24 Facts About Almoravids

Almoravids were crucial in preventing the fall of Al-Andalus to the Iberian Christian kingdoms, when they decisively defeated a coalition of the Castilian and Aragonese armies at the Battle of Sagrajas in 1086.

Almoravids's name can be read as "son of Ya-Sin", suggesting he had obliterated his family past and was "re-born" of the Holy Book.

Almoravids responded to questioning with charges of apostasy and handed out harsh punishments for the slightest deviations.

Almoravids believed it was not enough to urge his audiences to put aside their blood loyalties and ethnic differences, and embrace the equality of all Muslims under the Sacred Law, it was necessary to make them do so.

From 1053, the Almoravids began to Islamize the Berber areas of the Sahara and the regions south of the desert.

Related searches

Under him, the Almoravids soon began to spread their power beyond the desert, and conquered the tribes of the Atlas Mountains.

Almoravids spent at least several years capturing each fort and settlement in the region around Fez and in northern Morocco.

Almoravids subsequently clashed with the Hammadids to the east multiple times, but they did not make a sustained effort to conquer the central Maghrib and instead focused their efforts on other fronts.

Traditional position says that the ensuing war with the Almoravids pushed Ghana over the edge, ending the kingdom's position as a commercial and military power by 1100.

Arab geographer Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri wrote that the Almoravids ended Ibadi Islam in Tadmekka in 1084 and that Abu Bakr "arrived at the mountain of gold" in the deep south.

Almoravids was prevented from following up his victory by trouble in Africa, which he chose to settle in person.

Almoravids returned to Iberia in 1090, avowedly for the purpose of annexing the taifa principalities of Iberia.

Almoravids was supported by most of the Iberian people, who were discontented with the heavy taxation imposed upon them by their spendthrift rulers.

The Almoravids were victorious at the Battle of Consuegra, during which the son of El Cid, Diego Rodriguez, perished.

Almoravids died in 1106, when he was reputed to have reached the age of 100.

In 1134, at the Battle of Fraga, the Almoravids were victorious and even succeeded in slaying Alfonso the Battler in the battle.

Almoravids was defeated by the combined action of his Christian foes in Iberia and the agitation of the Almohads in Morocco.

Also in 1155, the remaining Almoravids were forced to retreat to the Balearic Islands and later Ifriqiya under the leadership of the Banu Ghaniya, who were eventually influential in the downfall of their conquerors, the Almohads, in the Eastern part of the Maghreb.

At first, the Almoravids, subscribing to the conservative Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, rejected what they perceived as decadence and a lack of piety among the Iberian Muslims of the Andalusi taifa kingdoms.

Artistic production under the Almoravids included finely constructed minbars produced in Cordoba; marble basins and tombstones in Almeria; fine textiles in Almeria, Malaga, Seville; and luxury ceramics.

Two centers of artistic production in the Islamic west before the rise of the Almoravids were Kairouan and Cordoba, both former capitals in the region which served as sources of inspiration.

The Almoravids were responsible for establishing a new imperial capital at Marrakesh, which became a major center of architectural patronage thereafter.

The Almoravids adopted the architectural developments of al-Andalus, such as the complex interlacing arches of the Great Mosque in Cordoba and of the Aljaferia palace in Zaragoza, while introducing new ornamental techniques from the east such as muqarnas .

The walls of Tlemcen were likewise partly built by the Almoravids, using a mix of rubble stone at the base and rammed earth above.