High Middle Ages · Africa · War

1137

Almohad conquest of Marrakesh

1137

Abd al-Mu'min's Almohad armies stormed the red walls of Marrakesh after a prolonged and bloody siege, killing the last Almoravid emir and establishing the great oasis city as the capital of a new puritanical caliphate stretching from the Senegal River to the Mediterranean. The Almohads demolished the Almoravid mosques they deemed improperly oriented toward Mecca and immediately began building grander ones on corrected foundations.