Ibn Toumert(1) , a Berber of the Anti-Atlas, is one of those pilgrims that we describe in another article (see Zaouias and marabouts). In 1110, he left his village at the age of thirty, accomplished his pilgrimage to the holly lands, and began his journey back at about 1118. On his way back, he stopped in the major Maghrebi cities (Tunis, Bougie, Tlemcen, Fez, Marrakech…). There he was noticed as a dreadful censor of his contemporaries’ customs by his sermons as well as by his deeds (2).

His long attendance to the Madrasa Nizamia in Baghdad (where the great Sufi master Al Ghazali had taught until 1095) allowed him to master dialectics and Muslim theology, which proved a powerful weapon when he had to confront the Almoravids’ Ulama (Islam official doctors). He was always provoking them, wherever he went; "hence, he pulverized- by the verb- these pillars of the Almoravid authority …”; before launching his army -led by his lieutenant Abdel Moumen - on them.

The sermons of the Mahdi, about whom E. Levi Provencal says: “ perhaps the Maghreb would not have many preachers to place above Ibn Toumert…” had the Almoravids as their main target. He was never short of scornful attributives (frequently alluding to the veil they used to cover their faces with). In Marrakech, he even ventured addressing the Almoravid Emperor in public, and humiliated the Ulama that the latter opposed to him.

He was also knowledgeable and experimented in occult sciences and the art of prophecy. From his readings in Baghdad, he had learned the future arrival of a messiah (Mahdi, Imam) accompanied by a disciple in a mysterious place of the Western Maghreb, which he did not know. But it was known, from some time, that he was obsessed by a five-letter word that he was repeating over and over without penetrating its mystery: T.I.N.Me.L (3).

His prediction was realized the day when he encountered the disciple: Abdelmoumen Ben Ali (not far from Bougie in Algeria), and when he was addressed by two mysterious persons: they were coming from a place called… Tinmel!. This happened in 1118. No more doubt was permissible. He (Ibn Tumert) was the Mahdi, and the end of the Almoravid Empire was in sight . No more time to lose, the mahdi and his disciples set off westwards, towards… Tinmel.

Four years had passed before he could get himself recognized as an “ the Perfect Imam” ; four years of preaching in all the main cities of the Almoravid Empire that he went through, of theological confrontations with their Ulama, and of negotiation with the tribes of the Atlas.

Unexhausted, he carried on his preaches -sitting under a tree- even in Tinmel, to where a great number of new followers flowed. However, powerful as it is, the word was not enough to persuade every one. The Mahdi have had to order genuine operations of physical elimination among his own army; and his lieutenants carried his orders out; notably, in the night before the first attack against Marrakech in 1130.

This same year, the Mahdi retired when he was only fifty. He was making but rare appearances of which is the following some time before his death (probably in the same year): the Mahdi, making his farewell tour to Tinmel, stopped in front of an orchard and said to his people: "grab the fruits of these trees", then he asked them to fight over these fruits and with a sad smile on his face, he said: “ this is how you are going to fight over the goods of this world after my death”.

The allegory of the orchard was his last message. Mohammed Ibn Toumert, the weariless traveler, the unbendable censor of customs, the dreadful dialectician, Mahdi, Imam … , retired of the public life a day of the year 1130 after handing over the power to his major disciple Abdel Moumen. He died in his house and was buried in the mosque adjoining his home (4). “ The council of ten’’ kept the news of his death secret, perhaps for some months, while they were deliberating on his succession. (H. Triki. & al)

(1)Reference book: TINMEL ou l’epopée Almohade de H.Triki, et al. ONA Foundation.

(2) “ no more turbans, no more gilded sandals, no more tunics that make you look like women” he shouted in the streets of Bougie. And those women mingled with men at the time of prayer of l’ aid el Fitr ? A stick in the hand, he dispersed them.

(3) In Arabic: (ta’, ya, nun, mim, lam).

(4) like the prophet Mohammed, whom he imitates during solemn moments (when he received the allegiance of his companions under a tree and in many other circumstances).