al-Nasir

Who he is

Name

Muhammad al-Nasir (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ya'qub)

Title

Caliph and Commander of the Faithful (amir al-mu'minin)

Since

22 Rabi I 595 (23 or 25 January 1199)

Born

About 1181-1182

Family

Son of Ya'qub al-Mansur; see Almohads for his family. No son born by 1 January 1200 is attested: his heir Yusuf (al-Mustansir) was born about 1203.

Confidence

high

al-Marrakushi (Fagnan p. 293-300); al-Zarkashi (Fagnan p. 11-12); en.wikipedia (Muhammad al-Nasir; Yusuf II).

What it holds

• Marrakesh with the qasba of al-Mansur, the palaces, the treasury, the hospital and the gardens (records Marrakesh)
• The Haouz plain and its canals (khattara and seguia) between the Atlas and the Jbilet
• Tinmal and the tombs of the Mahdi and the caliphs (record Tinmal), held in trust with the Tinmallal
• Aghmat (record Aghmat)
• The caliph's share of every province, mine and mint

How it was acquired

Marrakesh taken from the Almoravids by Abd al-Mu'min in 1147; inherited by al-Nasir in January 1199.

Allies and rivals

The Almohad shaykhs of the High Atlas tribes round the plain (Hintata, Tinmallal, Hazmira, Gadmiwa, Ganfisa, Haskura) are his pillars; the Arab tribes of Tamesna and the Gharb owe him horsemen. Rivals: the Banu Ghaniya, far to the east.

How things stand that morning

At Marrakesh, in full control of the capital and the Haouz. By al-Marrakushi he stays there from his accession to his march to Fez in 600 (1203-1204), save the visit to Tinmal in 597.

Wealth

The treasury left by al-Mansur; the land tax of the Haouz; the dues of the Marrakesh markets; the caliph's share of the gold coming from Sijilmasa; the mint of Marrakesh.

Military

The palace guard of black slaves, the Ghuzz archers, the Kumiya (the dynasty's own tribe, brought from the Nedroma country to the capital as its guard) and the Almohad tribes of the Atlas within a few days' march. The qasba of al-Mansur is walled apart from the city.

Threats

• The Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya
• Revolts in the Sus (597) and among the mountain tribes
• A young caliph among old shaykhs and many sayyid kinsmen

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 597 AH (from 11 October 1200)Visit to Tinmal to the tombs of his father, his forebears and the Mahdi, then back to Marrakesh (al-Marrakushi).Depends on: Quiet in the Sus and the mountains. Stopped by: Revolt or a summons to the east.

Later, on the likely course

1. 600 AH (1203-1204)Marches to Fez with a large army, then on to Ifriqiya against Yahya ibn Ghaniya.Depends on: The loss of Tunis (1203). Stopped by: Yahya being contained by the governors.

Places of note

• Marrakesh: Capital and palace city
• Tinmal: Dynastic shrine

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The caliph's whereabouts rest on al-Marrakushi, who lived through the reign; the extent of the caliph's own domain round Marrakesh is drawn from the geography of the Haouz, not from a source that defines it.

On the map: The Haouz is drawn as the plain from the Nfis to the Zat; its real edges against the tribes of the foothills were rights over water and villages, not a line.

Primary sources for Almohads

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• History of the Two Dynasties, the Almohad and the Hafsid, al-Zarkashi (Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Lu'lu'i al-Zarkashi) (about 1490 to 1495, at Tunis). A short Hafsid-era chronicle whose Almohad opening gives, in a few lines a reign, the succession of al-Mansur and al-Nasir, the Banu Ghaniya's seizure of Ifriqiya and its recovery, and the sending of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs to Tunis, which the Hafsids counted as the start of their house. Read online
• The Complete History: the passages on the Maghreb and al-Andalus, Ibn al-Athir (about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul). The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. Read online
• The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. Read online
• The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
• Historical Monuments of Portugal: Writers (Annals of King Afonso, Chronicon Conimbricense, Chronica Gothorum and others) (12th to 15th centuries). The Portuguese annals in one volume. Read online
• Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• Memoirs of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart and the Beginnings of the Almohad State, Abu Bakr ibn Ali al-Sanhaji, called al-Baydhaq (about 1150 to 1165). Nothing for the year itself: al-Baydhaq's memoir ends in Abd al-Mu'min's early reign.

17 more in the sources library for The Maghreb and the Sahara.