The Almohad Revolution

The studies in this collection comprise a series of explorations into the revolutionary character of the Almohad movement in medieval North Africa and Spain and how it was expressed, including through visual and auditory means. These articles examine what put in motion such a revolution, how it developed and changed, and the influences it had both in the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds. Eight of the studies have been translated into English, from Spanish and French, specially for publication here.

Maribel Fierro is Professor at the Centre of Human and Social Sciences at the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) - Spain

Contents: Introduction; Spiritual alienation and political activism: the ghuraba in al-Andalus during the 6th/12th century; Between the Maghreb and al-Andalus: political and religious authority under the Almoravids; The mahdi Ibn Tumart and al-Andalus: the constructionn of Almohad legitimacy; The Almohads and the Fatmids; The genealogies of 'Abd al-Mu'min, the first Almohad caliph; Coins of the Almohad era: I The dinar of Qāá-i -Iyāá- that never was. II When the first Almohad coins were minted and the question of the lawfulness of minting coins; Revolution and tradition: some aspects of the world of scholarship in al-Andalus during the Almoravid and Almohad periods; Legal doctrine and practice under the Almohads; The title of the Almohad chronicle by Ibn Ṣāá-¥ib al-á¹¢alāt; Some considerations on Almohad itinerant power; Christian success and Muslim fear in Andalusi writings during the Almoravid and Almohad periods; The legal policies of the Almohad caliphs and Ibn Rushd's Bidayat al-mujtahid; Conversion, ancestry and universal religion: the case of the Almohads in the Islamic West (6th/12th-7th/13th centuries); Alfonso X 'the Wise', the last Almohad caliph?; Index.