The Almoravids ( Imṛabḍen, Al-Murābiṭūn ) were a Berber dynasty of Morocco, who formed an empire in the 11th-century that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus.

The Almoravids, Berber residents of present-day North Africa, led by Yusuf ibn Tashfin, were asked to help defend the divided Moors from Alfonso.

The Almoravids were a Muslim militia, their ranks mainly composed of Berber and African Moors, and unlike the previous Muslim rulers, they were not so tolerant towards Christians and Jews.

During the time of the Almoravids and especially the Almohads some were treated badly, in contrast to the policies of the earlier Umayyad Caliphs and later Emirs.

" Probable descendants of Bafours were pushed southward by the Berber dynasty of Almoravids.

Jews and Christians were alternately tolerated and persecuted, the most notable examples of the latter being the conquest of Islamic Spain by Berber-Arab forces from north Africa ( the Almoravids, followed by the Almohads from the mid-12th century ).

His father, Abu Al-Qasim Ahmad, held the same position until the Almoravids were replaced by the Almohads in 1146.

It is possible that the Berber Muslim Almoravids were originally from the area.

The situation changed in the mid-12th century, when the Almoravids, were displaced from al-Andalus and western Maghreb by the Almohad.

They ruled until they were eventually defeated by the Almoravids in May 1110.

The Almoravids, Berber residents of present-day North Africa, led by Yusuf ibn Tashfin, were asked to help defend the divided Moors from Alfonso.

On the West African coast they set up Zāwiyas on the shores of the river Niger and even established independent kingdoms such as al-Murābiṭūn or Almoravids. The Al Hakika Mizaan Mizaani Sufi Order deals with heavy internalization and meditations, their spiritual practice is called Al Qudra MizaanStates ) The Sanusi order were also highly involved in missionary work in Africa during the 19th century, spreading both Islam and a high level of literacy into Africa as far south as Lake Chad and beyond by setting up a network of zawiyas where Islam was taught.

In 1126, a great number of Mozarabs were expelled to North Africa by the Almoravids.

The Almoravids, were ousted from the peninsula in 1148 ; however, the peninsula was again invaded, by the even more puritanical Almohades.

The Almoravids were invited after the fall of Toledo ( 1085 ), and the Almohads after the fall of Lisbon ( 1147 ).

Even though the Barghawata were subsequently much weakened, they were still able to fend off Almoravid attacks — the spiritual leader of the Almoravids, Ibn Yasin, fell in battle against them ( CE 1058 ).

Although the Almoravids were dominant in the first few years, they were in decline when Afonso Henriques definitively captured Lisbon ( al-Ušbuna ) in October 1147.

After the pre-Romanesque period, in the architecture of Al-Andalus, important contributions were made by the Caliphate of Córdoba ( the Great Mosque of Córdoba ), the Taifas ( Aljafería, in Zaragoza ), the Almoravids and Almohads ( La Giralda, Seville ), and the Nasrid of the Kingdom of Granada ( Alhambra, Generalife ).

The Banu Ghaniya, distant relatives of the Almoravids, were a Sanhaja Berber dynasty.

Later, Abdelmoumen and the council of ten kept the death of Ibn Tumart secret for 3 years, since the Almohads were going into a difficult time in their fight against the Almoravids, he also feared that the Masmuda ( The Berber tribe of Ibn Tumart ) wouldn't accept him as their leader since he was an outsider.

The Almohads ( or Almohadis ) were similar to the Almoravids, in that they similarly attacked any alternative beliefs that they saw as corruptions of Islam.

The conquest of the city of Marrakech by the Almohads in 1147 marked the fall of the dynasty, though fragments of the Almoravids ( the Banu Ghaniya ), continued to struggle in the Balearic Islands, and finally in Tunisia.

The taifa was shortly recreated in 1228, after the fall of the Almoravids until it conquered by the Taifa of Murcia ; in 1244, Fernando III, King of Castilla y León and his son and heir, Prince Alfonso, the future Alfonso X of Castile, conquered Lorca.

The Crusades which started late in the eleventh century only exacerbated the religious ideology of reconquest, confronted at that time with a similarly staunch ideology found on the Muslim actors strong in Al-Andalus: the Almoravids and, more, the Almohads.

This was the case with the Almoravids of Morocco and Al-Andalus, and was also the case with the jihad of Nasir al-Din in the 17th century and the later Qadiriyyah movement of the Kunta in the 18th century.

He adopted a militant attitude towards the Moors of Al-Andalus, especially the Almoravids.

In succeeding centuries, Al-Andalus became a province of the Berber Muslim dynasties of the Almoravids and Almohads, later fragmenting into a number of minor states, most notably the Emirate of Granada.

The conquests of the Almoravids extended over present-day Morocco, Western Algeria and the Iberian peninsula to the north and Mauritania and Mali to the south reaching the Ghana Empire.

After inflicting a new defeat on the Almoravids, he set off for the Iberian Peninsula to avenge his father's death.

** A new Berber dynasty, the Almohads, led by Emir Abd al-Mu ' min al-Kumi, takes North Africa from the Almoravids and soon invades the Iberian Peninsula.

* 1149-A new Berber dynasty, the Almohad, led by Emir Abd al-Mu ' min al-Kumi conquers North Africa to the Almoravids and soon invades the Iberian Peninsula.

During the reign of Almoravids, the position of the Jews was apparently free of significant abuses, but after another Berber dynasty, Almohads, conquered Córdoba in 1148 they have abolished the dhimma status ( i. e. state protection of life and wealth ) in some of their territories which threatened the Jewish and Christian communities with the choice of conversion to Islam, death, or exile.

With the support of locals, the Almoravids deposed the taifa Muslim princes, after helping to repel Christian attacks on the region by Alfonso VI.

When the Almoravids conquered Spain in the 11th century they sent Muslim, Christian and Jewish artisans from Spain to Morocco to work on monuments.

** The Christian advance obliges the Muslim kings of Granada, Seville and Badajoz to call to their aid the Almoravids.

The Christian main body then attacks the Almoravids, but are held by the Lamtuma, and then withdraw to their own camp in response to an outflanking move by ibn Tashufin.

El Cid, however, breaks the siege and forces the Almoravids to flee – the first Christian victory against the hard-fighting Africans.

Its origins are thought to be linked to the establishment of an observation post of the Almoravids to control Christian incursion on this part of the Tunisian coast.

Alfonso's more aggressive policy towards the Taifas worried the rulers of those kingdoms, who called on the African Almoravids for help.

* When Ghana collapsed in the face of invasion from the Almoravids, a series of brief kingdoms followed, notably that of the Sosso ; after 1235, the Mali Empire rose to dominate the region.

In 1086, they led the smaller kingdoms in their resistance to the Almoravids, who did not succeed in conquering Zaragoza until May 1110.

From the late 11th century to the mid-12th century the Taifa kingdoms were united under the Almoravids ( of Saharan origin ), and after the collapse of the Almoravid empire, in 1151 the town was absorbed by the Almohad empire ( of North African origin ).