The Almohad reforms were a series of attempted radical changes to Islamic religious and social doctrine under the Almohad movement, founded by Ibn Tumart, which created the Almohad Empire during the 12th to 13th centuries.[1][2] Under Almohad rule this religious doctrine affected large parts of the Maghreb and altered the existing religious climate in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain and Portugal) for many decades.[3][4] This marked a major departure from the social policies and attitudes of earlier Muslim governments in the region, including the preceding Almoravid dynasty which had followed its own reformist agenda.[1][2] The religious fundamentalism of the Almohad Caliphate caused a massive emigration of Jews and Christians from southern Iberia to the Christian north and North Africa, specifically Egypt.[citation needed]
During its golden age, Spain was open to a good deal of religious tolerance. For the most part the Almoravids let other People of the Book, or other religions that held the Old Testament as a holy text, practice their religion freely.[5] The Almoravids, however, were more puritanical than previous Muslim rulers of Spain.[citation needed]
The golden age for Jews in Spain is considered to be under the relative tolerant rule of the Ummayyad Caliphate in al-Andalus. It was generally a time when Jews were free to conduct business, participate in government, and practice their religion without fear of persecution.
Rise to power
Map showing the area of Almohad control in Spain and the paths of counter-attacks from Castile (C) and Aragón (A). ((L) Leon, (P) Portugal, (N) Navarre)
Like the Almoravids, the Almohads crossed over into Spain from North Africa. They were led by ibn Tumart, regarded by historians as a fundamentalist who was convinced that it was his destiny to reform Islam. Ibn Tumart claimed to be the mahdi, a title which elevated him to something similar to a messiah or leader of a redemption of righteous Islamic order.[1] He was an intelligent and charismatic man; he claimed to be a direct descendant of Muhammad. He had studied in Alexandria, Córdoba, Mecca, and Baghdad,[5] and his fanaticism and charismatic preaching earned him a devoted group of followers.
He presented a different view that caused outright hostility on the Iberian peninsula.[6] To top off the Almohads' meteoric rise, in 1146 they crossed over the Strait of Gibraltar into Iberia.[7] Their rule quickly spread across a new continent. At their height they were one of the most powerful forces in the western Mediterranean. Once they took control over the Iberian Peninsula, they cemented their presence by moving their capital from the high Atlas village of Tinmel to the Spanish city of Seville. They were a determined military and economic force, defeating Christian forces primarily composed of Castilians at the Battle of Alarcos.[8] This marked the height of the Almohad Caliphate.
Ibn Tumart himself died in 1130, well before the Almohads' main military successes, and had no spiritual successor. However, the political leadership of his movement passed on to Abd al-Mu'min, who effectively founded the Almohad ruling dynasty. He and his successors had very different personalities from Ibn Tumart but nonetheless pursued his reforms, culminating in a particularly aggressive push by Ya'qub al-Mansur (who arguably ruled at the apogee of Almohad power).[1]:255–258
Religious doctrine and ideology
The Almohad ideology preached by Ibn Tumart is described by Amira Bennison as a "sophisticated hybrid form of Islam that wove together strands from Hadith science, Zahiri and Shafi'ifiqh, Ghazalian social actions (hisba), and spiritual engagement with Shi'i notions of the imam and mahdi".[1]:246 This contrasted with the highly orthodox or traditionalist Maliki school (maddhab) of Sunni Islam which predominated in the region up to that point. Central to his philosophy, Ibn Tumart preached a fundamentalist or radical version of tawhid – referring to a strict monotheism or to the "oneness of God". This notion gave the movement its name: al-Muwaḥḥidūn (Arabic: المُوَحِّدون), meaning roughly "those who advocate tawhid", which was adapted to "Almohads" in European writings.[1]:246 Ibn Tumart saw his movement as a revolutionary reform movement much as early Islam saw itself relative to the Christianity and Judaism which preceded it, with himself as its mahdi and leader.[1]:246
