July 16th the great Almohad host came in view, Alphonse found himself clearly outnumbered, but even so he rashly formed his army next day, offering battle, instead of retreating towards Talavera, which the Leonese troops had already reached, and which was but a few marching days away. Abu Yusuf did not accept battle on this day, preferring to give rest to his forces; but early next day, Wednesday July 18th, the Almohad army formed for battle around a small hill called La Cabeza, two bow-shots from Alarcos.

The caliph gave to his vizir, Abu Yahya ibn Abi Hafs, command of a very strong vanguard: on the first line the Benimerin volunteers under Abu Jalil Mahyu ibn Abi Bakr, with a big body of archers and the Zanata cabiles; behind them, in the hill itself, the vizir with the caliphal banner and his personal guard, from the Hintata cabile; to the left the Arab host under Yarmun ibn Riyah; and to the right, the al-Andalus forces under the popular caid ibn Sanadid. The caliph himself held command of the rearguard, which comprised the best Almohad forces (those commanded by Yabir ibn Yusuf, Abd al-Qawi, Tayliyun, Muhammad ibn Munqafad and Abu Jazir Yajluf al-Awrabi) and the strong guard of black slaves. It was a formidable army, whose strength Alphonse had badly underestimated. The Castilian king put most of his heavy cavalry in a compact body, about 8,000 strong, and gave its command to the fierce Diego López de Haro, Lord of Vizcaya. They were to shatter the enemy with an irresistible charge; the king himself would follow with the infantry and the Military Orders, and complete the enemy rout. The Christian cavalry charge is somewhat disordered, but its impetus is formidable. The knights crash against the Zanatas and Benimerin and disperse them; lured by the caliphal standard, they charge uphill: vizir Abu Yahya is killed, and the Hintatas fall almost to a man trying to protect him. Most of the knights turn to their left and after a fierce struggle they rout the al-Andalus forces of ibn Sanadid. Three hours have passed; it's past noon, and the intense heat, the fatigue and the missiles which keep falling on them are taking their toll on the armoured knights. The Arab right under Yarmun has been enveloping the Castilian flank and rear; the best Almohad forces now attack, the sultan himself clearly visible on the front ranks; the knights are almost surrounded. Alphonse advances with all his remaining forces into the melee, only to find himself assaulted from all sides and under a rain of arrows. For some time he fights hand-to-hand, until taken out from the action, almost by force, by his bodyguard; they flee towards Toledo. The Castilian infantry is destroyed, together with most of the Orders which support them; the Lord of Vizcaya tries to force his way through the ring of enemy forces, but finally has to seek refuge in the unfinished fortress of Alarcos with just a fraction of his knights. The castle is surrounded; there are some 3,000 people inside, half of them women and children. The king's enemy, Pedro Fernández de Castro, who has taken little part in the action, is sent by the caliph to negotiate the surrender; López de Haro and the survivors are allowed to go, leaving 12 knights as hostages for the payment of a big ransom. The Castilian field army has been destroyed. Those killed include three bishops (from Avila, Segovia and Siguenza); count Ordoño García de Roda and his brothers; counts Pedro Ruiz de Guzmán and Rodrigo Sánchez; the Maesters of the Order of Santiago, Sancho Fernández de Lemus, and of the Portuguese Order of Évora, Gonçalo Viegas. Losses have been high also for the Muslims; not just the vizir is dead, but Abi Bakr, commander of the Benimerin volunteers, will die of his wounds the next year.

The outcome of the battle threatened the stability of the Kingdom of Castile for some time. All nearby castles surrendered or were abandoned: Malagón, Benavente, Calatrava, Caracuel and Torre de Guadalferza, and the way to Toledo was wide open. Fortunately for the Christians, however, Abu Yusuf moved back to Sevilla to make good his own considerable losses; there he took the title of al-Mansur Billah ('Made victorious by God'). For the next two years, al-Mansur's forces devastated Extremadura, the Tagus valley, La Mancha and even the area around Toledo; they moved in turn against Montánchez, Trujillo, Plasencia, Talavera, Escalona and Maqueda. Some of these expeditions were led by the 'renegade' Pedro Fernández de Castro. Worse still, Almohad diplomacy obtained an alliance with king Alphonse IX of León (who had been enraged when the Castilian king had not waited for him before the battle of Alarcos) and the neutrality of Navarra. But the caliph was losing interest in the affairs of the Iberian Peninsula; he was feeling ill, his objective of saving al-Andalus was a complete success, and on 1198 he returned to Africa. He died on February 1199,

The fall of the Dynasty

LAS NAVAS DE TOLOSA

But the Christian states in Spain were becoming too well organized to be overrun by the Muslims, and the Almohads made no permanent advance against them. In 1212 Muhammad III, "al-Nasir" (1199-1214), the successor of al-Mansur, was utterly defeated by the allied five Christian princes of Spain, Navarre and Portugal, at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in the Sierra Morena. The Battle occured the July 16, 1212 this defeat was considered a major turning point in the history of Medieval Iberia. The forces of King Alphonse VIII of Castile were joined by the armies of his Christian rivals, Sancho VII of Navarre, Afonso II of Portugal and Peter II of Aragon in battle against the Almohad rulers of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. The sultan Caliph al-Nasir (Miramamolín in the Spanish chronicles) led the Almohad army, made up of people from the whole Almohad empire. Most of the men in the Almohad army came from the African side of the empire, which included Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal, Morocco, Mauritania and the southern part of the Iberian peninsula right below Las Navas de Tolosa line. In 1195, Alphonse VIII of Castile had been defeated by the Almohads in the so-called Disaster of Alarcos. After this victory the Almohads had taken important cities as Trujillo, Plasencia, Talavera, Cuenca and Uclés.

