Editing Almoravid dynasty (section)

===Origins===
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2021}}
[[File:Camel Rider 1413 Mecia Viladestes map.jpg|thumb|Possible depiction of Abu Bakr ibn Umar (labelled "Rex Bubecar"), in the 1413 [[portolan chart]] of [[Mecia de Viladestes]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=de la Roncière |first=Charles |title=La découverte de l'Afrique au Moyen Age, cartographes et explorateurs |publisher=Sociéte royale de géographie d'Égypte |year=1925 |location=Cairo |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cortesão |first=Jaime |title=Os Descobrimentos portugueses |publisher=Livros Horizonte |year=1975 |volume=2 |pages=339 |language=pt}}</ref>]]
The Almoravids, sometimes called "al-mulathamun" ("the veiled ones", from ''{{Lang|ar-latn|[[litham]]}}'', Arabic for "[[veil]]".)<ref name=":16">{{Cite book |last=Julien |first=Charles André |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofnorthaf0000juli/page/76/mode/2up?view=theater |title=History of North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco: From the Arab Conquest to 1830 |date=1970 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-0-7100-6614-5 |pages=77 |language=en}}</ref> trace their origins back to several Saharan [[Sanhaja]] nomadic tribes, dwelling in an area that stretches between the [[Senegal River]] in the south and the [[Draa River|Draa river]] in the north.<ref name=":17">{{Cite book |last=Baadj |first=Amar S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BvTjCQAAQBAJ&dq=touaregs+descendents+almoravids&pg=PA13 |title=Saladin, the Almohads and the Banū Ghāniya: The Contest for North Africa (12th and 13th centuries) |date=2015 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-29857-6 |pages=13 |language=en}}</ref> The first and main Almoravid founding tribe was the [[Lamtuna]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Africa |first=Unesco International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qDFcD0BuekQC&dq=Almoravids+mauritania&pg=PA176 |title=Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century |date=1992 |publisher=J. Currey |isbn=978-0-85255-093-9 |pages=176–181 |language=en}}</ref> It occupied the region around [[Awdaghust]] (Aoudaghost) in the southern Sahara according to contemporary Arab chroniclers such as [[Ya'qubi|al-Ya'qubi]], [[al-Bakri]] and [[Ibn Hawqal]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Willis |first=John Ralph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rD0sBgAAQBAJ&dq=bilad+lamtuna&pg=PA88 |title=Studies in West African Islamic History: Volume 1: The Cultivators of Islam, Volume 2: The Evolution of Islamic Institutions & Volume 3: The Growth of Arabic Literature |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-25160-3 |pages=88–90 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Abun-Nasr |first=Jamil M. |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofmaghrib0000abun |title=A history of the Maghrib |date=1971 |publisher=Cambridge [Eng.] University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-521-07981-5 |pages=92}}</ref> According to French historian [[Charles-André Julien]]: "The original cell of the Almoravid empire was a powerful Sanhaja tribe of the Sahara, the Lamtuna, whose place of origin was in the [[Adrar Region|Adrar]] in [[Mauritania]]."<ref name=":16" /> The [[Tuareg people]] are believed to be their descendants.<ref name=":17" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brill |first=E. J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GEl6N2tQeawC |title=E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913–1936. A–Bābā Beg |date=1993 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-09787-2 |pages=318 |language=en}}</ref>

These nomads had been converted to Islam in the 9th century.<ref name=":16" /> They were subsequently united in the 10th century and, with the zeal of new converts, launched several campaigns against the "[[Sudan (region)|Sudan]]ese" (pagan peoples of [[sub-Saharan Africa]]).{{sfn|Lewicki|1992|pp=308–309 or pp. 160–161 in 1988 edition}} Under their king Tinbarutan ibn Usfayshar, the Sanhaja Lamtuna erected (or captured) the citadel of Awdaghust, a critical stop on the [[trans-Saharan trade]] route. After the collapse of the Sanhaja union, Awdaghust passed over to the [[Ghana Empire]]; and the trans-Saharan routes were taken over by the Zenata [[Maghrawa]] of [[Sijilmasa]]. The Maghrawa also exploited this disunion to dislodge the Sanhaja Gazzula and Lamta out of their pasturelands in the Sous and Draa valleys. Around 1035, the Lamtuna chieftain Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Tifat (alias Tarsina), tried to reunite the Sanhaja desert tribes, but his reign lasted less than three years.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021|reason=This and preceding sentences are unsourced}}

