the Almoravids

(noun)

A Berber imperial dynasty of Morocco that formed an empire in the 11th century that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus. Founded by Abdallah ibn Yasin, their capital was Marrakesh, a city they founded in 1062. The dynasty originated among the Lamtuna and the Gudala, nomadic Berber tribes of the Sahara, traversing the territory between the Draa, the Niger, and the Senegal rivers.

Related Terms

Examples of the Almoravids in the following topics:

  • The Ghana Empire

    • According to Arab tradition, Ghana fell when it was sacked by the Almoravid movement in 1076–1077, but this interpretation has been questioned.
    • Dierke Lange agreed with the original military incursion theory but argued that this does not preclude Almoravid political agitation, claiming that Ghana's demise owed much to the latter.
    • Burkhalter argued that while the idea of the conquest was unclear, the influence and success of the Almoravid movement in securing West African gold and circulating it widely necessitated a high degree of political control.
    • Furthermore, the archaeology of ancient Ghana does not show signs of the rapid change and destruction that would be associated with any Almoravid-era military conquests.
    • It collapsed into tribal groups and chieftaincies, some of which later assimilated into the Almoravids, while others founded the Mali Empire.

  • The Reconquista

    • The Reconquista ("reconquest") is a period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula, spanning approximately 770 years, between the initial Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the 710s and the fall of the Emirate of Granada, the last Islamic state on the peninsula, to expanding Christian kingdoms in 1492.
    • The Almohads, who had taken control of the Almoravids' Maghribi and al-Andalus territories by 1147, surpassed the Almoravides in fundamentalist Islamic outlook, and they treated the non-believer dhimmis harshly.
    • The Taifa kingdoms lost ground to the Christian realms in the north.
    • After the loss of Toledo in 1085, the Muslim rulers reluctantly invited the Almoravides, who invaded Al-Andalus from North Africa and established an empire.
    • In the 12th century the Almoravid empire broke up again, only to be taken over by the Almohad invasion, who were defeated by an alliance of the Christian kingdoms in the decisive battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.

  • Spread of Islam

    • In the years following the Prophet Muhammad's death, the expansion of Islam was carried out by his successor caliphates, who increased the territory of the Islamic state and sought converts from both polytheistic and monotheistic religions.
    • The expansion of the Arab Empire in the years following the Prophet Muhammad's death led to the creation of caliphates occupying a vast geographical area.
    • Muslim dynasties were soon established and subsequent empires such as those of the Abbasids, Fatimids, Almoravids, Seljukids, and Ajurans, Adal and Warsangali in Somalia, Mughals in India, Safavids in Persia, and Ottomans in Anatolia were among the largest and most powerful in the world.
    • Within the first century of the establishment of Islam upon the Arabian Peninsula and the subsequent rapid expansion of the Arab Empire during the Muslim conquests, one of the most significant empires in world history was formed.
    • One is animists and polytheists of tribal societies of the Arabian Peninsula and the Fertile crescent; the other is the monotheistic populations of the Middle Eastern agrarian and urbanized societies.

  • Establishment of the National Assembly

    • Its members had been elected to represent the estates of the realm: the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobility) and the Third Estate (the commoners) but the Third Estate had been granted "double representation" (twice as many delegates as each of the other estates).
    • On June 17, with the failure of efforts to reconcile the three estates, the Third Estate declared themselves redefined as the National Assembly, an assembly not of the estates, but of the people.
    • Following the storming of the Bastille on July 14, the National Assembly became the effective government of France.
    • In an attempt to address the financial crisis, the Assembly declared, on November 2, 1789, that the property of the Church was "at the disposal of the nation."
    • Thus the nation had now also taken on the responsibility of the Church, which included paying the clergy and caring for the poor, the sick, and the orphaned.

  • The Constitution of 1791

    • The Constitution of 1791 was the first written constitution of France that turned the country into a constitutional monarchy following the collapse of the absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.
    • For instance, the Marquis de Lafayette proposed a combination of the American and British systems, introducing a bicameral parliament, with the king having the suspensive veto power over the legislature, modeled on the authority then recently vested in the President of the United States.
    • The greatest controversy faced by the new committee surrounded the issue of citizenship.
    • Redefining the organization of the French government, citizenship, and the limits to the powers of government, the National Assembly set out to represent the interests of the public.
    • The National Assembly was the legislative body, the king and royal ministers made up the executive branch, and the judiciary was independent of the other two branches.

  • The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

    • The Fall of the Western Roman Empire was the period of decline in the Western Roman Empire in which it disintegrated and split into numerous successor states.
    • The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control; modern historians mention factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the health and numbers of the Roman population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the Emperor, the religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration.
    • The reasons for the decline of the Empire are still debated today, and are likely multiple.
    • The Ostrogothic Kingdom, which rose from the ruins of the Western Roman Empire.
    • Analyze, broadly, the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire.

  • The Fall of Constantinople

    • The restored Byzantine Empire converted to Catholicism to get aid from the West against the Ottoman Turks, but the Turks defeated them by conquering Constantinople, thereby causing the final collapse of the Byzantines.
    • In the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans.
    • The Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, widely regarded as the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages, failed to stop the advance of the victorious Ottoman Turks.
    • A popular saying at the time was "Better the Turkish turban than the Papal tiara."
    • The conquest of the city of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Empire was a key event in the Late Middle Ages, which also marks, for some historians, the end of the Middle Ages.

  • The Double Disasters

    • In 1071, the Byzantine Empire suffered two important defeats, against the Turks in the Battle of Manzikert and against the Normans in Bari, sometimes called the Double Disasters.
    • At the end of the conflict, neither the Normans nor the Byzantines could boast much power.
    • The Normans had come from the Duchy of Normandy in West Francia, which in 911 had been granted to the Viking Rollo in the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte by the French king Charles the Simple.
    • The premature death of the former and the overthrow of the latter led to further collapse as the Normans consolidated their conquest of Sicily and Italy.
    • Map of Italy and the Illyrian coast in the year 1084, after the defeat of the Byzantines at Bari.

  • The Achaemenid Empire

    • Under Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great, the Achaemenid Empire became the first global empire.
    • The dynasty drew its name from Achaemenes, who, from 705-675 BCE, ruled Persis, which was land bounded on the west by the Tigris River and on the south by the Persian Gulf.
    • The unified form of the empire came in the form of a central administration around the city of Pasargadae, which was erected by Cyrus c. 550 BCE.
    • Between c. 500-400 BCE, Darius the Great and his son, Xerxe I, ruled the Persian Plateau and all of the territories formerly held by the Assyrian Empire, including Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Cyprus.
    • Cyrus II of Persia, better known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire.

  • The Legislative Assembly

    • From the beginning, relations between the king and the Legislative Assembly were hostile.
    • The King vetoed the decrees and dismissed Girondins from the Ministry.
    • When the king formed a new cabinet mostly of Feuillants, this widened the breach between the king on the one hand and the Assembly and the majority of the common people of Paris on the other.
    • His refusal united all the Jacobins in the project of overturning the monarchy by force.
    • The next day the Convention abolished the monarchy and declared a republic.