| Despite their powerful regime, the Almoravids had never
totally subdued the Berber tribes (the Masmoudas) of the Deren
(western High Atlas). Their policy regarding these traditional ennemies was that
of containment thanks to a series of fortresses (the most important being that
of Tasghimut) they erected along the foothill of the
Deren. The Masmoudas, on their side were waiting for the first signs of weakness
to topple the Almoravid regime.
It was in a way strikingly similar to that of the Almoravids that the Almohads
rose to power less that a century later.
A Berber Faqih, Ibn Tumert, after achieving his pilgrimage to Mecca and having
spent many years in the Muslim Orient, came back to Morocco (just as had done
Abdallah Ibn Yassin founder of the Almoravid movement) in the company of a disciple
(Abdelmoumen) met in eastern Algeria. He established
his Ribat in Tinmal, an unknown place in the high
N’Fis valley in 1121 (A. Ibn Yassin had done the same in the Western Sahara).
Ibn Tumert started directing his attacks to the Almoravids, on religious grounds
reproaching them their corrupt customs, that had been (according to him) contaminated
by the refined Andalucian style of life (the Almoravids had taken control of
Andalucia, at the beginning of their rule). Thus he enlarged the circle of his
followers before his lieutenant Abdelmoumen launched his fighters against the
Almoravids. In an irresitible movement, the Almoravid fortresses were destroyed,
their troops disbanded, Marrakech (capital of the Almoravid empire) conquered
and not later than 1146 the whole country was under the Almohad’s control. Then
the Almohads enlarged their conquest to Andalucia, to Algeria and Tunisia which
fell under their rule in 1160.
Never before the Moroccan empire had been as vast and never it will be after
the Almohad movement extinguished about a century later (the last Almohad Emperor
was killed in the Atlas in 1276) blown out by another Berber tribe from eastern
Morocco: the Beni Merin (or Merinids).
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