the Atlas Mountains, whence in the eleventh century they moved
southwest to Oued Mzab. Maintaining their cohesion and beliefs
over the centuries, Ibadi religious leaders have dominated public
life in the region to this day.
For many years, the Fatimids posed a threat to Morocco, but
their deepest ambition was to rule the East, the Mashriq, which
included Egypt and Muslim lands beyond. By 969 they had
conquered Egypt. In 972 the Fatimid ruler Al Muizz established
the new city of Cairo as his capital. The Fatimids left the rule
of Ifriqiya and most of Algeria to the Zirids (972-1148). This
Berber dynasty, which had founded the towns of Miliana, Medea,
and Algiers and centered significant local power in Algeria for
the first time, turned over its domain west of Ifriqiya to the
Banu Hammad branch of its family. The Hammadids ruled from 1011
to 1151, during which time Bejaia became the most important port
in the Maghrib.
This period was marked by constant conflict, political
instability, and economic decline. The Hammadids, by rejecting
the Ismaili doctrine for Sunni orthodoxy and renouncing
submission to the Fatimids, initiated chronic conflict with the
Zirids. Two great Berber confederations- the Sanhaja and the
Zenata- engaged in an epic struggle. The fiercely brave, camel-
borne nomads of the western desert and steppe as well as the
sedentary farmers of the Kabylie region to the east swore
allegiance to the Sanhaja. Their traditional enemies, the
Zenata, were tough, resourceful horsemen from the cold plateau of
the northern interior of Morocco and the western Tell in Algeria.
In addition, raiders from Genoa, pisa, and Norman Sicily
attacked ports and disrupted coastal trade. Trans-Saharan trade
shifted to Fatimid Egypt and to routes in the west leading to
Spanish markets. The countryside was being overtaxed by growing
cities.
Contributing to these political and economic dislocations
was a large incursion of Arab bediun from Egypt starting in the
first half of the eleventh century. Part of this movement was an
invasion by the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym tribes, apparently
sent by the Fatimids to weaken the Zirids. These Arab bediun
overcame the Zirids and Hammadids and in 1057 sacked Al Qayrawan.
They sent farmers fleeing from the fertile plains to the
mountains and left cities and towns in ruin. For the first time,
the extensive use of Arabic spread to the countryside. Sedentary
Berbers who sought protection from the Hilalians were gradually
arabized.
The Almoravid movement developed early in the eleventh
century among the Sanhaja of the western Sahara, whose control of
trans-Saharan trade routes was under pressure from the Zenata
Berbers in the north and the state of Ghana in the south. Yahya
ibn Ibrahim al Jaddali, a leader of the lamtuna tribe of the
Sanhaja confederation, decided to raise the level of Islamic
knowledge and practice among his people. To accomplish this, on
his return from the hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1048-49,
he brought with him Abd Allah ibn Yasin al Juzuli, a Moroccan
scholar. In the early years of the movement, the scholar was
concerned only with imposing moral discipline and a strict
adherence to Islamic principles among his followers. Abd Allah
ibn Yasin also became known as one of the marabouts, or holy
persons (from al murabitun, “those who have made a religious
retreat.” Almoravids is the Spanish transliteration of al
murabitun).
The Almoravid movement shifted from promoting religious
reform to engaging in military conquest after 1054 an was led by
Lamtuna leaders:first Yahya, then his brother Abu Bakr, and then
his cousin Yusuf ibn Tashfin. With Marrakech as their capital,
the Almoravids had conquered Morocco, the Maghrib as far east as
Algiers, and Spain up to the Ebro River by 1106. Under the
Almoravids, the Maghrib and Spain acknowledged the spiritual
authority of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, reuniting them
temporarily with the Islamic community in the Mashriq.
Although it was not an entirely peaceful time, North Africa
benefited economically and culturally during the Almoravid
period, which lasted until 1147. Muslim Spain (Andalus in
Arabic) was a great source of artistic and intellectual
inspiration. The most famous writers of Andalus worked in the
Almoravid court, and the builders of the Grand Mosque of
Tilimsan, completed in 1136, used as a model the Grand Mosque of
Cordoba.
