The Almoravids were the first native Amazigh (Berber) dynasty of North Africa, gaining control of an empire in the 11th century that stretched from Andalusian Spain to parts of sub-Saharan Africa into the 12th century. Its expansive ruler Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn (Tāshufīn) established the city of Marrakech, now the chief city of central Morocco. Their empire saw an intense cultural and intellectual exchange between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula that influenced art and science, including some of the signature cultural expressions of the region such as the horseshoe arch in architecture.
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