Key Facts
- Duration
- 1121–1269 (148 years)
- Peak area
- ~1,621,393 km²
- Founding movement
- Ibn Tumart declared Mahdi c. 1121
- Almoravid overthrow
- Marrakesh conquered 1147
- Decisive defeat
- Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, 1212
- Final collapse
- Marinids seized Marrakesh, 1269
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Territorial Scale Comparison
Peak area vs modern sovereign states
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
Ibn Tumart, a Berber religious reformer from the Masmuda tribes, founded the Almohad movement around 1121 after proclaiming himself the Mahdi and establishing a base at Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains. After his death, Abd al-Mu'min built the Mu'minid dynasty, overthrew the Almoravids, conquered Marrakesh in 1147, and declared himself caliph. By 1159 the entire Maghreb was under Almohad control, and by 1172 all of Muslim Iberia had been absorbed.
Phase II: Zenith
At its peak the caliphate stretched from the Atlantic coast of Iberia across North Africa to Tripolitania, making it one of the largest empires in the medieval Islamic world. The Almohads patronized philosophy and scholarship, with thinkers such as Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Maimonides active under their rule. Marrakesh and Seville served as twin cultural and administrative centers connecting sub-Saharan trade routes to Mediterranean commerce.
Phase III: Decline
Defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 broke Almohad power in Iberia, and Córdoba and Seville fell to Christian forces in 1236 and 1248. In North Africa, tribal revolts steadily eroded territory while the Marinid dynasty rose from 1215 onward. The last Almohad ruler, Idris al-Wathiq, was confined to Marrakesh and killed by a slave in 1269; the Marinids then seized the city, ending Almohad rule entirely.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory