Morocco reached its height under a series of Berber dynasties, that arose south of the Atlas Mountains and expanded their rule northwards, replacing the local rulers.

The 11th and 12th centuries witnessed the founding of several great Berber dynasties led by religious reformers and each based on a tribal confederation that dominated the Maghrib ( also seen as Maghreb ; refers to North Africa west of Egypt ) and Al-Andalus for more than 200 years.

But ultimately each of the Berber dynasties proved to be a political failure because none managed to create an integrated society out of a social landscape dominated by tribes that prized their autonomy and individual identity.

Because the Alaouites, in contrast to previous dynasties, did not have the support of a single Berber or Bedouin tribe, Isma ' īl controlled Morocco through an army of black slaves.

On more than one occasion, the Berber tribes of the Western Sahara would unite behind religious leaders to sweep the ruling leaders from power, sometimes founding dynasties of their own.

Their role within the Fatimid state was so central that Ibn Khaldun counted the Fatimids among the Berber dynasties.

The region was somewhat unified as an independent political entity during the rule of the Berber kingdom of Numidia, which gave way to centuries of rule by the Roman Empire, followed by the brief domination of the Vandal Kingdom, the equally brief re-establishment of " Roman " rule by the Byzantine Empire, and later the more-enduring rule of the Islamic Caliphates and Emirates under Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Almoravid, Almohad, Hammadid, Zirid, and Marinid dynasties ( to name some of those among the most prominent ) during the 8th to 13th centuries, and that of the Ottomans, at least nominally, thereafter.

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.

During the reign of these Berber dynasties, many Jewish and even Muslim scholars left the Muslim-controlled portion of Iberia for the city of Toledo, which had been reconquered in 1085 by Christian forces.

Category: Berber dynasties

Powerful Berber dynasties such as the Almohads, and briefly the Hafsids, occasionally unified it for short periods.

On more than one occasion, the Berber tribes of present-day Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara would unite behind religious leaders to sweep the surrounding governments from power, then founding dynasties of their own.

Category: Berber dynasties

Category: Berber dynasties

Category: Berber dynasties

In the era of the Berber dynasties, coinciding with the flowering of Al-Andalus, there were several important Moroccan writers, especially in the fields of religion and historiography, as well as poets employed in the courts of, for instance, the Marinid sultans.

Category: Berber dynasties

Category: Berber dynasties

Category: Berber dynasties

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.

From the year 1053, the Almoravids began to spread their religious way to the Berber areas of the Sahara, and to the regions south of the desert.

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

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.

Mortified by the concept of being surrounded by the enemy taifa rulers sent a desperate appeal to the Berber chieftain Yusuf b. Tashufin leader of the Almoravids.

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.

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

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

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

At the end of the 11th century, two Berber tribes, the Almoravids and the Almohads, captured the head of the Maghreb and Spain, successively, bringing Maghrebi influences into art.

The high point of Berber civilization, unequaled until the coming of the Almohads and Almoravids more than a millennium later, was reached during the reign of Masinissa in the 2nd century BCE.

The king of Takrur sided with the Berber and Tuareg tribes of the Almoravids in their political intervention of the Ghana Empire.

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.

Both of them Berber Sanhaja desert tribes and one time allies, the Lamtuna formed the core of the Almoravids after the Gudala broke away.

At the time, Morocco, as well as much of Spain ( al-Andalus ) and North Africa ( al-Maghreb ), were ruled by the Almoravids, a puritanical Sanhaja Berber movement, whose original capital was nearby at Marrakesh.

** 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.

* 1147: A new Berber dynasty, the Almohads, led by Emir Abd al-Mu ' min, takes North Africa from the Almoravides and soon invades the Iberian Peninsula.

In the twelfth century the Berber Almohads conquered the country and began to rule it from Tunis, an ancient but until-then unimportant city, which thus rose to become the capital.

The Hammadids were a Berber dynasty who ruled an area roughly corresponding to north-eastern modern Algeria for about a century and a half ( 1008 – 1152 ), until they were destroyed by the Almohads.

During this time the Berber Almohads took control of Trujillo and it environs.

Some time around 1117, he became a follower of Ibn Tumart, leader of Masmudas ( Berber tribe of western Morocco ), a religious leader of renowned piety who had founded the Almohads as a religious order with the goal of restoring purity in Islam.

Among these were al-Bashir ( a scholar, who would become his chief strategist ), Abd al-Mu ' min ( a Zenata Berber who would become his eventual successor ) and Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Baydhaq ( who would later write the Kitab al-Ansab, the chronicle of the Almohads.