The Almohad caliphate of Muhammad al-Nasir

Who rules

Name

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

Title

Caliph (khalifa) and Commander of the Faithful (amir al-mu'minin, the Christians' Miramamolin), heir of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart

Since

22 Rabi I 595 (23 or 25 January 1199, by two conversions): proclaimed at Marrakesh on the day his father Ya'qub al-Mansur died

Born

About 1181-1182: about 18 on 1 January 1200

Family

Son of Ya'qub al-Mansur (caliph 1184-1199), grandson of Abu Ya'qub Yusuf (1163-1184) and great-grandson of Abd al-Mu'min (died 1163), of the Kumiya Berbers of the Nedroma country. Named heir by his father in 1191 and again as al-Mansur lay dying. Al-Mansur left eight sons according to the chronicle attributed to al-Zarkashi.

Confidence

high

Accession and date: al-Zarkashi (Fagnan p. 11-12) gives the night of 22 Rabi I 595 at Marrakesh; en.wikipedia gives 25 January 1199; the Iberia record notes 23 January as the other conversion. Birth: en.wikipedia about 1182.

Overlord

None. The caliph claims the obedience of all Muslims as heir of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart and does not recognise the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad.

What the realm holds

• Morocco (al-Maghrib al-Aqsa): Marrakesh, the capital, with al-Mansur's palace city (the qasba); Tinmal, the holy town of Ibn Tumart and the burial place of the caliphs; Aghmat and the Haouz; the Atlantic plains of Tamesna, Dukkala and the Haha; Salé and Ribat al-Fath (Rabat), the mustering camp for al-Andalus; Fez, Meknes and Taza; Ceuta and Tangier on the Strait (on the Iberia map); Sijilmasa, the Draa and Todgha at the Sahara edge; the Sus with Taroudant and the Wadi Nun with Nul Lamta; the Rif ports Badis, al-Mazamma and Melilla. Records mrk-*.
• The central Maghreb: Tlemcen, Oran, Algiers, Miliana, Bougie (Bijaya), Constantine and Bona under governors, most of them sayyids (records cmg-*).
• Ifriqiya: Tunis and the north under the sayyid governor (records ifr-*). The south and Tripolitania are lost to Yahya ibn Ghaniya and his allies; Mahdia is in the hands of a rebel Almohad officer (records ifr-*, which settle the dates).
• Al-Andalus: Seville, the capital of the peninsula, with the provinces of Cordoba, Jaen, Niebla, the Gharb, Badajoz, the Strait and the frontier command of Calatrava; in the east Granada, Malaga, Almeria, Murcia, Valencia and Denia; and Ibiza (France and Iberia map, records anw-* and ane-*).
• Not held: Majorca, ruled by Abd Allah ibn Ghaniya (realm ghaniya, Iberia map); the Ghaniya lands of Ifriqiya and Tripolitania; the free Sanhaja of the western Sahara beyond the Wadi Nun, the Draa and Sijilmasa (realm sanhaja).

How it was acquired

Ibn Tumart, the Mahdi, preached in the High Atlas from 1121 and made Tinmal his base; he died about 1130. His companion Abd al-Mu'min took Marrakesh from the Almoravids in 1147 and went on to conquer al-Andalus, the central Maghreb and Ifriqiya (Mahdia taken from the Normans in 1160). Abu Ya'qub Yusuf ruled 1163-1184. Al-Mansur (1184-1199) crushed the Banu Ghaniya and their allies at al-Hamma near Gabes in 1187, retook the Gharb from Portugal in 1190-1191, beat Castile at Alarcos in 1195 and raided to Toledo in 1196 and 1197.

Al-Nasir inherited all of this in January 1199.