Like the Almoravids, the Almohads found their initial
inspiration in Islamic reform. Their spiritual leader, the
Moroccan Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart, sought to reform
Almoravid decadence. Rejected in Marrakech and other cities, he
turned to his Masmuda tribe in the Atlas Mountains for support.
Because of their emphasis on the unity of God, his followers were
known as Al Muwahhidun (unitarians, or Almohads).
Although declaring himself mahdi, imam, and masum
(infallible leader sent by God), Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart
consulted with a council of ten of his oldest disciples.
Influenced by the Berber tradition of representative government,
he later added an assembly composed of fifty leaders from various
tribes. The Almohad rebellion began in 1125 with attacks on
Moroccan cities, including Sus and Marrakech.
Upon Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart’s death in 1130, his
successor Abd al Mumin took the title of caliph and placed
members of his own family in power, converting the system into a
traditional monarchy. The Almohads entered Spain at the
invitation of the Andalusian amirs, who had risen against the
Almoravids there. Abd al Mumin forced the submission of the
amirs and reestablished the caliphate of Cordoba, giving the
Almohad sultan supreme religious as well as political authority
within his domains. The Almohads took control of Morocco in
1146, captured Algiers around 1151, and by 1160 had completed the
conquest of the central Maghrib and advanced to Tripolitania.
Nonetheless, pockets of Almoravid resistance continued to hold
out in the Kabylie region for at least fifty years.
After Abd al Mumin’s death in 1163, his son Abu Yaqub Yusuf
(ruled 1163-1184) and grandson Yaqub al Mansur (ruled 1184-1199)
presided over the zenith of Almohad power. For the first time,
the Maghrib was united under a local regime, and although the
empire was troubled by conflict on its fringes, handcrafts and
agriculture flourished at its center and an efficient bureaucracy
filled the tax coffers. In 1229 the Almohad court renounced the
teachings of Muhammad ibn Tumart, opting instead for greater
tolerence and a return to the Maliki school of law. As evidence
of this change, the Almohads hosted two of the greatest thinkers
of Anadalus: Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushid (Averroes).
The Almohads shared the crusading instincts of their
Christian adversaries, but the continuing wars in Spain over-
taxed their resources. In the Maghrib, the Almohad position was
compromised by factional strife and was challenged by a renewal
of tribal warfare. The Bani Merin (Zenata Berbers) took
advantage of declining Almohad power to establish a tribal state
in Morocco, initiating nearly sixty years of warfare there that
concluded with their capture of Marrakech, the last Almohad
stronghold, in 1271. Despite repeated efforts to subjugate the
central Maghrib, however, the Merinids were never able to restore
the frontiers of the Almohad Empire.
From its capital at Tunis, the Hafsid Dynasty made good its
claim to be the legitimate successor of the Almohads in Ifriqiya,
while, in the central Maghrib, the Zayanids founded a dynasty at
Tlemcen. Based on a Zenata tribe, the Bani Abd el Wad, which had
been settled in the region by Abd al Mumin, the Zayanids also
emphasized their links with the Almohads.
For more than 300 years, until the region came under Ottoman
suzerainty in the sixteenth century, the Zayanids kept a tenuous
hold in the central Maghrib. The regime, which depended on the
administrative skills of Andalusians, was plagued by frequent
rebellions but learned to survive as the vassal of the Merinids
or Hafsids or later as an ally of Spain.
In conclusion, to the strong loyalties of the tribe, the
Berber added individualism, democratic participation in inter-
tribal affairs and fierce opposition to foreign invaders. Over
the centuries, many conquerors came to the Maghrib, but few
established durable empires, and few exercised a significant
cultural influence. In the religious sphere, the Berbers
continued to practice their animistic beliefs, while often
adopting religious heresies to oppose their Christian, Jewish or
Islamic overlords.
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