the activism of Jinnah and other AIML leaders, the
tide was turned. The AIML emerged victorious in
the 1945 elections, winning 460 of 533 Muslim
legislative seats.
After World War II, the final status nego-
tiations with the British (who were rapidly los-
ing interest in either retaining their authority or
seeing through the negotiations to maintain a
unified India) led to the 1947 partition of India.
Jinnah called the new Muslim majority nation of
pakistan “moth-eaten,” as the eastern and west-
ern halves of the country were hundreds of miles
apart, separated by Hindu majority India. As the
governor-general of Pakistan, Jinnah attempted
to establish a secular constitUtion for the new
nation-state. However, following his death in
1948, a resolution was passed in 1950 affirming
the Islamic identity of the state in which no law
would be passed in violation of the sharia. During
the era of political turmoil that followed partition
and independence, the All-India Muslim League
disbanded, reforming as the Muslim League (ML)
in the newly independent nations. In Pakistan,
the ML failed to establish itself as an effective
political party. The lack of infrastructure, financial
crises, and the ML’s secular stance contributed to
its eventual marginalization in Pakistani politics.
In Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) the ML
has not been a major factor in politics because it
is viewed as the chief architect of a Pakistan in
which the western part of the country dominated
the eastern part in terms of language, resources,
and authority. In India, the Muslim League no
longer has a significant political voice, and only
one member of parliament has represented the ML
from the state of Kerala in 1999 and 2004.
See also aWami leagUe; hindUism and islam;
secUlarism.
Anna BigelowFurther reading: Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman: Jin-
nah, the Muslim League, and the Demand for Pakistan
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); Ian
Talbot, Provincial Politics and the Pakistan Movement:
The Growth of the Muslim League in Northwest and
Northeast India 1937–47 (Karachi: Oxford University
Press, 1988).Almohad dynasty (1123–1269)
A movement founded in southern morocco by
religious reformer and self-proclaimed mahdi
(messianic figure) mUhammad ibn tUmart (1078?–
1130), the Almohads managed to unite North
Africa and Islamicate Spain under their authority
during the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
Their name derives from the Arabic al-muwahh-
idun, “those who proclaim the God’s oneness.”
Upon returning to his native Morocco in
1121 after an extended trip in the Islamicate east,
Ibn Tumart recruited followers from among the
Masmuda Berbers of the Anti-Atlas Mountains
in the region near Marrakesh. Teaching a rigor-
ous doctrine centered on the concept of God’s
oneness (tawhid), Ibn Tumart and his disciple
Abd al-Mumin (d. 1163) organized the Berbers
into an effective fighting force. Abd al-Mumin
succeeded Ibn Tumart as caliph upon the latter’s
death in 1130 and led an extended conquest of
North Africa and Islamicate Spain, taking Mar-
rakesh (1147), Seville (1147), tUnisia (1160),
and Tripolitania (1160). Upon securing Almohad
power in North Africa, Abd al-Mumin established
his family members as heads of state, bequeathing
the caliphate to his sons and grandsons.
Under the first four caliphs, the Almohad
empire reached the height of its military, politi-
cal, and cultural influence. Although they initially
experienced success in turning back the Christian
reconquest (Spanish: Reconquista) in andalUsia,
the Almohad army later suffered a disastrous defeat
at Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) that left southern
Spain open for further Christian advances. The
Almohad political-religious system, administered
by a berber elite, was initially quite cohesive, but
the Almohads failed to establish Ibn Tumart’s doc-
trine as a replacement for Maliki Islam, and theyK 36 Almohad dynasty