High Middle Ages · Africa · Politics

1119

Almoravid decline begins

1119

A major Christian raid reached Granada. Ali ibn Yusuf's government, weakened by political infighting and mounting taxes to fund two fronts in Spain and the Sahara, began to lose the loyalty of its Berber soldiery. The Almohad preachers in the Atlas were watching. Within a decade, the reformers would descend from their mountain strongholds to challenge the Almoravids for control of the entire Maghreb and al-Andalus.