View source for Almohad Caliphate

=== Caliphate and expansion ===
[[Image:Almohad Expansion.png|thumb|300px|Phases of the expansion of the Almohad state]]
Ibn Tumart died shortly after, in August 1130. That the Almohad movement did not immediately collapse after such a devastating defeat and the death of their charismatic Mahdi, is likely due to the skills of his successor, [[Abd al-Mu'min]].{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=70}} Ibn Tumart's death was kept a secret for three years, a period which Almohad chroniclers described as a ''[[Occultation (Islam)|ghayba]]'' or "occultation". This period likely gave Abd al-Mu'min time to secure his position as successor to the political leadership of the movement.{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=70}} Although a [[Zenata]] Berber from Tagra (Algeria),{{sfn|Magill|Aves|1998|p=4}} and thus an alien among the Masmuda of southern Morocco, Abd al-Mu'min nonetheless saw off his principal rivals and hammered wavering tribes back to the fold. Three years after Ibn Tumart's death he was officially proclaimed "Caliph".<ref name=":05222">{{Cite book |last1=Molins |first1=Viguera |title=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three |last2=Jésus |first2=Maria |publisher=Brill |year=2014 |isbn=9789004269606 |editor-last=Fleet |editor-first=Kate |location= |pages= |language=en |chapter=Almohads |issn=1873-9830 |editor2-last=Krämer |editor2-first=Gudrun |editor3-last=Matringe |editor3-first=Denis |editor4-last=Nawas |editor4-first=John |editor5-last=Rowson |editor5-first=Everett}}</ref>

After 1133, Abd al-Mu'min quickly expanded Almohad control across the Maghreb, while the embattled Almoravids retained their capital in Marrakesh.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=90}} Various other tribes rallied to the Almohads or to the Almoravids as the war between them continued.{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=71}} Initially, Almohad operations were limited to the Atlas mountains. In 1139, they expanded to the [[Rif]] mountains in the north.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=90}} One of their early bases beyond the mountains was [[Taza]],<ref name=":0523">{{EI2|last=Marçais|first=Georges|title=Tāzā|volume=10|pages=404–405|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_2685|author-link=Georges Marçais}}</ref> where Abd al-Mu"min founded a citadel (''ribat'') and a [[Great Mosque of Taza|Great Mosque]] circa 1142.{{Sfn|Bloom|2020|p=121}}

The Almoravid ruler, Ali ibn Yusuf, died in 1143 and was succeeded by his son, [[Tashfin ibn Ali]]. The tide turned more definitively in favour of the Almohads from 1144 onwards, when the Zenata tribes in what is now western Algeria joined the Almohad camp, along with some of the previously Almoravid-aligned leaders of the [[Massufa|Masufa]] tribe.{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=71}} This allowed them to defeat Tashfin decisively and capture [[Tlemcen]] in 1144. Tashfin fled to [[Oran]], which the Almohads then attacked and captured, and he died in March 1145 while trying to escape.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=91}}{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=71}}<ref name=":05222" /> The Almohads pursued the defeated Almoravid army west to Fez, which they captured in 1146 after a nine-month siege.{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=71}}{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=91}} They finally [[Almohad conquest of Marrakesh (1147)|captured Marrakesh]] in 1147, after an eleven-month siege. The last Almoravid ruler, [[Ishaq ibn Ali]], was killed.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=91}}

