Almoravids
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Map showing the extent of the Almoravid empire |
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 exact meaning of "Murabit" is still a matter of controversy. The name may or may not be derived from the Arabic
ribat, or fortress, a term with which it shares the root r-b-t. The Quranic meaning of that root 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.
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.
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.
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.
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, West Algeria 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 war on the
Ghana Empire. According to Arab tradition, 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 and others founded the empire of
Mali Empire. Other interpretations are that the Almoravid influence was gradual and did not involve any form of military takeover, as Almoravids increased in power by marrying among the nation's nobility.
Spain
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Map of Iberia at the time of the Almoravid arrival |
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 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.
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)
*
History of Morocco*
History of Islam*
History of Spain*
History of Portugal*
Almoravids Dynasty Berber dynasty
*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
