Murabitun ("Vigilants," in Arabic)

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MURABITUN ("Vigilants," in Arabic)

The origin of this word goes back to the fifteenth century, to the epoch of the Almoravids, Spanish descendents of a nomadic Saharan tribe, who, in the name of a renewed and purified Islam, undertook to drive heretics from North Africa and Spain. The founder of this movement, Abdallah ibn Yassin, professed the rules of his order in a military convent (ribat), situated on an island in the Senegal River. There, the warriors (al-murabitun, people of the ribat) lived austerely and strictly.