Then, in 1211, Muhammad al-Nasir had crossed the Strait of Gibraltar with a powerful war machine, and invaded the Christian territory and captured the stronghold of the Calatrava Knights in Salvatierra. After this, the threat was so great for the Iberian Christian kingdoms that the Pope Innocent III called European knights to a crusade. After some disagreements among the members of the Christian coalition, Alphonse managed to cross the mountain range that defended the Almohad camp, sneaking through the Despeñaperros Pass, so that the Christian coalition caught by surprise and smashed the Moorish army that left some 100,000 casualties at the battleground.

The battle was a bloody and decisive encounter. The Caliph Muhammad al-Nasir himself died shortly after the battle in Marrakesh, where he had fled after the defeat. The culmination of the battle took place when Sancho VII of Navarre himself broke into the Caliph's fortified camp, broke up the defensive ring and disbanded al-Nasir's personal bodyguard; nonetheless Muhammad al-Nasir managed to escape.

After that, the Christian army engaged in the annihilation of the Muslim troops, so that very few of them could escape the killing. Despite legends that Christian casualties were very few, in fact they were some 2,000 men, and particularly heavy among the Orders. Those killed included Pedro Gomez de Acevedo (bannerman of the Orden de Calatrava), Alphonse Fernandez de Valladares (comendator of the Orden de Santiago), Pedro Arias (master of the Orden de Santiago, died of wounds on 3 August) and Gomez Ramirez (master of the Orden del Temple). Ruy Diaz (master of the Orden de Calatrava) was so grievously wounded that he had to resign his command. The new blazon of Navarre. Enlarge The new blazon of Navarre. According to legend, the emir had his tent surrounded with chained slaves as a defence. The Navarrese however cut the chains and broke into the tent. As a memorial, the kingdom of Navarre changed its coat of arms with one depicting a golden chain on a gules field with an emerald.

The crushing defeat of the Almohads significantly hastened their decline both in the Iberian Peninsula and in the Maghreb a decade later, this would give further momentum to the Christian Reconquest begun by the kingdoms of northern Iberia centuries before, resulting in a sharp reduction in the already declining power of the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. Shortly after the battle, the Castilians retook Baeza and, then, Úbeda, major fortified cities near the battlefield, and gateways to invade Andalucia. Thereafter, Ferdinand III of Castile retook Córdoba in 1236, Jaén in 1246, and Seville in 1248; then he took Arcos, Medina-Sidonia, Jerez and Cádiz. After this chain of victories, only Ferdinand's death prevented the Castilians from crossing the Gibraltar Strait to take the war to the heartland of the Almohad empire. Ferdinand III died in Seville on May 30, 1252, when a plague spread over the southern part of the Iberian peninsula while he was preparing his army and fleet to cross the Gibraltar Strait. On the Mediterranean coast, James I, Count of Barcelona and King of Aragon, proceeded to conquer the Balearic Islands (from 1228 over the following four years) and Valencia (the city capitulated September 28, 1238), which allowed Barcelona to become one of three great Mediterranean cities of the 13th century (along with Genoa and Venice), with an empire that extended through the Western Mediterranean (from the Balearic islands to Sardinia and Sicily).

Returning to the Almohad caliph, soon after the Al-nasir death in 1213, Yusuf II (Yusuf al-Mustansir ) (1197 - 1224) was Caliph of Morocco from 1213 until his death. Yusuf II assumed the throne following his father's death, at the age of only 16 years. Yusuf followed his father in leaving Ifriqiya in the hands of governor Abû Muhammad ben Abî Hafs, further contributing to its eventual breakaway under the Hafsid dynasty. Yusuf was soon challenged for the control of the Maghreb as well as Morocco itself by the growing power of the Marinid dynasty. The sheikhs of Marrakesh attempted to invoke a clause allowing the selection of a new caliph, further contributing to the political instability. Yusuf was succeeded by Abdul-Wahid I following his death in 1224. Abu Muhammad Abdul-Wahid was Caliph for less than a year in 1224. Soon after succeeding his father, the Almohad Caliph Yusuf II, to the throne, Abdullah was strangled. Abdullah was selected as Caliph following the 1223 strangulation of the previous Almohad caliph, Abdul-Wahid I.

Abdullah's vizier was Abû Zayd Abî Muhammad ben Abî Hafs, who had previously served his father, Muhammad an-Nasir, and his brother,Yusuf II, as governor of Ifriqiya. During Abdullah's reign, there were two pretenders to the Moroccan throne: his brother Abu al-Ala Idris al-Mamun, supported by Ferdinand III of Castile, and another brother, Yahyâ al-Mu`tasim, supported by the sheikhs of Marrakesh. In 1227, Abdullah was drowned in a palace bathtub and was succeeded by his son Yahya.

The fanaticism of the Almohads did not prevent them from encouraging the establishment of Christians even in Fez, and after the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa they occasionally entered into alliances with the kings of Castile. In Africa they were successful in expelling the garrisons placed in some of the coast towns by the Norman kings of Sicily. The history of their decline differs from that of the Almoravides, whom they had displaced. They were not assailed by a great religious movement, but destroyed piecemeal by the revolt of tribes and districts. Their most effective enemies were the Beni Marin (Marinids) who founded the next Moroccan dynasty, the sixth. The last representative of the line, Idris II, "El Wathiq"' was reduced to the possession of Marrakesh, where he was murdered by a slave in 1269.