0:22

The History of the Crusades podcast

0:24

presents Reconquista

0:27

The rise of Al-Andalus and

0:29

the reconquest of Spain

0:57

Episode 67. The

1:00

decline of the Almoravids.

1:03

Hello again. Last

1:07

time we concluded our episodes

1:10

on the fallout from Alfonso

1:12

of Aragon's will.

1:14

Alfonso of Aragon

1:16

may have been interested to

1:18

learn that it took us three

1:21

entire episodes to sort

1:23

through the mess resulting

1:25

from his bonkers decision to leave

1:28

his territories to three military

1:30

orders in the Holy Land. Anyway,

1:34

the chaos has now finally

1:36

been put to rest, and

1:39

as at the year 1143, Christian Spain

1:43

had sorted itself into four

1:45

kingdoms. The Kingdom of

1:47

Leon and Castile, the Kingdom

1:49

of Aragon slash Catalonia,

1:52

the Kingdom of Navarre and the Kingdom

1:55

of Portugal. So we

1:57

are all set to proceed to the next chapter.

1:59

the next stage of the Reconquista.

2:04

We are going to switch

2:06

our focus now from the Christian

2:08

parts of the Iberian Peninsula

2:10

to the Muslim South as

2:13

we've neglected that region for a while

2:16

and a major shift is about

2:18

to take place there so let's

2:21

catch up on what's been going on.

2:25

Since the defeat by the Almoravids

2:28

of the Muslim Taifas way

2:30

back in episode 47 our

2:33

focus has been on the Christian

2:35

parts of the peninsula. From

2:39

episode 47 until now

2:41

we've seen the Christians make inroads

2:44

into the Muslim South. Zaragoza

2:48

has fallen to the Christians, the

2:50

Muslims have failed to retake

2:52

Toledo and Alfonso

2:55

of Aragon even launched an audacious

2:58

campaign to take Granada

3:00

back in the year 1126 which we covered in episode 60.

3:07

So have things

3:09

been going well in Almoravid

3:11

Spain? No they have

3:14

not and unrest against

3:16

the Almoravids has been steadily

3:19

rising. Why

3:22

has anti-Almoravid sentiment

3:24

been building in Muslim Spain?

3:26

Well it predominantly has

3:29

to do with the Almoravids failing

3:31

to live up to their promises.

3:34

You might remember if you cast

3:37

your minds all the way back to

3:39

the Almoravid conquest of the

3:41

Taifas that their rise to

3:44

power was built on a foundation

3:46

of bringing a more austere and

3:49

strict form of Islam to

3:51

the peninsula and pushing

3:53

back against Christian encroachment

3:56

into southern Spain.

5:59

who needed to be defeated and

6:02

eliminated on behalf

6:04

of the Christian Church.

6:07

Likewise, the tolerance

6:09

in Muslim Spain for the large

6:12

numbers of Jews and Moz Arab

6:14

Christians living in our underlows

6:17

and taking active roles in civic

6:19

life seemed to be

6:22

on the decline.

6:23

We saw following Alfonso

6:26

of Aragon's military campaign to

6:28

Grenada, large numbers

6:30

of Moz Arab Christians from the

6:33

Muslim South deciding

6:35

to leave their homes and relocate

6:38

to the Christian North.

6:40

This turned out to be a wise

6:43

move, as in response to

6:45

concerns that Moz Arab Christians

6:47

were acting as so-called

6:50

fifth columnists who were willing

6:52

to work with the Christians of the North

6:55

to undermine Muslim rule,

6:57

just about the entire Moz

6:59

Arab population of our underlows

7:02

was relocated to Northern

7:04

Africa where the Almoravids

7:06

could keep a closer eye on them and

7:09

where they wouldn't be tempted to collude

7:12

with the Spanish Christians.

7:15

This doesn't mean, though,

7:17

that there wasn't any cross-cultural

7:19

collaboration between the Muslims

7:22

and the Christians on the Iberian

7:24

Peninsula. There

7:27

are two examples of Muslims

7:29

and Christians moving into

7:32

opposing camps around this time

7:34

which are worth zooming in on. The

7:38

first involves a Muslim

7:40

man whom we have come across already.

7:44

A prominent Muslim leader who

7:46

was vassal to King Alfonso VII

7:48

of Leon and Castile, whose

7:51

name was Saif al-Dawla.

7:55

Saif al-Dawla's father, Abdul

7:57

Malik, had aligned himself with

7:59

the Christian North. of the north after

8:02

being ousted as the ruler of

8:04

Zaragoza by the Almoravids

8:06

in the year 1110. It

8:09

seems that his son

8:11

inherited his father's anti-Almoravids

8:14

sentiments and in return

8:16

for being granted some land near Toledo,

8:19

Saif al-Dawla embarked

8:22

on military campaigns on behalf

8:24

of King Alfonso which included

8:27

accompanying him on campaigns

8:29

against the Almoravids.

