This is the first book in English to provide a comprehensive account of the rise and fall of the Almoravids and the Almohads; the two most important Berber dynasties of the medieval Islamic west; an area that encompassed southern Spain and Portugal; Morocco; Algeria and Tunisia. The Sanhaja Almoravids emerged from the Sahara in the 1050s to conquer vast territories and halt the Christian advance in Iberia. They were replaced a century later by their rivals; the Almohads; supported by the Masmuda Berbers of the High Atlas. Although both have often been seen as uncouth; religiously intolerant tribesmen who undermined the high culture of al-Andalus; this book argues that the eleventh to thirteenth centuries were crucial to the Islamisation of the Maghrib; its integration into the Islamic cultural sphere; and its emergence as a key player in the western Mediterranean; and that much of this was due to these oft-neglected Berber empires.
#1069458 in Books 2016-03-14Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.30 x .70 x 5.90l; .0 #File Name: 0745670164200 pages
Review
