Abu Ya'qub Yusuf ibn Abd al-Mu'min
Abu Ya'qub Yusuf ibn Abd al-Mu'min, second Almohad caliph — deposed the designated heir, his brother Muhammad, in Sha'ban 558, posted his brother Abu Hafs 'