Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Almohad Demolition & Construction Crews
A bloody power struggle ensued between the sons of Ibn Tumart and the sons of his gen-
erals that wouldn't be settled definitively until 1185, when Abu Yusuf Yacoub, the young
son of the Muslim governor of Seville and Valencia, rode south into Morocco and drove
his foes into the desert. But he also kept and expanded his power base in Spain, winning
so many victories against the princes of Spain that he earned the moniker El-Mansour,
'the victorious'. He modelled Seville's famous La Giralda after Marrakesh's Koutoubia
minaret, and reinvented Marrakesh as an Almohad capital and learning centre to rival Fez.
Yacoub el-Mansour's urban-planning prowess also made Fez arguably the most
squeaky-clean city of medieval times, with 93 hammams, 47 soap factories and 785
mosques complete with ablutions facilities. Yacoub el-Mansour was also a patron of great
thinkers, including Aristotle scholar Ibn Rashid - whose commentary would help spark a
Renaissance among Italian philosophers - and Sufi master Sidi Bel-Abbes. However, Ya-
coub's enlightenment and admiration of architecture was apparently not all-encompassing;
several synagogues were demolished under his rule.
In
The Conquest of Morocco,
Douglas Porch describes a controversial colonial war promoted as a
'civilising mission' and supported by business interests - a chapter of Middle Eastern history
since repeated, as Porch observes in the 2005 edition.
Defeated by Bulls & Betrayal
Similar thinking (or lack thereof) prevailed in 12th-century Europe, where a hunt for
heretics turned to officially sanctioned torture under papal bulls of the egregiously mis-
named Pope Innocent IV. Bishop Bernard of Toledo, Spain, seized Toledo's mosque, and
rallied Spain's Castilian Christian kings in a crusade against their Muslim rulers.
The Almohads were in no condition to fight back. When Yacoub's 16-year-old son was
named caliph, he wasn't up to the religious responsibilities that came with the title. In-
stead, he was obsessed with bullfighting, and was soon gored to death.
Yacoub el-Mansour must've done pirouettes in his grave around 1230, when his next
son tapped as caliph, Al-Mamun, allied with his Christian persecutors and turned on his
fellow Almohads in a desperate attempt to hang onto his father's empire. This short-lived
caliph added the ultimate insult to Almohad injury when he climbed the Koutoubia
min-
bar
(pulpit) and announced that Ibn Tumart wasn't a true Mahdi (leader) of the faithful.
That title, he claimed, rightfully belonged to Jesus.