Around 1040, [[Yahya ibn Ibrahim]], a chieftain of the Gudala (and brother-in-law of the late Tarsina), went on [[Hajj|pilgrimage]] to [[Mecca]]. On his return, he stopped by [[Kairouan]] in [[Ifriqiya]], where he met [[Abu Imran al-Fasi]], a native of [[Fez, Morocco|Fez]] and a jurist and scholar of the [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] [[Maliki]] school. At this time, Ifriqiya was in ferment. The [[Zirid dynasty|Zirid]] ruler, [[al-Mu'izz ibn Badis]], was openly contemplating breaking with his [[Shia Islam|Shi'ite]] [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]] overlords in Cairo, and the jurists of Kairouan were agitating for him to do so. Within this heady atmosphere, Yahya and Abu Imran fell into conversation on the state of the faith in their western homelands, and Yahya expressed his disappointment at the lack of religious education and negligence of [[Sharia|Islamic law]] among his southern Sanhaja people. With Abu Imran's recommendation, Yahya ibn Ibrahim made his way to the ''ribat'' of Waggag ibn Zelu in the [[Sous]] valley of southern Morocco, to seek out a Maliki teacher for his people. Waggag assigned him one of his residents, [[Abdallah ibn Yasin]].<ref name=HWA>{{cite book |last1=Levtzion |first1=Nehemia |author1-link=Nehemia Levtzion |editor1-last=Ajayi |editor1-first=A.J. |title=History of West Africa |date=1976 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |edition=2nd. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestafr0000ajay_q6f4/page/122/mode/2up |access-date=20 September 2023 |chapter=The early states of the Western Sudan to 1500|isbn=978-0-231-04103-4 }}</ref>{{rp|122}}

Abdallah ibn Yasin was a Gazzula Berber, and probably a convert rather than a born Muslim. His name can be read as "son of [[Ya-Sin]]" (the title of the 36th ''[[surah]]'' of the [[Quran]]), suggesting he had obliterated his family past and was "re-born" of the Holy Book.<ref>M. Brett and E. Fentress (1996), ''The Berbers'', Oxford: Blackwell, p. 100. Revealingly, the 36th ''surah'' begins the salutation "You are one of messengers" and the imperative duty to set people "on the straight path". Ibn Yasin's choice of name was probably not a coincidence.</ref> Ibn Yasin certainly had the ardor of a puritan zealot; his creed was mainly characterized by a rigid formalism and a strict adherence to the dictates of the Quran, and the [[Sunnah|Orthodox tradition]].<ref name="shilling88" /> (Chroniclers such as al-Bakri allege Ibn Yasin's learning was superficial.) Ibn Yasin's initial meetings with the [[Godala|Guddala]] people went poorly. As he had more ardor than depth, Ibn Yasin's arguments were disputed by his audience. He responded to questioning with charges of apostasy and handed out harsh punishments for the slightest deviations. The Guddala soon had enough and expelled him almost immediately after the death of his protector, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, sometime in the 1040s.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021|reason=This and preceding sentences are unsourced}}

Ibn Yasin, however, found a more favorable reception among the neighboring [[Lamtuna]] people.<ref name="shilling88">{{cite book|last=Shillington|first=Kevin|title=History of Africa|year=2005|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0-333-59957-0|page=88}}</ref> Probably sensing the useful organizing power of Ibn Yasin's pious fervor, the Lamtuna chieftain [[Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni]] invited the man to preach to his people. The Lamtuna leaders, however, kept Ibn Yasin on a careful leash, forging a more productive partnership between them. Invoking stories of the early life of Muhammad, Ibn Yasin preached that conquest was a necessary addendum to Islamicization, that it was not enough to merely adhere to God's law, but necessary to also destroy opposition to it. In Ibn Yasin's ideology, anything and everything outside of Islamic law could be characterized as "opposition". He identified tribalism, in particular, as an obstacle. He believed it was not enough to urge his audiences to put aside their blood loyalties and ethnic differences, and embrace the equality of all Muslims under the Sacred Law, it was necessary to make them do so. For the Lamtuna leadership, this new ideology dovetailed with their long desire to refound the Sanhaja union and recover their lost dominions. In the early 1050s, the Lamtuna, under the joint leadership of Yahya ibn Umar and Abdallah ibn Yasin—soon calling themselves the ''al-Murabitin'' (Almoravids)—set out on a campaign to bring their neighbors over to their cause.<ref name=HWA/>{{rp|123}}