The Almohad judicial system has been described as looking to the letter of the law rather than the deeper intended purpose of the law. They primarily followed the Zahirite school of law within Sunni Islam; under the reign of Abu Yaqub Yusuf, chief judge Ibn Maḍāʾ oversaw the banning of any religious material written by non-Zahirites.[9] Abu Yaqub's son Abu Yusuf went even further, actually burning non-Zahirite religious works instead of merely banning them.[10] They trained new judges, who were given schooling in both the religious and military arts.[6]
They had a very traditional philosophy, one which did not look to any of the reforms past caliphates had attempted to institute.[clarification needed] Where the preceding Almoravids considered themselves an empire, the Almohads sought to return Spain to the days of the Caliphate.[11]
Treatment of non-Muslims
At their peak in the 1170s, the Almohads had firm control over most of Islamic Spain, and were not threatened by the Christian forces to the north.[8] Once the Almohads took control of southern Spain and Portugal, they introduced a number of very strict religious laws. Even before they took complete control in the 1170s, they had begun removing non Muslims from positions of power.[12]
Jews and Christians were denied freedom of religion, with many sources relating that the Almohads rejected the very concept of dhimmi (the official protected but subordinate status of Jews and Christians under Islamic rule) and insisted that all people should accept Ibn Tumart as mahdi.[1]:171 During his siege against the Normans in Mahdia, Abd al-Mu'min infamously declared that Christians and Jews must choose between conversion or death.[1]:173 Likewise, the Almohads officially regarded all non-Almohads, including non-Almohad Muslims, as false monotheists and in multiple cases massacred or punished the entire population of a town, both Muslim and non-Muslim, for defying them.[1] Generally, however, the enforcement of this ideological position varied greatly from place to place and appears to have been especially tied to whether or not local communities resisted the Almohad armies as they advanced.[1] However, as the Almohads were on a self-declared jihad, they were willing to use brutal techniques to back up their holy war.[13] In some cases the threats of violence were carried out locally as a warning to others even if the authorities did not have the ability to actually follow through on a larger scale.[1] Native Christians in al-Andalus who were living under Muslim rule up until this point had the option to escape to Christian-controlled lands to the north, and many did so. Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile also encouraged them to flee by offering them lands if they migrated to his territory.[1]:173–174 Jews, however, were particularly vulnerable as they faced an uncertain minority status in both Christian or Muslim territory, as well as because they lived mainly in urban areas where they were especially visible to authorities.[1] Many were killed in the course of Almohad invasions or repressions.[12]
This pressure to convert resulted in many conversions under duress which were insincere, with many Christians and Jews officially converting in order to escape violence while preserving their livelihoods. Even the famous Jewish philosopher Maimonides was reported to have officially converted to Islam under Almohad rule when he moved from Cordoba to Fes, before finally leaving for Egypt where he was able to live openly as a Jew again.[1]:174 Half-hearted oaths were certainly not looked to as ideal and brought a lot of problems for the population of al-Andalus, much as it did during the forced conversion of Muslimsand Jews in Spain and Portugal a few centuries later.[1] The Almohads recognized that many of the conversions by Jews were not particularly sincere, which certainly did not help to promote social and religious unity.[12] They responded to this by imposing severe regulations on the business of former Jews. Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur set up a strict dress code for Jews living within Almohad territory: Jews had to wear dark blue or black, the traditional colors of mourning in Islam, which further entrenched discrimination.[14]