Allies and rivals

Rivals: Yahya ibn Ghaniya in Ifriqiya and his brother Abd Allah in Majorca; Qaraqush and his Turks (at times with Ibn Ghaniya, at times against him); the Arab tribes of Ifriqiya that ride with Ibn Ghaniya; the rebel of Mahdia; Castile (under truce), Portugal and the military orders in the peninsula. Friends of convenience: Navarre, whose king Sancho VII is in the caliph's lands as a suppliant from 1199 to 1201; Leon, whose king fought with Almohad troops in 1196. Trade partners: Pisa and Genoa, whose merchants trade at Ceuta, Oran, Bougie, Tunis and Seville under treaty.

In Morocco the caliph's tribal pillars are the Almohad tribes of the Masmuda and his own Kumiya, with the Arab tribes settled by his father in Tamesna and the Gharb.

The realm that morning

Firmly in power in Morocco, the central Maghreb and al-Andalus. The young caliph is at Marrakesh with his father's officers about him; the succession passed without trouble; the treasury is full from al-Mansur's reign. Morocco is quiet that winter as far as the sources show: the revolt of Abu Qasaba in the Sus is dated 597 (from October 1200), and a man claiming to be a son of the last Fatimid caliph is jailed in 596 (October 1199 to October 1200, month not pinned).

The loss is in the east, where the Banu Ghaniya hold most of the land between Tunis and Tripoli.

Wealth

The land tax (kharaj) on the farmland of the conquered Muslims, the alms tax, customs at the ports, the market dues of the towns, the caliph's fifth of booty, the mines and the mints. The Saharan gold reaches the mints through Sijilmasa; the Sus sends sugar from its cane fields; the Atlantic plains (Tamesna, Dukkala) send grain; the Middle Atlas and the Fazaz send wool, horses and timber; Fez works leather and cloth; the Draa and Tafilalt grow dates. Al-Andalus sends oil, silk and cloth.

Genoese and Pisan merchants buy at Ceuta and the other treaty ports.

Military

The Almohad tribes of the High Atlas and the Sus (Hintata, Tinmallal, Harga, Ganfisa, Hazmira, Gadmiwa, Haskura and others), each under its shaykh, and the caliph's own people, the Kumiya; the Arab tribes of the Banu Hilal (Jusham, with the Khult and Sufyan; Riyah) settled by al-Mansur in Tamesna and the Gharb after 1187, who owe horsemen; the Ghuzz, Turkish horse archers, many of whom came over from the Ayyubid adventurers in Ifriqiya and are paid above the Almohads; a black slave guard; Zenata horsemen and volunteers for holy war; the Andalusi troops in the peninsula. The fleet, based at Ceuta and Seville with stations at Salé, Bougie and other ports (it will take Majorca in 1203). The host musters at Ribat al-Fath to cross the Strait.

No numbers: the chroniclers' figures are not reliable.

Threats

• Ifriqiya: Yahya ibn Ghaniya and his Arab and Turkish allies; Mahdia in rebel hands (ifr records).
• Majorca: the Banu Ghaniya's corsairs.
• Castile: a breach of the truce from the Calatravan castle of Salvatierra.
• Revolt at home: the Sus (Abu Qasaba, 597), the pretender claiming Fatimid descent (jailed 596, released 601), the tribes of the Rif and the Ghumara, which revolted under Abu Ya'qub (1177).
• A young caliph among old shaykhs and many sayyid uncles and cousins.

Court

Marrakesh, in the palace quarter that al-Mansur built on the south side of the city (the qasba, with its own mosque, gates and gardens). By al-Marrakushi, who lived through these years, the caliph stayed at Marrakesh from his accession until he marched to Fez in 600 (1203-1204), apart from a visit to Tinmal in 597 (late 1200 or 1201) to the tombs of his father, his forebears and the Mahdi; so he is at Marrakesh on 1 January 1200. His first vizier was his father's vizier, Abu Zayd Abd al-Rahman ibn Musa ibn Yujan, a Hintata shaykh and nephew of the great shaykh Abu Hafs Umar; after a short time al-Nasir replaced him with his own brother Ibrahim (Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub); later viziers were Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abi Imran and, after him, Abu Sa'id Uthman ibn Abd Allah ibn Jami' (vizier from about 1205 to 1214 on the usual reckoning).