8:32

Saif al-Dawla wasn't

8:35

at all shy about his allegiance

8:37

to King Alfonso and apparently

8:40

attended the lavish ceremony

8:43

in Leon in the year 1135 where

8:46

King Alfonso was crowned as

8:48

emperor.

8:50

As the Almoravids hold

8:52

on power in our underl

9:11

the

9:22

1130s, Rivera was by count

9:24

of Barcelona before being

9:27

captured by the Almoravids on

9:29

the battlefield. It

9:31

seems that Rivera

9:33

must have hit it off with his captors

9:36

because instead of being ransomed

9:38

back to Catalonia which would

9:40

have been the normal course of events,

9:43

he instead offered to work

9:46

for the Almoravids as a mercenary.

9:48

He

9:49

was very successful in

9:51

his endeavors fighting not against

9:54

Christians but against the enemies

9:56

of the Almoravids in Northern Africa.

10:00

He was killed in Northern Africa around

10:03

the year 1145, fighting on behalf of the Almoravids.

10:09

In his book Moorish Spain,

10:12

Richard Fletcher reports that Reverter's

10:15

widow returned to Catalonia

10:18

after his death, and was

10:20

eventually buried in the stunning

10:22

Girona Cathedral.

10:25

In fact, not just

10:27

the Cathedral of Girona, but

10:30

the whole town of Girona, which

10:32

lies inland to the north of Barcelona

10:35

in Catalonia, is stunning.

10:39

It is so stunning, in fact, that

10:42

the town of Girona was one of

10:44

the locations where the Game of Thrones

10:47

series was filmed, and

10:49

the Cathedral of Girona ended

10:51

up playing the role of the Great Sept

10:54

of Baelor in King's Landing.

10:57

Anyway, the tomb of Reverter's

11:00

widow lies inside Girona

11:02

Cathedral, and bears inscriptions

11:05

in both Latin and Arabic.

11:08

Her two sons kind

11:11

of exemplified the two paths

11:13

taken by their father Reverter.

11:17

One son converted to Islam, and

11:20

like his father, spent his

11:22

life working in military service

11:24

in Northern Africa.

11:26

The other son returned

11:29

to Spain with his mother following

11:32

his father's death, and served

11:34

in the court of Count Roman Berenguer

11:37

IV before reportedly

11:39

spending his later years in

11:41

the military order of the Knights Templar.

11:45

So, there you go. Despite

11:48

a general spreading of an us

11:50

versus them sentiment between

11:52

Christians and Muslims at this time,

11:55

there were some exceptions to the

11:57

rule.

13:28

to

14:00

look down their noses at the

14:02

local Muslim population and

14:05

held many Jews and Mozarab

14:07

Christians in contempt.

14:10

This view of northern

14:13

African ways being better in all

14:15

respects than those of our underlaws

14:17

was seemingly shared by the

14:20

leader of the Almoravids, Ali

14:22

ibn Yusuf. Ali

14:25

ibn Yusuf was based in Marrakesh

14:28

and rarely made the effort to

14:30

visit our underlaws.

14:32

He only ended up traveling

14:34

there a total of four times

14:37

in his nearly 40 year long

14:40

reign.

14:41

It might come as a bit

14:43

of a surprise for you to hear then that

14:46

the eventual downfall of

14:48

Almoravid rule in Spain didn't

14:51

have its origins on the Iberian

14:53

Peninsula.

14:55

No, while the Almoravids

14:57

were undeniably on rather

15:00

shaky ground by the year 1140, the real threat

15:04

to the Almoravids wasn't on

15:06

the Iberian Peninsula at all.

15:09

It was in northern Africa and

15:11

came in the form of a man

15:13

called Mohammed ibn Tumart.

15:17

Strangely the seed

15:19

for the rise of ibn Tumart

15:22

and the downfall of the Almoravids

15:24

was sown decades ago even

15:27

before the arrival of the Almoravids

15:30

on the Iberian Peninsula.

15:32

Ibn Tumart was a smart,

15:35

curious, energetic boy

15:37

who was born among the mountain Masmuda

15:40

Berbers of northern Africa around

15:43

the year 1075. He showed

15:46

such promise

15:48

as a scholar in his early years

15:50

that he was sent to study under the

15:53

tutelage of renowned scholars

15:55

in Baghdad and Mecca.

15:58

It was while he

15:59

He was studying in Baghdad that

16:02

he became a student of

16:04

the famous philosopher Al-Ghazali

16:07

who was exploring the mystical

16:09

side of Islam. When

16:13

Ibn Tumut returned back to the Atlas

16:15

Mountains in Northern Africa, he

16:18

rejected the orthodox form

16:20

of Islam practiced by the

16:22

Amoravids and instead

16:25

began promoting a more mystical

16:27

interpretation of the Muslim faith.

