54 CHAPTER THREE
fattened and corrupt cities. Ibn Tumart presented himself as the Mahdi:
his leadership retained aspects of millenarian messianism, and his move-
ment was truly revolutionary in all domains.^3
The revolutionary zeal that informed Almohad law is manifest, fi rst of
all, in Almohad theology. They identifi ed themselves as muwahhidun
(“those who proclaim the (true) unity of God”) as opposed to the mura-
bitun (“those who hold the hermitage- outpost [ribat]”), whom they la-
belled “mujassima,” (“those who profess a corporeal understanding of
God”). In the Almohads’ view, true mono theistic belief does not allow
for anthropomorphic understandings of God. By presenting the Al-
moravids as anthropormophists, the Almohads thus portrayed them as
unbelievers, polytheists against whom one can and should wage war.^4
The rejection of anthropomorphism was not, however, a mere strat-
egy, conceived in order to legitimize the declaration of jihad on fellow
Muslims. The abstract, incorporeal conception of God was a cornerstone
of the Almohad doctrine of divine unity (tawhid). This doctrine was in-
corporated into short catechisms (known as the murshida and the aqida),
the recitation of which was imposed on all Muslims, elite and common
people alike. A close- knit elite (the talaba) served as the cadre for the
Almohad higher administration.^5 This elite was instructed in the higher
level of theology, based on an adaptation of the theology of AbuHamid
al-Ghazali, that is to say, on Asharitekalam.^6 Unlike the Almoravids,
the Almohad regime was relatively tolerant toward philosophy (although
it was not itself committed to philosophy).^7
Among the successive Muslim dynasties that ruled the Maghreb and
al-Andalus, the Almohads stand out in their attempt to break away
from the established legal tradition. The importance of legal issues in
(^3) On the Almohad dynasty, which ruled between 1121– 1275, see I. Goldziher, “Introduc-
tion,” in D. Luciani, ed., Le Livre de Mohammed Ibn Toumert, Mahdi des Almohades
(Algiers, 1903); A. Huici Miranda, Historia Politica del Imperio Almohade (Tetouan,
1956–57); H. Kennedy, Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Po litical History of al- Andalus (Ed-
inburgh, 1996), 196– 272; M. Fierro, “La religión,” El retroceso territorial de al- Andalus.
Almorávides y almohades, Siglo XI al XIII.Historia de España fundada por R. Menéndez
Pidal y dirigida por J. M. Jover,coord. por M. J. Viguera (Madrid, 1997), 8:2, 435– 546; P.
Cressier et al., eds., Los Almohades: Problemas y Perspectivas (Madrid, 2005.); M. Shatz-
miller, “al-Muwahhidun,” EI 7:801– 7; idem, Messianism and Puritanical Reform: Mahdis
of the Muslim West (Leiden, 2006), 174– 92.
(^4) See D. Serrano, “Por qué llamaron los almohades antropomorfi stas a los almorávides?” in
Cressier et al., Los Almohades, 815– 52.
(^5) See E. Fricaud, “Les Talaba dans la société almohade. (Le temps d’Averroës),” Al-Qantara
18 (1997): 331– 88; idem, “La place des talaba dans la société almohade muminide,” in
Cressier et al., Los Almohades, 525– 45; T. Nagel, Im Offenkundigen das Verborgene, Die
Heilszusage des sunnitischen Islams (Göttingen, 2002), 145.
(^6) Nagel,Im Offenkundigen das Verborgene, 120, 143
(^7) See below, apud note 24.