Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman: Jin-

nah, the Muslim League, and the Demand for Pakistan

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); Ian 

Talbot,  Provincial Politics and the Pakistan Movement: 

The Growth of the Muslim League in Northwest and 

Northeast India 1937–47 (Karachi: Oxford University 

Press, 1988).

Almohad dynasty

 

(1123–1269)

A movement founded in southern m

orocco

 by 

religious reformer and self-proclaimed 

mahdi

(messianic figure) m

Uhammad

 i

bn

 t

Umart

 (1078?–

1130), the Almohads managed to unite North 

Africa and Islamicate Spain under their authority 

during the late 12th and early 13th centuries. 

Their name derives from the Arabic al-muwahh-

idun, “those who proclaim the God’s oneness.”

Upon returning to his native Morocco in 

1121 after an extended trip in the Islamicate east, 

Ibn Tumart recruited followers from among the 

Masmuda Berbers of the Anti-Atlas Mountains 

in the region near Marrakesh. Teaching a rigor-

ous doctrine centered on the concept of God’s 

oneness (

tawhid

), Ibn Tumart and his disciple 

Abd al-Mumin (d. 1163) organized the Berbers 

into an effective fighting force. Abd al-Mumin 

succeeded Ibn Tumart as caliph upon the latter’s 

death in 1130 and led an extended conquest of 

North Africa and Islamicate Spain, taking Mar-

rakesh (1147), Seville (1147), t

Unisia

 (1160), 

and Tripolitania (1160). Upon securing Almohad 

power in North Africa, Abd al-Mumin established 

his family members as heads of state, bequeathing 

the caliphate to his sons and grandsons.

Under the first four caliphs, the Almohad 

empire reached the height of its military, politi-

cal, and cultural influence. Although they initially 

experienced success in turning back the Christian 

reconquest (Spanish: Reconquista) in a

ndalUsia

,

the Almohad army later suffered a disastrous defeat 

at Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) that left southern 

Spain open for further Christian advances. The 

Almohad political-religious system, administered 

by a b

erber

 elite, was initially quite cohesive, but 

the Almohads failed to establish Ibn Tumart’s doc-

trine as a replacement for Maliki Islam, and they 

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