High Middle Ages · Africa · Religion
1034
Almoravid movement coalesces in the Sahara
1034
The Lamtuna Berber preacher Abdallah ibn Yasin began organizing Sanhaja warriors at a ribat along the Senegal River, teaching a strict Maliki Islam and building a religious brotherhood under military discipline. Within two decades these veiled desert warriors would storm north into Morocco and beyond. Their austere piety and military cohesion would carry them from the sand dunes of the western Sahara to the palaces of Andalusia.