16:32

By the year 1121, three

16:35

years after the fall of Zaragoza

16:37

to the Christians, Ibn Tumut

16:39

set up a base for himself in

16:42

the Atlas Mountains and

16:44

declared that he was the

16:46

Mahdi or the guided

16:49

one who was descended from the Prophet

16:51

Muhammad and who was destined

16:54

to secure the final triumph

16:56

of Islam. His

16:59

followers were known as the Al-Muhwaheddin

17:02

or the Almahads. He

17:05

saw it as his mission to defeat

17:08

the corrupt and impious Al-Moravids

17:11

and replace Al-Moravid rule with

17:14

his own more pure version

17:16

of Islam.

17:18

Ibn Tumut began his

17:21

movement modestly enough, gathering

17:24

followers and expressing the merits

17:26

of his form of Islam. He

17:29

even participated in a public debate

17:32

in front of Ali ibn Yusuf, the

17:34

leader of the Almahavids in Marrakech.

17:38

According to Richard Fletcher

17:41

in his book Moorish Spain, Ibn

17:43

Tumut went out of his way to

17:46

draw attention to himself and

17:48

to insult the Al-Moravids.

17:51

He insulted Ali ibn

17:54

Yusuf frequently and

17:56

once pulled Ali's sister off

17:58

a horse she was riding.

17:59

because she wasn't wearing

18:02

a veil.

18:04

It soon became apparent

18:06

that Ibn Tumart was not only

18:08

a talented public speaker,

18:11

he was also an astute politician

18:14

and strategist. As

18:17

the number of Ibn Tumart's followers

18:19

grew, Ali ibn Yusuf

18:21

considered ordering his execution,

18:25

after which Ibn Tumart based

18:27

himself in the mountains, meeting

18:30

with the leaders of the tribes of Masmouda

18:32

Berbers and absorbing them

18:34

into his network of followers,

18:37

combining a zealous interpretation

18:39

of the Quran with a drive

18:42

to destroy the Almoravids,

18:44

whom he viewed as promoting

18:46

a heretical version of

18:48

Islam. When

18:51

Ibn Tumart died in the year 1130,

18:54

his movement was still a mountain-based

18:57

organisation which hadn't

18:59

yet had the impact which he

19:01

had hoped for. During

19:04

his later years he had staged

19:07

two unsuccessful attacks

19:09

on Marrakech, but hadn't

19:12

managed to defeat the capital

19:14

city of the Almoravids, nor

19:17

the Almoravids themselves.

19:20

The leadership of the Almohad

19:23

movement was taken over by a

19:25

dedicated follower of Ibn Tumart,

19:28

who was named Abdul Mumin.

19:31

For the first 10 years

19:33

of his position as leader, Abdul

19:36

Mumin concentrated on consolidating

19:39

his hold on power in the Atlas

19:41

Mountains. He

19:44

gradually began working to defeat

19:46

the Almoravids and by

19:48

the year 1140 had made

19:51

significant inroads.

19:53

By this time Ali

19:56

ibn Yusuf had been forced to throw

19:58

more and more resources at the Almoravids.

19:59

at the Almohad problem.

20:02

During the mid-1130s,

20:05

Ali had delegated much of his

20:07

responsibility for pushing back against

20:10

the Almohads to his trusted

20:12

Catalan mercenary fighter, whom

20:15

we mentioned earlier in this episode,

20:17

Reverter, and his crack

20:20

team of troops.

20:22

However, by the late

20:25

1130s, even Reverter was

20:27

on the back foot, and Ali

20:30

had been forced to divert resources

20:33

away from Al-Andalus to

20:35

the Almohad problem.

20:37

In the year 1138, he

20:40

summoned his son, Tashifin ibn

20:43

Ali, from Al-Andalus, where

20:45

he had been acting very successfully

20:48

as the governor of Seville. Tashifin

20:52

and Reverter then combined

20:55

forces and campaigned

20:57

tirelessly against the Almohads

20:59

in central Morocco, but

21:02

they just couldn't seem to make any

21:04

inroads into the Almohad advances.

21:08

The Almohad situation

21:11

was now snowballing.

21:13

As more and more tribes

21:16

flipped over to the Almohad side,

21:19

Almohad successes grew,

21:21

prompting more tribes to declare

21:24

for the new successful

21:25

group. As

21:27

power in northern Africa seemed

21:29

to be slipping from his grasp,

21:32

Ali ibn Yusuf kept diverting

21:35

resources from Al-Andalus

21:37

to Morocco in an attempt

21:40

to turn the rising Almohad

21:43

tide. This

21:45

in turn undermined

21:47

the Almoravid position on the Iberian

21:50

Peninsula. While

21:53

the Almohavid empire in northern

21:55

Africa begins to crumble,

21:58

join me next time as we

21:59

pop back over to the Iberian

22:02

Peninsula to see the effect

22:04

of the Almoravid decline in southern

22:07

Spain.

22:09

Until next time, bye

22:11

for now.

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23:10

Santus, Santus,

23:15

Santus.