High Middle Ages · Africa · War

1125

Almohad movement declares open war on Almoravids

1125

Ibn Tumart's followers attacked an Almoravid force near Sus and lost, but the mere fact of the clash announced that the reformers intended to replace, not merely correct, the ruling dynasty. Two decades of intermittent mountain war followed. The Almohads preached a stripped-down theology that rejected the Maliki legal schools the Almoravids patronized, casting the struggle as a purification of Islam itself rather than a mere political revolt.