The Banu Jami' are a family of Toledan origin: their founder Ibrahim, a coppersmith, was among Ibn Tumart's first followers; Ibrahim's son Abu al-Ala Idris was vizier to Abu Ya'qub until he was jailed and stripped of his goods in 577 (1181-1182); Abu Sa'id's father Abd Allah governed Ceuta and commanded the fleet and is said to have been put to death under Abu Ya'qub (al-Marrakushi p. 236, 295). In 1200 the family is out of the vizierate but in service.

Which of the first two holds the office on 1 January 1200 is not pinned (see notes). The chancery is in the hands of the two Ibn Ayyash, Abu Abd Allah and Abu al-Hasan, secretaries to al-Mansur who stayed in office; the army secretary of al-Mansur's last years, known as al-Qubbashi, was still in post at his death. The chief judge (qadi al-jama'a) is Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Marwan al-Wahrani, al-Mansur's judge, who died in office and was followed by Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Tahir al-Husayni of Fez (date of the change not pinned).

Around them sit the shaykhs of the Almohads (Hintata, Tinmallal, Harga, Ganfisa, Hazmira, Gadmiwa and the rest), the sayyids, and the talaba and huffaz, the trained cadres who preach, judge, inspect and write for the state.

Hierarchy

The Almohad order of rank (tartib) goes back to Ibn Tumart: the Ten (ahl al-jama'a, his first companions), the Fifty (ahl al-khamsin, the council of the founding tribes), then the shaykhs of each tribe, the talaba (the learned cadres of the capital and of the tribes) and the huffaz (young men schooled at the palace in the Mahdi's creed, archery, riding and swimming, then posted as officers and officials). By 1200 the founding Ten are long dead and their places are held by their sons and grandsons (above all the sons of Abu Hafs Umar of the Hintata); the shaykhs of the Almohads act as a council round the caliph and lead their tribes to war. The sayyids, the princes of the line of Abd al-Mu'min, outrank the shaykhs and hold the great governorships, each usually with an Almohad shaykh at his side.

Family and heirs

Mother: Zahr, a Christian-born concubine freed as mother of the heir (en.wikipedia); fr.wikipedia's infobox gives instead a name that reads as Amat Allah bint Abi Ishaq (see notes). Consort: Qamar, a Christian-born slave, mother of his son and eventual heir Yusuf (al-Mustansir, caliph 1213-1224), born about 1203 by en.wikipedia (he was about ten when named heir in 1213; an older account makes him about sixteen, which would put his birth about 1197), so most probably not yet born on 1 January 1200. Brothers, sons of al-Mansur: Ibrahim (Abu Ishaq), soon vizier, later twice governor of Seville; Abd Allah (Abu Muhammad, the future al-Adil, caliph 1224-1227); Idris (Abu al-Ala, the future al-Ma'mun, caliph 1227-1232); Abd al-Aziz (governor of the Haskura from 603 and then of Sijilmasa); Musa; and others; their ages and offices on 1 January 1200 are not pinned, except Ibrahim's.

Uncles and cousins of the lines of Abu Ya'qub Yusuf and of Abu Hafs Umar ibn Abd al-Mu'min hold the great governorships (Tunis, Tlemcen, Bougie, Seville, Cordoba, Sijilmasa and others).

Relations east

The Almohads claim the caliphate for themselves and do not name the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, al-Nasir li-Din Allah, in the Friday sermon; their enemy Yahya ibn Ghaniya does, and flies the Abbasid black banners, which makes the war in Ifriqiya also a war of two caliphates. With the Ayyubids of Egypt relations are cold: Saladin's embassy of 1190 asked al-Mansur for a fleet against the crusaders and, by the usual account, got none, because Saladin did not address him as Commander of the Faithful; Saladin's Turkish adventurers (Qaraqush and others) have fought in Ifriqiya on their own account since the 1170s, sometimes with the Banu Ghaniya. On 1 January 1200 Saladin's heirs are quarrelling over Egypt and Syria (Latin East map) and play no part in the Maghreb.