In al-Andalus the Almohad caliphate was decisively defeated by the combined Christian forces of Portugal, Castile, and Aragon at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, in 1212.[15] The battle is recognized as one of the most important events in the reconquista movement in Spain. Not only was it a decisive defeat of the Muslim forces, it was also one of the first times the fractured Christian kingdoms of the north came together for the common goal of reclaiming the peninsula.[citation needed]
Following 1212 the Almohad Caliphate's power declined and the revolutionary religious dogmatism of Ibn Tumart began to fade as later Almohad dynastic rulers were more preoccupied with the practicalities of maintaining the empire over a wide region whose population largely did not subscribe to Almohadism. This culminated in 1229 when Caliph al-Ma'mun publicly repudiated Ibn Tumart's status as mahdi.[1]:116 This declaration may have been an attempt to appease the Muslim population of al-Andalus, but it also allowed for one Almohad faction, the Hafsids, to disavow his leadership and declare the eastern part of the empire in Ifriqiya (Tunisia) to be independent, thus founding the Hafsid state.[1][2]
By 1270, the Almohads were no longer a force of any significance on the Iberian Peninsula or Morocco. After their fall, the fundamentalist religious doctrine that they supported was relaxed once again. Some scholars consider that Ibn Tumart's overall ideological mission ultimately failed, but that, like the Almoravids, his movement nonetheless played a role in the history of Islamization in the region.[1]:246 One holdover for Jews was a law that stated that people who converted to Islam would be put to death if they reconverted.[16]
The Hafsids of Tunisia, in turn, officially declared themselves the true "Almohads" after their independence from Marrakesh but this identity and ideology lessened in importance over time. The early Hafsid leadership mainly attempted to keep the Almohads as a political elite more than a religious elite in a region that was otherwise predominantly Maliki Sunni in orientation. Eventually, the Almohads were merely one among multiple factions competing for power in their state.[2] After 1311, when Sultan al-Lihyani took power with Aragonese help, Ibn Tumart's name was dropped from the khutba (the main community sermon on Fridays), effectively signaling the end of public support for Almohad doctrine.[2]:127 Over the 14th century the Maliki ulama (scholars) increasingly occupied positions in the state and were the de facto religious authorities.[2]:132–133
↑ Dominique Urvoy, The Ulama of al-Andalus, pg. 868. Taken from The Legacy of Muslim Spain, Volume 12 of Handbook of Oriental Studies: The Near and Middle East. Eds. Salma Khadra Jayyusi and Manuela Marín. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1992. ISBN9789004095991
1 2 Allen Fromherz, "North Africa and the Twelfth-century Renaissance: Christian Europe and the Almohad Islamic Empire", Islam & Christian-Muslim Relations 20, no. 1 (January 2009): 43-59.
1 2 Madeleine Fletcher, "The Almohad Tawhīd: Theology Which Relies on Logic", Numen, v. 38, no. 1 (June 1, 1991): 110-127
↑ Amira Bennison, "The Almohads and the Qur'ān of Uthm ān: The Legacy of the Umayyads of Cordoba in the Twelfth Century Maghrib", Al-Masaq: Islam & the Medieval Mediterranean 19, no. 2 (2007): 131-154.
↑ Shawqi Daif, Introduction to Ibn Mada's Refutation of the Grammarians, pg. 6. Cairo, 1947.
↑ Maribel Fierro, "Alfonso X 'The Wise': The Last Almohad Caliph?", Medieval Encounters 15, no. 2-4 (December 2009): 175-198.
1 2 3 Norman Roth, "The Jews and the Muslim Conquest of Spain", Jewish Social Studies 38, no. 2 (Spring 1976): 145-158.
↑ Maribel Fierro, "Decapitation of Christians and Muslims in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula: Narratives, Images, Contemporary Perceptions", Comparative Literature Studies, v. 45, no. 2 (2008): 137-164.
↑ Isabel O’Connor, "The Fall of the Almohad Empire in the Eyes of Modern Spanish Historians", Islam & Christian-Muslim Relations 14, no. 2 (April 2003): 145
↑ Amira Bennison, "The Almohads and the Qur’ān of Uthm ān: The Legacy of the Umayyads of Cordoba in the Twelfth Century Maghrib", Al-Masaq: Islam & the Medieval Mediterranean 19, no. 2 (2007): 131-154.
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