Almohads, Berber Muslim dynasty that ruled Morocco and Spain in the 12th and 13th cent. It had its origins in the puritanical sect founded by Ibn Tumart, who stirred up (c.1120) the tribes of the Atlas Mts. area to purify Islam and oust the Almoravids. His successors, Abd al-Mumin, Yusuf II, and Yakub I, succeeded in conquering Morocco and Muslim Spain, and by 1174 the Almohads had completely displaced the Almoravids. With time the Almohads lost some of their fierce purifying zeal; Yakub had a rich court and was the patron of Averroës. Yakub defeated (1195) Alfonso VIII of Castile in the battle of Alarcos, but in 1212 the Almohad army was defeated, and Almohad power in Spain was destroyed by the victory of the Spanish and Portuguese at Navas de Tolosa. In Morocco they lost power to the Merinid dynasty, which took Marrakech in 1269.

Arabic al-Muwahsubdothsubdotidūn (“Unitarians”)

(1130–1269) Berber confederation born out of religious opposition to the Islamic doctrines of the Almoravid dynasty. The Almohad leader Ibn Tūmart began his rebellion in the 1120s. Marrakech was captured in 1147 under the leadership of his successor aynAbd al-Muhamzahmin. By the 1170s all of the Maghrib was under unified control for the only time in its history, and the Almohads also controlled Muslim Spain. Their rule was marked by, on the one hand, the cultivation of science and philosophy and, on the other, efforts at religious unification by compelling Jews and Christians to convert or emigrate. They lost control of Spain to the Christians in 1212 and of their North African provinces to the Hsubdotafssubdotid dynasty in Tunis (1236) and the Marīnids in Marrakech (1269).

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