In 1151, Abd al-Mu'min launched an expedition to the east. This may have been encouraged by the [[Kingdom of Africa|Norman conquests]] along the coast of Ifriqiya, as fighting the Christian invaders here gave him a pretext for conquering the rest of the region. In August 1152, he captured [[Béjaïa]], the capital of the [[Hammadids]]. The last Hammadid ruler, [[Yahya ibn Abd al-Aziz]], fled by sea.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=|pp=92–93}} The Arab tribes of the region, the [[Banu Hilal]] and [[Banu Sulaym]], reacted to the Almohad advance by gathering an army against them. The Almohads routed them in the [[Battle of Sétif]] in April 1153.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=93}}{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=79}} Abd al-Mu'min nonetheless saw value in their military abilities. He persuaded them by various means – including taking some families as hostages to Marrakesh and more generous actions like offering them material and land incentives – to move to present-day Morocco and join the Almohad armies.{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|pp=79–80}}{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=93}} These moves also had the corollary effect of advancing the Arabisation of future Morocco.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meynier|first=Gilbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m4s6AQAAIAAJ&q=Pour+soutenir+sa+construction+dynastique+et+contrebalancer+la+menace+de+partis+masm%C3%BBda+rivaux,+le+calife+ordonne+de+d%C3%A9porter+au|title=L'Algérie, coeur du Maghreb classique: de l'ouverture islamo-arabe au repli (698–1518)|date=2010|publisher=La Découverte|isbn=978-2-7071-5231-2|language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Levtzion |first=Nehemia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GWjxR61xAe0C&pg=PA343 |title=The Cambridge History of Africa |date=1975 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-20981-6 |editor-last=Oliver |editor-first=Roland |editor-link=Roland Oliver |pages=343 |language=en |chapter=The western Maghrib and Sudan |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-africa/western-maghrib-and-sudan/7743AA019E0C6377B439F996EF57584D}}</ref> They were specifically settled into the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] plains of Morocco which was previously depopulated by the Almohads.<ref name=":1" /> Without the Almohad recruitment of Arabs and resettling into the Atlantic plains, Morocco would have avoided the rural [[Arabization#The Maghreb|Arabisation]] that came with the [[Arab migrations to the Maghreb#Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym (11th–12th century)|Hilalian migrations]] into the Maghreb.{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=132}} The settlement added to the ethnic complexity of the Maghreb and the Arabs became the most powerful force in the Moroccan plains when the Almohad army declined.<ref name=":1" /> The Berbers who previously inhabited these plains were either Arabized or displaced to nearby mountains.<ref name=":112">{{Cite book |last=Nyrop |first=Richard F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ma57JxwfGV0C&pg=PA36 |title=Area Handbook for Morocco |date=1972 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=36 |language=en |quote=Even more important to the future of Morocco was the large-scale Arab immigration that began in the eleventh century. Before that time the Arabs in Morocco consisted mainly of the descendants of the relatively small numbers of initial invaders and of the Idrisids, who had married Berber women. Many of these early arrivals had been aristocrats from Arabia who settled in the cities. The character of the Arab migrations of the eleventh century was distinctly different. The Fatimids, at this time ruling from their capital in Cairo and infuriated by Berber refusal to acknowledge to acknowledge their hegemony, encourages masses of beduin Arabs of the Beni Hilal and Beni Salim tribes to migrate into North Africa. Over a long period, they displaced the Berbers from some of the best lands or settled among them. This immigration introduced for the first time comparatively large numbers of Arabs into the Moroccan population and quickly spread the use of the Arabic language.}}</ref><ref name=":82">{{Cite book |last1=Farida |first1=Benouis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmaWEAAAQBAJ |title=An Architecture of Light. Islamic Art in Algeria. |last2=Houria |first2=Chérid |last3=Lakhdar |first3=Drias |last4=Amine |first4=Semar |publisher=Museum With No Frontiers, MWNF (Museum Ohne Grenzen) |isbn=978-3-902966-14-8 |pages=9 |language=en |quote=The Banu Hilal took land which they had largely destroyed, and whose cultivation then began to decline. As nomadism spread, territories of the local tribes changed and shrank; the Zenata were pushed west, the Kabyles north. Populations mixed, leading to gradual Arabisation of the plains inhabitants. The Berber language persisted in less accessible mountain ranges.}}</ref> There was also a significant amount of Arab and Berber intermarriage which led to the spread of Arabic language and restructuring of tribal structures.{{sfn|Baadj|2015|p=61}} These plains are inhabited today by the descendants of these Arab tribes known as the ''[[ʿArubis|ʕroubiya]]''<ref name=":63">{{Cite book |last1=Ech-charfi |first1=Ahmed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SzLbDgAAQBAJ&dq=morocco%20allied%20arab%20tribes%20saadis&pg=PA160 |title=Sociolinguistics in African Contexts: Perspectives and Challenges |last2=Azzouzi |first2=Lamyae |date=2017-05-11 |publisher=[[Springer Nature|Springer]] |isbn=978-3-319-49611-5 |editor-last=Ebongue |editor-first=Augustin Emmanuel |pages=160–161 |language=en |chapter=Ethnic Stereotypes and Lexical Semantics: The Emergence of the Rural/Urban Opposition in Moroccan Arabic |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-49611-5_9 |editor-last2=Hurst |editor-first2=Ellen |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-49611-5_9}}</ref> – a name that literally means "Bedouins".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ciucci |first=Alessandra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JER3EAAAQBAJ |title=The Voice of the Rural: Music, Poetry, and Masculinity Among Migrant Moroccan Men in Umbria |date=2022-05-25 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0-226-81869-6 |pages=35 |language=en}}</ref>

