Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sticks & Stones: The Almohads
Youssef ben Tachfine was a tough act to follow. Ali was his son by a Christian woman, and
he shared his father's commitments to prayer and urban planning. But while the reclusive
young idealist Ali was diligently working wonders with architecture and irrigation in Mar-
rakesh, a new force beyond the city walls was gathering the strength of an Atlas thunder-
storm: the Almohads.
Almohad historians would later fault Ali for two supposedly dangerous acts: leaving the
women in charge and allowing Christians near drink. While the former was hardly a short-
coming - after all, his stepmother's counsel had proved instrumental to the Almoravids -
there may be some merit in the latter. While Ali was in seclusion praying and fasting, court
and military officials were left to carry on, and carry on they did. Apparently, Almoravid
Christian troops were all too conveniently stationed near the wine merchants of Marrakesh.
The Hard Knocks of Ibn Tumart
None of this sat well with Mohammed ibn Tumart, the Almohad spiritual leader from the
Atlas who'd earned a reputation in Meknès and Salé as a religious vigilante, using his
walking stick to shatter wine jars, smash musical instruments and smack men and women
with the audacity to walk down the street together. Ibn Tumart finally got himself banished
from Marrakesh in the 1120s for knocking Ali's royal sister off her horse with his stick.
But though Ibn Tumart died soon after, there was no keeping out the Almohads. They
took over Fez after a nine-month siege in 1145, but reserved their righteous fury for Mar-
rakesh two years later, razing the place to the ground and killing what was left of Ali's
court (Ali died as he lived, quietly, in 1144). Their first projects included rebuilding the
Koutoubia Mosque - which Almoravid architects, not up on their algebra, had misaligned
with Mecca - and adding the soaring, sublime stone minaret that became the template for
Andalucian Islamic architecture. The Tin Mal Mosque was constructed in the High Atlas to
honour Ibn Tumart in 1156, and it remains a wonder of austere graces and unshakable
foundations.
Read irsthand accounts of Morocco's independence movement from Moroccan women who re-
belled against colonial control, rallied and fought alongside men in Alison Baker's
Voice of Resist-
ance: Oral Histories of Moroccan Women
.
