- Arabic:
- al-Murābiṭūn (“those dwelling in frontier garrisons”)
- Date:
- c. 1054 - c. 1147
- Areas Of Involvement:
- Islam
- imperialism
- Related People:
- Yūsuf ibn Tāshufīn
Almoravids
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Who were the Almoravids?
The Almoravids were a confederation of Berber tribes from the Ṣanhājah clan, including the Lamtūnah, Gudālah, and Massūfah, who established an empire across northwestern Africa and Muslim Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Inspired by their leader Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm and theologian ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yāsīn, these Saharan Berbers combined religious zeal with military campaigns, conquering Morocco and western Algeria from 1054 to 1092, and establishing their capital at Marrakech in 1062.
Under Yūsuf ibn Tāshufīn, they expanded into Spain in 1085 to defend the old caliphal territories of Córdoba from the Christians. Although a Berber minority, the Almoravids struggled to hold Spain against the Christian reconquest, and were eventually overthrown by the Almohads.
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Where did the Almoravids originally come from?
The Almoravids were a confederation of Berber tribes—specifically the Lamtuna, Gudala, and Massufa—belonging to the Sanhaja clan. Originating from the Sahara, these Saharan Berbers were inspired by their leader, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, and the theologian Abd Allah ibn Yasin, to deepen their understanding of Islamic doctrine.
Around 1035, a militant Islamic movement began among the Sanhaja tribes in Mauretania, led by Abd Allah ibn Yasin, a Sanhaja religious scholar from southern Morocco. Religious reform helped unify the Sanhaja tribes when their control of trans-Saharan trade was threatened by the Soninke state of Ghana and the infiltration of Zanata Berbers into southern Morocco.
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What is a Berber confederation?
The Almoravids were a confederation of Berber tribes from the 11th and 12th centuries, including the Lamtuna, Gudala, and Massufa, who belonged to the Sanhaja clan. Berber is a term referring to the descendants of North Africa's pre-Arab inhabitants. The Almoravids combined religious zeal with military enterprise to build an empire in northwestern Africa and Muslim Spain.
The Barghawata was another Berber tribal confederation that created a religio-political state in Morocco between the 8th and 12th centuries.
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How did the Almoravids rise to power in North Africa?
The Almoravids, a confederation of Berber tribes, rose to power in North Africa in the 11th and 12th centuries through religious zeal and military enterprise anchor text. Inspired by their leader Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm and the theologian ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yāsīn, they merged religious reform with the conquest of Morocco and western Algeria, establishing their capital at Marrakech in 1062 anchor text.
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What role did religion play in the Almoravid Empire?
The Almoravid Empire, formed by Berber tribes in the 11th and 12th centuries, had religious zeal as a central tenet. The Almoravids were inspired to deepen their understanding of Islamic doctrine by their leader Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm and theologian ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yāsīn, merging religious reform with their conquests.
As strict adherents of the Mālikī school of law, the Almoravids saw Islamic law as legitimizing their tribal authority. Experts on Islamic law advised rulers and supervised provincial governors, reinforcing the state's backing of their narrow legalism. The Almoravid response to mystical tendencies and new religious ideas from Muslim Spain and the Arab east was to fight them, fearing they might undermine their authority.
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How did the Almoravid rule influence Spain and West Africa?
The Almoravid dynasty, a Berber confederation, significantly impacted both Spain and West Africa in the 11th and 12th centuries.
In Spain, the Almoravids, led by Yūsuf ibn Tāshufīn, intervened to halt the Christian reconquest, defeating Castile's army in 1086. By 1090, they began deposing local rulers, integrating most of Muslim Spain into their empire. The Almoravids introduced administrative practices and artistic styles, with writers and artists moving across the Strait of Gibraltar, and architecture adopting Andalusian motifs.
In West Africa, the Almoravids' religious zeal and military enterprise led to the conquest of Morocco and western Algeria, establishing Marrakech as their capital in 1062.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Almoravids, confederation of Berber tribes—Lamtūnah, Gudālah, Massūfah—of the Ṣanhājah clan, whose religious zeal and military enterprise built an empire in northwestern Africa and Muslim Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries. These Saharan Berbers were inspired to improve their knowledge of Islamic doctrine by their leader Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm and the Moroccan theologian ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yasīn. Under Abū Bakr al-Lamtūnī and later Yūsuf ibn Tāshufīn, the Almoravids merged their religious reform fervour with the conquest of Morocco and western Algeria as far as Algiers between 1054 and 1092. They established their capital at Marrakech in 1062. Yūsuf assumed the title of amīr al-muslimīn (“commander of the Muslims”) but still paid homage to the ʿAbbāsid caliph (amīr al-muʾminīn, “commander of the faithful”) in Baghdad. He moved into Spain in 1085, as the old caliphal territories of Córdoba were falling before the Christians and Toledo was being taken by Alfonso VI of Castile and Leon. At the Battle of Al-Zallāqah, near Badajoz, in 1086 Yūsuf halted an advance by the Castilians but did not regain Toledo.
The whole of Muslim Spain, however, except Valencia, independent under El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar), eventually came under Almoravid rule. In the reign (1106–42) of ʿAli ibn Yūsuf the union between Spain and Africa was consolidated, and Andalusian civilization took root: administrative machinery was Spanish in pattern, writers and artists crossed the straits, and the great monuments built by ʿAlī in the Maghrib were models of pure Andalusian art. But the Almoravids were but a Berber minority at the head of the Spanish-Arab empire, and, while they tried to hold Spain with Berber troops and the Maghrib with a strong Christian guard, they could not restrain the tide of Christian reconquest that began with the fall of Saragossa in 1118. In 1125 the Almohads began a rebellion in the Atlas Mountains and after 22 years of fighting emerged victorious. Marrakech fell in 1147, and thereafter Almoravid leaders survived only for a time in Spain and the Balearic Isles.
Art of the Almoravid period is most noted for its sobriety and puritanism after the ornamental excesses of the Umayyads. It was only in the minor, decorative arts of weaving and ivory carving that the Almoravids used ornamentation as an end in itself. Desert dwellers, military ascetics from the Sahara, the Almoravids shunned the lavish decoration that had characterized the late Umayyad architectural style and built on a practical rather than a monumental scale. Even in the secular sphere, piety and asceticism forbade the building of splendid palaces and monuments. The main architectural motif of the period was the horseshoe arch, which in later times was elaborated and used extensively by the Almohads and the Naṣrids. Minarets, usually placed at the corner of the miḥrāb (prayer niche facing Mecca), were square and only sparsely decorated. The most famous work to survive from the Almoravid age is the Great Mosque at Tlemcen, Algeria. Built in 1082, it was restored in 1136 but not in true Almoravid style. The miḥrāb is unusually ornate, surrounded by multilobed arches decorated with arabesques. The work is indicative of trends that were to develop in Spain and North Africa under the Almoravids’ successors, the Almohads and the Naṣrids.
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