Treaties and truces

• Castile: ten-year truce of 1197 (en.wikipedia and es.wikipedia), in force; whether renewed is not pinned (Iberia record).
• Navarre: at peace since Alarcos; Sancho VII came to the caliph in 1199 seeking help against Castile and stays until 1201 (Iberia record).
• Portugal: the five-year truce of 1191 has run out; no renewal pinned (Iberia record).
• Pisa: treaty of 1186 with al-Mansur admitting Pisan merchants to named ports (Ceuta, Oran, Bougie, Tunis) and to Almeria only as a stop (as usually summarised; terms not checked here); Genoa: older treaties; the terms in force in 1200 are not pinned.
• In Ifriqiya there is no truce: open war with Yahya ibn Ghaniya (records ifr-*).

Coinage

Gold dinars on the Almohad pattern (a square set in a circle on each face, with the caliph's name and the Almohad formulas), the heavy double dinar that the Christians call the dobla, and fractions; anonymous square silver dirhams and half-dirhams with the Almohad creed (God is our Lord, Muhammad our Prophet, the Mahdi our imam). Mints in Morocco at Marrakesh, Fez, Sijilmasa, Ceuta and other towns; in al-Andalus at Seville and others.

Doctrine

The creed of Ibn Tumart: the absolute unity of God (tawhid), the Mahdi as the infallible imam, the Qur'an and the sound hadith above the law books of the jurists. Al-Mansur pressed this hard: al-Marrakushi saw at Fez the Maliki law books carried in to be burnt after the Qur'an verses and hadith had been taken out. Al-Mansur also ordered the Jews (forced converts in name since the 1140s) to wear a distinctive dress of dark blue with a strange cap and long sleeves (al-Zarkashi dates an order on the Jews' distinguishing badge to 595); al-Marrakushi says al-Nasir later let them wear yellow clothes and turbans instead (date not pinned).

The Friday sermon (khutba) is said in the names of the Mahdi and the caliph; the Abbasid caliph is not named.

Buildings

The Kutubiyya mosque at Marrakesh, the qasba of al-Mansur with its gate (Bab Agnaou); the unfinished great mosque of Ribat al-Fath (the Hassan tower), left half built at al-Mansur's death; the Giralda minaret at Seville, finished in 1198; the mosque of Tinmal, the dynasty's shrine.

As seen from the France and Iberia sheet

The Almohad caliphate rules the whole Maghreb from the Atlantic to Ifriqiya and all of al-Andalus that is still Muslim, from the Tagus frontier to the Strait and from the Algarve to Valencia; only the Balearics, held by the Banu Ghaniya, escape it. Its caliph, Muhammad al-Nasir, about eighteen, succeeded his father Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, three and a half years after al-Mansur crushed Alfonso VIII of Castile at Alarcos (18 July 1195) and then raided to the walls of Toledo in 1196 and 1197. The court is at Marrakesh.

Al-Andalus is ruled from Seville through governors drawn from the caliph's own family (the sayyids), backed by Almohad shaykhs and garrisons, while Andalusi qadis, secretaries and tax officials run the courts and offices. On 1 January 1200 the peninsula is quiet under a truce with Castile, the frontier castles are full, and the caliph's real war is in the east, where Yahya ibn Ghaniya is tearing Ifriqiya away. The king of Navarre, Sancho VII, is in the caliph's lands in Africa as a suppliant.