Abd al-Mu'min spent the mid-1150s organizing the Almohad state and arranging for power to be passed on through his family line.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=93}}{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|pp=|p=82}} In 1154, he declared his son Muhammad as his heir.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=93}}{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|pp=|p=82}} In order to neutralise the power of the Masmuda, he relied on his tribe of origin, the Kumiyas (from the central Maghreb), whom he integrated into the Almohad power structure and from whom he recruited some 40,000 into the army.<ref name=":16">{{Cite book |last1=Fage |first1=J. D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GWjxR61xAe0C&dq=sayyids+almohads&pg=PA344 |title=The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1050 |last2=Oliver |first2=Roland Anthony |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1975 |isbn=978-0-521-20981-6 |pages=344–345 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Laroui |first=Abdallah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvl9BgAAQBAJ&dq=forty+thousand+abd+al+mu'min+almohad&pg=PA183 |title=The History of the Maghrib: An Interpretive Essay |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4008-6998-5 |pages=183 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0jMOAQAAMAAJ&q=forty+thousand+abd+al+mu'min+almohad |title=Encyclopedia of Religion |date=2005 |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA |isbn=978-0-02-865981-7 |pages=4586 |language=en |quote=Abd al-Mu'min, came from western Algeria, and, according to the chroniclers, he brought forty thousand of his countrymen with him to Morocco in order to reinforce his personal power.}}</ref><ref>{{Harvsp|السلاوي|2014|pages=273–274}}</ref> They would later form the bodyguard of the caliph and his successors.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=94}} In addition, Abd al-Mu'min relied on Arabs, the great Hilalian families that he had deported to Morocco, to further weaken the influence of the Masmuda sheikhs.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Larousse|first=Éditions|title=Almohades en arabe al-Muwaḥḥidūn |url=https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/groupe-personnage/Almohades/104942|access-date=2021-08-20|website=www.larousse.fr|language=fr}}</ref> These Arabs became embedded in the Almohad elite to the point that they became partners in giving the ''[[Bay'ah|bay‘a]]'' to a new caliph{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|p=133}} and formed the most important contingents in the Almohad military in [[Ifriqiya]], al-Andalus and the provinces.{{Sfn|Buresi|Aallaoui|2012|p=|pp=187–188}}

With his son appointed as his successor, Abd al-Mu'min placed his other children as governors of the provinces of the caliphate.{{sfn|Magill|Aves|1998|p=5}} His sons and descendants became known as the ''sayyid''s ("nobles").<ref name=":16" />{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|pp=|p=354}} To appease the traditional Masmuda elites, he appointed some of them, along with theirs sons and descendants, to act as important advisers, deputies, and commanders under the ''sayyid''s. They became known as the {{Transliteration|ar|abnā' al-muwaḥḥidūn}} or "Sons of the Almohads".{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|pp=|p=83}} Abd al-Mu'min also altered the Almohad structure set up by Ibn Tumart by making the ''huffaz'' or reciters of the Quran into a training school of the Almohad elite. They were no longer described as "memorisers" but as "guardians" who learned riding, swimming, archery, and received a general education of high standards.{{Sfn|Julien|1970|p=109}}

Abd al-Mu'min thus transformed the Almohads from an aristocratic Masmuda movement to a dynastic Mu'minid state.{{Sfn|Julien|1970|p=109}}{{Sfn|Arjomand|2022|p=285}} While most of the Almohad elites accepted this new concentration of power, it nonetheless triggered an uprising by two of Ibn Tumart's half-brothers, 'Abd al-'Aziz and 'Isa. Shortly after Abd al-Mu'min announced his heir, towards 1154–1155, they rebelled in Fez and then marched on Marrakesh, whose governor they killed. Abd al-Mu'min, who had been in Salé, returned to the city, defeated the rebels, and had everyone involved executed.{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|pp=83–84, 342}}{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=93}}

In March 1159, Abd al-Mu'min led a new campaign to the east. He conquered [[Tunis]] by force when the local [[Banu Khurasan]] leaders refused to surrender.{{Sfn|Bennison|2016|pp=87–88}} [[Mahdia]] was besieged soon after and surrendered in January 1160. The Normans there negotiated their withdrawal and were allowed to leave for [[Sicily]]. Tripoli, which had rebelled against the Normans two years earlier, recognized Almohad authority right after.{{Sfn|Abun-Nasr|1987|p=93}}

In the 1170s and 1180s, Almohad power in the eastern Maghreb was challenged by the [[Banu Ghaniya]] and by [[Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush|Qaraqush]], an [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]] commander. [[Yaqub al-Mansur]] eventually defeated both factions and reconquered Ifriqiya in 1187–1188.{{Sfn|Baadj|2015|pp=121–146}} In 1189–1190, the Ayyubid sultan [[Saladin|Salah ad-Din (Saladin)]] requested the assistance of an Almohad navy for his fight against the crusaders, which al-Mansur declined.{{Sfn|Baadj|2015|pp=146–149}}