21 Facts About Almohads

Almohads continued to rule in Africa until the piecemeal loss of territory through the revolt of tribes and districts enabled the rise of their most effective enemies, the Marinids, from northern Morocco in 1215.

Almohads soon developed his own system, combining the doctrines of various masters.

Almohads laid the blame for the latitude on the ruling dynasty of the Almoravids, whom he accused of obscurantism and impiety.

Almohads opposed their sponsorship of the Maliki school of jurisprudence, which drew upon consensus and other sources beyond the Qur'an and Sunnah in their reasoning, an anathema to the stricter Zahirism favored by Ibn Tumart.

Almohads even went so far as to assault the sister of the Almoravid emir ?Ali ibn Yusuf, in the streets of Fez, because she was going about unveiled, after the manner of Berber women.

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Almohads retreated to a nearby cave, and lived out an ascetic lifestyle, coming out only to preach his program of puritan reform, attracting greater and greater crowds.

In early 1130, the Almohads finally descended from the mountains for their first sizeable attack in the lowlands.

The Almohads swept aside an Almoravid column that had come out to meet them before Aghmat, and then chased their remnant all the way to Marrakesh.

Almohads thus appointed his son as his successor and his other children as governors of the provinces of the Caliphate.

Between 1146 and 1173, the Almohads gradually wrested control from the Almoravids over the Moorish principalities in Iberia.

The Almohads transferred the capital of Muslim Iberia from Cordoba to Seville.

The Almohads passed through a period of effective regency for the young caliph, with power exercised by an oligarchy of elder family members, palace bureaucrats and leading nobles.

Almohads set up a rebel camp and forged an alliance with the hitherto quiet Ferdinand III of Castile.

Almohads worked to suppress the influence of Maliki fiqh—even publicly burning copies of Muwatta Imam Malik and Maliki commentaries.

In terms of Islamic theology, the Almohads were Ash'arites, their Zahirite-Ash'arism giving rise to a complicated blend of literalist jurisprudence and esoteric dogmatics.

Almohads initially eschewed the production of luxury textiles and silks, but eventually they too engaged in this production.

Almohads were prolific builders of fortifications and forts across their realm.

In Seville, the Almohads built the Torre del Oro, a defensive tower on the shores of the Guadalquivir River which dates from 1220 to 1221 and remains a landmark of the city today.

Almohads had taken control of the Almoravid Maghribi and Andalusian territories by 1147.

The Almohads rejected the mainstream Islamic doctrine that established the status of dhimmi, a Non-Muslim resident of a Muslim country who was allowed to practice his religion on condition of submission to Muslim rule and payment of jizya.

Almohads allowed Jews to practice their religion openly in Marrakesh and even allowed a Christian church there as part of his alliance with Castile.