Almoravids

Almoravids , Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled Morocco and Muslim Spain in the 11th and 12th cent. The Almoravids may have originated in what is now Mauritania . The real founder was Abd Allah ibn Yasin, who by military force converted a number of Saharan tribes to his own reformed religion and then advanced on Morocco. After his death (c.1059), Yusuf ibn Tashfin and his brother Abu Bakr came to power. Marrakech was founded in 1062 and was the center of a powerful empire. Called by the Moors in Spain to help stem Christian reconquest, Yusuf entered Andalusia and defeated (1086) Alfonso VI of Castile. He later subdued the local Muslim rulers and governed Muslim Spain and N Morocco (Abu Bakr ruling over S Morocco). The dynasty also pushed south, destroying the ancient state of Ghana . The Almoravids were rough and puritanical, contemptuous of the luxurious Muslim courts in Spain. Their rule was never entirely stable and in the 12th cent. was attacked by the Almohads , who finally (by 1174) won both Morocco and Muslim Spain.

Almoravids (Arab., al-murābiṭūn, ‘those who espouse defence’). Spanish name of a Muslim dynasty in N. Africa and Spain, 1056–1147 (AH 448–541). Initially it was a rigorist revival movement in Sudan under ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yāsīn. Invited into Spain, the Almoravids defeated Alfonso VI at Sagrajas in 1086 (AH 479)—thereby initiating among Christians a determination to create a more united front against Islam. From their initial austerity and zeal, the Almoravids declined into a more lax and ostentatious lifestyle, until supplanted by the Almohads.

Almoravid An Islamic dynasty that ruled in Morocco and Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries until overthrown by the Almohads in 1147. It founded the city of Marrakesh.