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Algeria
Almoravids
The Almoravid movement developed early in the eleventh century
among the Sanhaja of the western Sahara, whose control of trans-Saharan
trade routes was under pressure from the Zenata Berbers in the
north and the state of Ghana in the south. Yahya ibn Ibrahim al
Jaddali, a leader of the Lamtuna tribe of the Sanhaja confederation,
decided to raise the level of Islamic knowledge and practice among
his people. To accomplish this, on his return from the hajj (Muslim
pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1048-49, he brought with him Abd Allah
ibn Yasin al Juzuli, a Moroccan scholar. In the early years of
the movement, the scholar was concerned only with imposing moral
discipline and a strict adherence to Islamic principles among
his followers. Abd Allah ibn Yasin also became known as one of
the marabouts, or holy persons (from al murabitun, "those
who have made a religious retreat." Almoravids is the
Spanish transliteration of al murabitun--see Marabouts
, this ch.).
The Almoravid movement shifted from promoting religious reform
to engaging in military conquest after 1054 and was led by Lamtuna
leaders: first Yahya, then his brother Abu Bakr, and then his
cousin Yusuf ibn Tashfin. With Marrakech as their capital, the
Almoravids had conquered Morocco, the Maghrib as far east as Algiers,
and Spain up to the Ebro River by 1106. Under the Almoravids,
the Maghrib and Spain acknowledged the spiritual authority of
the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, reuniting them temporarily with
the Islamic community in the Mashriq.
Although it was not an entirely peaceful time, North Africa benefited
economically and culturally during the Almoravid period, which
lasted until 1147. Muslim Spain (Andalus in Arabic) was a great
source of artistic and intellectual inspiration. The most famous
writers of Andalus worked in the Almoravid court, and the builders
of the Grand Mosque of Tilimsan, completed in 1136, used as a
model the Grand Mosque of Córdoba.
Data as of December 1993
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