Almoravid dynasty: A Visual History

The Almoravids were Sanhaja Berber nomads of the western Sahara welded into a puritanical movement by the scholar Ibn Yasin around 1040. Under Yusuf ibn Tashfin they conquered Morocco, founded Marrakesh in 1070, took Fez and Tlemcen, and crossed to Spain in 1086 to crush Alfonso VI of Castile at Zallaqa (Sagrajas), then annexed the Andalusian taifas. Ruling from the Senegal river to the Ebro, they controlled the trans-Saharan gold trade. Softened by Andalusian luxury and denounced by the Almohads, they lost Marrakesh in 1147.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Almoravid dynasty. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Almoravid territory

Timeline of the Almoravid dynasty

1. 1040
   Ibn Yasin's mission
2. 1054
   Sijilmasa and Awdaghust taken
3. 1070
   Marrakesh founded
4. 1086
   Zallaqa
5. 1090
   Taifas annexed
6. 1106
   Yusuf dies
7. 1118
   Zaragoza lost
8. 1147
   Marrakesh falls to the Almohads

The ribat

A Sanhaja chief returning from the hajj brought back the Maliki jurist Abdallah ibn Yasin, who imposed strict Islamic practice on the desert tribes; the movement's name, al-Murabitun, refers to those bound to a ribat (fortress-monastery). By 1054 they had taken the trading towns of Sijilmasa and Awdaghust at either end of the gold route, and later pressured the kingdom of Ghana.

Yusuf ibn Tashfin

Yusuf founded Marrakesh in 1070 as a base and by 1083 ruled Morocco and western Algeria. The Andalusian taifa kings, terrified after Alfonso VI took Toledo in 1085, invited him over; at Zallaqa in October 1086 he routed the Castilians. Deciding the taifa princes were sinful and useless, he deposed them one by one from 1090, exiling the poet-king al-Mutamid of Seville to Morocco. He ruled as 'Commander of the Muslims' under the Abbasid caliph.

Fall

Ali ibn Yusuf (1106-1143) held Spain against Aragon and Castile with mixed results, losing Zaragoza in 1118. The Almoravids' Maliki jurists burned al-Ghazali's works; the Almohad preacher Ibn Tumart denounced them as anthropomorphist heretics and their women as unveiled. Almohad armies wore them down from the 1120s and took Marrakesh in 1147, killing the last amir. A branch, the Banu Ghaniya, held the Balearics into the thirteenth century.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Almohad Caliphate (1121 to 1269)
• Caliphate of Cordoba (929 to 1031)
• Mali Empire (1226 to 1670)
• Fatimid Caliphate (909 to 1171)
• Kingdom of France (Middle Ages) (987 to 1498)
• Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258)

Wars of the same era and region

• Reconquista (718 to 1492)
• Crusades (1096 to 1291)

8 surprising things about the Almoravid dynasty

1. Almoravid men wore the veil (litham) and their women went unveiled, the reverse of the usual pattern, which scandalised other Muslims.
2. The Almoravids' gold dinars, struck from West African gold, were the most trusted coins in the Mediterranean and were imitated by Christian kings.
3. The Andalusian poet-king al-Mutamid, deposed by Yusuf, died in exile in Morocco writing verse about his chains.
4. El Cid fought against and sometimes for the Almoravids' enemies and held Valencia against them until his death in 1099.
5. The Almoravids are traditionally blamed for the fall of ancient Ghana around 1076, though this is now doubted.
6. Marrakesh gave its name to Morocco.
7. The Kutubiyya mosque site in Marrakesh had an Almoravid mosque demolished by the Almohads for being wrongly oriented.
8. The 'Almoravid' name survives in the Spanish word for the Moroccan coin, maravedi.

Sources

• Almoravids Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Almoravid dynasty Wikipedia
• Almoravid Dynasty World History Encyclopedia
• Amira K. Bennison, The Almoravid and Almohad Empires (2016) Edinburgh University Press

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