Name

Muhammad al-Nasir (Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yaqub, al-Nasir li-Din Allah)

Title

Caliph (khalifa) and Commander of the Faithful (amir al-muminin, which the Christians turn into Miramamolin)

Since

January 1199: proclaimed on the death of his father Yaqub al-Mansur at Marrakesh on 22 Rabi I 595 (given as 23 January 1199 in one account and 25 January 1199 in another)

Born

Spring 1181 in one modern account, about 1182 in another: about 18 years old on 1 January 1200

Family

Son of Yaqub al-Mansur (caliph 1184-1199) and Zahr, a Christian-born slave freed as mother of the heir. Grandson of Abu Yaqub Yusuf (1163-1184) and great-grandson of Abd al-Mumin (died 1163), the founder of the dynasty, of the Kumiya Berbers. Named heir in 1191 and named again in 1198 while his father lay dying, so the succession passed without a contest.

Confidence

high

Es.wikipedia and en.wikipedia (Muhammad al-Nasir); Alvira Cabrer (1996), who dates the reign from 22 Rabi I 595 / 25 January 1199 to 25 December 1213; en.wikipedia (al-Mansur) gives the father's death as 23 January 1199. The two-day gap is a conversion difference, not a dispute.

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. 596 AH (22 October 1199 to 10 October 1200), month not pinnedAl-Nasir jails a man who claims to be a son of al-Adid, the last Fatimid caliph of Egypt; he is released in 601 and later raises the Sanhaja of the desert against Sijilmasa.Depends on: The pretender being found before he raises followers. Stopped by: His flight to the desert first.
2. 597 AH (from 11 October 1200)Al-Nasir visits Tinmal to pray at the tombs of his father, his forebears and the Mahdi, and returns to Marrakesh (al-Marrakushi).Depends on: Quiet at home. Stopped by: A revolt or a call to the east.
3. 597 AH (11 October 1200 to 29 September 1201)Revolt in the Sus of Abd al-Rahman, called Ibn al-Jazzara and Abu Qasaba, of the Jazula; several Almohad detachments are beaten before a larger force of Almohads, Ghuzz and regular troops wins over the Masmuda of the Sus, who turn on him; his head is sent to Marrakesh (al-Marrakushi).Depends on: The grievances of the Sus and the Jazula. Stopped by: Early action by the governor of the Sus.
4. 1200, month not pinnedSancho VII of Navarre stays in the caliph's lands while Castile takes Vitoria; he goes home in 1201 (Iberia record).Depends on: The caliph keeping him. Stopped by: The caliph sending him home with help.
5. 1200-1203Yahya ibn Ghaniya gains ground in Ifriqiya and takes Tunis in 1203, capturing the sayyid governor (al-Marrakushi; dates on the ifr records).Depends on: No relief army from Marrakesh. Stopped by: An early eastern campaign.

Later, on the likely course

1. 597 AH by al-MarrakushiAl-Nasir names the sayyid Abu Zayd Abd al-Rahman governor of Ifriqiya with its dependencies (other accounts have Abu Zayd in Tunis since the 1180s; see the ifr records).Depends on: Tunis still in Almohad hands. Stopped by: Tunis falling first.
2. 1203The Almohad fleet takes Majorca; al-Nasir marches to Fez (600) and then east; Mahdia surrenders in 1206 after a four-month siege; Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs is named governor of Ifriqiya in 603 (1207), the start of Hafsid rule.Depends on: Peace in al-Andalus and Morocco. Stopped by: A Christian attack in the peninsula or a revolt at home.

