Almoravids 35compromising, seceded from Ali’s army, but they were
soon defeated at the Battle of al-Nahrawan in Iraq in 658.
Many perished, but the movement survived. Muawiya
mounted an aggressive policy, and by the end of 660 Ali
had lost control of Egypt and most of eastern Arabia, still
failing to assert his authority. As he was praying in a
mosque at al-Kufa in Iraq in 661, a vengeful Kharijite,
Ibn Muljam, attacked Ali with a poisoned sword. Two
days later Ali died and was secretly buried near al-Kufa.
The grave was not found until 150 years later. Ali’s gifted
political discourses, sermons, letters, and sayings were
collected by Ash-Sharif al-Radi (d. 1015) in the book The
Path of Eloquencewith commentary by Ibn Abi al-Hadid
(d. 1258). The Alids, his descendants, led rebellions
against Umayyad caliphs for the next 100 years and
more. They became the Zaydite movement in the ninth
century and the Shiite Twelver sect in the late ninth cen-
tury. Al-Hasan, his son, temporarily succeeded him but
quickly passed the title of caliph to his father’s rival, the
Umayyad Muawiya I (r. 661–680).
Further reading: Wilferd Madelung, “‘Alı ̄: The
Counter-Caliphate of Hãshim,” in The Succession to
Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1997), 141–310; Laura Vec-
cia Vaglieri, “Alı ̄ b. Abı ̄ Talib,” Encyclopedia of Islam,
1.381–386.
Allah SeeGOD.
Almohads (al-Muwahhidun, the Unitarians)They
were a dynasty who controlled North Africa and later AL-
ANDALUSbetween 1130 and 1269. In about 1128, return-
ing from a journey to the East to study, a BERBERof the
Masmuda tribe, IBN TUMART, began to preach in al-
MAGHRIB. Considering himself the envoy of God, or a
Mahdi, Ibn Tumart settled at Tinmal, an isolated village
in the high ATLASMountains. From there he undertook
to reform the morals of the Berbers corrupted by liberal
theologians and the dissolute rule of the ALMORAVIDS. His
doctrine advocated a return to the sources of ISLAM,in
particular the QURANand the SUNNA. From its origins,
the movement was extremely rigorous and practiced a
policy of repression of rival theologians. Its founder set
up an organization modeled on the tradition of the earli-
est times of Islam. He tied this to the tribal ideals of the
Berber groups.
RISE OF THE DYNASTYOn the death of Ibn Tumart in 1130, his disciple Abd al-
Mumin (r. 1130–63) took the title of caliph and engaged
in a policy of military expansion. The Almohads took
almost two decades to conquer MOROCCO. In 1147 they
ended Almoravid rule by capturing and making MAR-
RAKECHtheir capital. Abd al-Mumin then turned to Salé,
where he assembled a great army to undertake the con-
quest of the central Maghrib or present-day Algeria. He
occupied Algiers, Bougie, and Constantine from 1152. In
1159 the Almohads took TUNIS. The same year, Madhya,
Sfax, and Tripoli were taken from the Normans. These
conquests were complicated by several interventions into
Taifa Spain, then dominated again by numerous small
weak kingdoms. Cadiz and Jérez recognized the authority
of the Almohad caliph in 1146, and SEVILLEwas captured
in 1147, thus giving the Almohads a strong base in AL-
ANDALUS. Resistance to their rule became stronger, espe-
cially around VALENCIA, and even more so in the
BALEARICISLANDS; Minorca was not taken until 1202 and
Palma de Majorca until 1203.CHRISTIAN REACTION
The caliph Abu Yusuf Yakub’s victory over the Christians
at Alarcos in 1195 created an awareness of danger among
the Iberian kingdoms. The archbishop of TOLEDOmade
an appeal for a crusade that led to the formation of an
armed coalition that routed the Almohads at the Battle of
Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. This defeat, aggravated by
economic difficulties combined with growing intolerance
for Jews and dissident Muslim scholars, was the begin-
ning of an internal crisis for the dynasty that accelerated
the decline of Almohad power in the peninsula. CÓRDOBA
fell into Christian hands in 1236, then Valencia in 1238
and Seville, the Almohad capital, in 1248. In al-Maghrib,
a crisis marked by revolts in the towns and the repudia-
tion of Almohad doctrine by Caliph al-Mamun led to a
period of political instability. Outlying regions began to
detach themselves from the Almohad Empire. In 1229
the governor of Irfiqiya declared independence, quickly
followed by the governors of Tlemcen and the central
Maghrib. In Morocco, Zanata nomad tribes of the plains
captured Marrakech in 1269 and Tinmal in 1276. Having
long lost its initial invigorating puritanical religious
enthusiasm, the Almohad Empire then disappeared.
While the NASRIDSof GRANADA managed to maintain
Muslim control in the southern part of al-Andalus,
al-Maghrib broke up into three zones under the control
of other dynasties, the MERINIDS in Morocco, the
Abdawadids at Tlemcen, and the HAFSIDSin Ifriqiya.
See alsoMUDÉJAR ANDMUDÉJAR ART.
Further reading: Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The
Islamic Dynasties (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1967), 30–31; Roger Le Tourneau, The Almohad
Movement in North Africa in the Twelfth and Thirteenth
Centuries (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1969); Maya Shatzmiller, “Al-Muwahhidun,” Encyclope-
dia of Islam,7.801–807.Almoravids(al-Murabitun, inmates of a religious her-
mitage, “those bound by allegiance [to the cause of
defending the faith]”)The Almoravids were a dynasty
from the Western Sahara who controlled MOROCCOand