Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf

…virtually intact until the caliph Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf (reigned 1163–84) forced the surrender of Sevilla (Seville) in 1172; the extension of Almohad rule over the rest of Islamic Spain followed. During the reign of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr (1184–99) serious Arab rebellions devastated the eastern provinces of the empire, whereas…

…court of the Almohad caliph Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf (1163–84). These diverse developments meant that Almohad doctrine could not unite even the ruling class, whose coherence was undermined further when ʿAbd al-Muʾmin appointed his son as heir apparent in 1154, thus making his family, which did not belong to the Maṣmūdah…

When his father, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, died on July 29, 1184, Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb succeeded to the throne with minor difficulties. In November factious tribes in Algeria captured Algiers and other towns, but by 1188 he had pacified his African territories and returned to his Spanish possessions to…

Two great sovereigns, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf (1163–84) and Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr (1184–99), raised western Islam to the zenith of its power. Benefiting from the quarrels that divided the Christians, al-Manṣūr defeated the king of Castile, Alfonso VIII, in 1195 at the Battle of Alarcos (Al-Arak); despite this…