Places of note

• Marrakesh: Capital and court; the qasba of al-Mansur; the Kutubiyya
• Tinmal: Ibn Tumart's town and the caliphs' burial place
• Ribat al-Fath: Mustering camp for the crossing to al-Andalus; the unfinished great mosque
• Sijilmasa: Head of the gold road; mint
• Seville: Capital of Almohad al-Andalus (Iberia map)
• Tunis: Seat of the governor of Ifriqiya (ifr records)
• Tlemcen: Seat of the governor of the central Maghreb's west (cmg records)
• Bougie: Seat of the governor of the eastern central Maghreb; fleet base (cmg records)

Where the sources disagree

• The vizier: the Iberia record (Almohads) gives Abu Muhammad Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as vizier 1199-1205 as likely, after en.wikipedia and fr.wikipedia, which follow the Rawd al-Qirtas list (Ibn Yujan, then Abd al-Wahid, then Ibn Jami'). Al-Marrakushi, who was in Marrakesh and Fez in these years, gives instead: Ibn Yujan, then 'after a short time' the caliph's brother Ibrahim, then Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abi Imran, then Ibn Jami'. On 1 January 1200 the vizier is therefore either Ibn Yujan or Ibrahim on al-Marrakushi's list; Abd al-Wahid is a great shaykh and soon the army's commander in Ifriqiya, but his vizierate in 1200 is doubtful. The Iberia record's 'likely rather than certain' should be read as 'not pinned'.
• The caliph's mother: en.wikipedia names Zahr, a Christian-born concubine; fr.wikipedia's infobox gives a name that reads as Amat Allah bint Abi Ishaq. Not settled here.
• Abu Zayd's governorship of Ifriqiya: al-Marrakushi says al-Nasir appointed him in 597; al-Zarkashi has a sayyid Abu Zayd ibn Abi Hafs governing Ifriqiya from 584. Both may be true (a reappointment); the ifr records settle who holds Tunis on 1 January 1200.

Evidence: The caliph, his accession, his court in Marrakesh and his viziers, secretaries and judges are given by al-Marrakushi, a contemporary, and the chronicle attributed to al-Zarkashi; the great campaigns and treaties are well known. Thin: the names of most provincial governors in Morocco for the winter of 1199-1200 (al-Marrakushi names governors mostly for later years), the exact day the vizierate changed hands, and the birth year of the heir. Ibn Idhari's Bayan and Huici Miranda's Historia politica del imperio almohade would settle more, but could not be reached.

On the map: No map parts: the caliphate is drawn from its lords, towns and provinces on this sheet (mrk, cmg, ifr) and on the France and Iberia map.

Primary sources for this realm

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.
• The Book of Examples: the History of the Berbers and of the Muslim Dynasties of North Africa, Ibn Khaldun (1375 to 1379 at Qal'at Ibn Salama and Tunis, revised until 1406). Ibn Khaldun's tribal histories are the standard account of the powers that Almohad chronicles treat as background: the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in Ifriqiya and Tripolitania and their alliances with the Banu Ghaniya and Qaraqush; the Zenata of the central Maghreb (Banu Marin, Banu Abd al-Wad, Tujin, Maghrawa) before their rise; the Sanhaja and the veiled peoples of the Sahara; the Masmuda and the Almohad tribes. Read online
• The Gift of the Imamate, Ibn Sahib al-Sala (Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad al-Baji) (late twelfth century; the surviving part covers 1159 to 1173). The only Almohad court chronicle written from inside the administration, by a chancery secretary who travelled with the caliphs Abd al-Mu'min and Abu Yaqub Yusuf.
• The Pleasant Book: a Summary of the History of the Maghreb, Abd al-Wahid al-Marrakushi (completed in 1224, in the East, after the author left the Maghreb in 1217). Abd al-Wahid was a boy of fifteen at Fez and Marrakesh in 1200 and later moved in Almohad court circles, so his account of Yaqub al-Mansur (died January 1199) and of the first years of Muhammad al-Nasir is partly from memory and from men he knew: the character of the new caliph, the weakness that let the Banu Ghaniya overrun Ifriqiya, the Majorca expedition of 1203 and the Ifriqiya campaign of 1205 to 1206. Read online
• History of the Affairs of Spain, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada (completed 1243). The archbishop's history of the peninsula, written forty years on by a Navarrese who served Castile. Read online

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