Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Richard Fletcher, Moorish Spain

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992); Abd 

al-Wahid al-Marrakushi, History of the Almohades, ed. 

R. Dozy (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1881); Roger Le Tourneau, 

The Almohad Movement in North Africa in the Twelfth and 

Thirteenth Century (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer-

sity Press, 1969).

Almoravid dynasty

 

(1042–1147)

A  b

erber

 dynasty that arose from the deserts of 

southern Mauritania, the Almoravids conquered 

m

orocco

 and Islamicate Spain during the sec-

ond half of the 11th century. The founder of the 

Almoravid movement, a teacher of Maliki law 

named Abd Allah ibn Yasin (d. 1058), was origi-

nally brought to the desert by a Berber chief, who 

was eager for his people to receive proper Islamic 

instruction. Imposing harsh religious discipline 

upon the tribesmen, Ibn Yasin developed a core 

group of followers, whom he later sent to conquer 

the surrounding lands and enforce his rigorous 

interpretation of Islam. Although Ibn Yasin was 

killed in battle in 1058, his successors, Abu Bakr 

ibn Umar (d. 1087) and Yusuf ibn Tashfin (d. 1106) 

extended Almoravid rule southward into Ghana 

and northward throughout Morocco and into Isl-

amicate Spain. After establishing their new capitol 

of Marrakesh in southern Morocco, Almoravid 

armies first crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in 1086 

to support Muslim princes under siege from the 

Christian reconquest (Spanish: Reconquista). By 

the death of Ibn Tashfin in 1106, the Almoravids 

were supreme rulers over Islamicate Spain.

Ironically, historians since i

bn

  k

haldUn

 (d. 

1406) have speculated that the conquest of Spain 

was actually the first step in the Almoravid 

downfall. They argue that when the Almoravids 

encountered the cultured lifestyle of a

ndalUsia

,

they eventually abandoned the disciplined ways 

that had led to their success. Regardless, the 

Almoravid military bogged down in Spain, and 

their administrators encountered resistance from 

the population, who resented domination by what 

they thought were uncouth desert tribesmen. By 

the 1140s, much of Andalusia was in open revolt, 

while the Almohad movement was waging a suc-

cessful war against the Almoravids in Morocco. 

The Almohad victory was complete upon the 

death of the last Almoravid 

sUltan

 in 1147, and 

the Almoravid dynasty came to an end as sud-

denly as it had burst upon the political scene less 

than 100 years earlier. However, the lasting influ-

ence of the Almoravids is seen in the continued 

dominance of the m

aliki

  l

egal

  s

chool

, which 

they helped to establish in North Africa.

See also a

lmohad

 

dynasty

; W

est

 a

Frica

.

Stephen Cory