Abd al-Mu'min
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Abd al-Mu'min (1094-1163) (Arabic: عبد المؤمن بن علي) was the first Caliph of the Almohad Empire.
Abd al-Mu'min was a member of the group of Kumia a Berber tribe living in the area of Tlemcen (Algeria). Some time around 1117 he became a follower of Ibn Tumart a religious leader of renowned piety who had founded the Almohads as a religious order with the goal of restoring purity in Islam. When ibn Tumart died in 1130 al-Mu'min became the leader of the movement, he forged it into a powerful military force and under him the Almohads swept down from the mountains destroying the power of the faltering Almovarids by 1147.
Establishing his capital at Marrakech, al-Mu'min expanded his empire beyond Morocco eastwards to the border of Egypt. He also was a prodigious builder of monuments and palaces. One of the monuments he caused to be erected was a substantial fortress at Chellah to prepare the site as a base for attacks against Iberia. (Hogan, 2007) The last years of his life were spent campaigning in the Al-Andalus (Morrish Iberia) first conquering the Muslim kingdoms and then campaigning inconclusively against the Christian states.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Henri Terrasse, History of Morocco (2 vols., 1949-1950; trans., 1 vol., 1952).
- C. Michael Hogan (2007) Chellah, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham, [1]
| Preceded by Ishaq ibn Ali (end of Almoravid dynasty) |
Almohad dynasty 1147–1163 |
Succeeded by Abu Ya'qub Yusuf |
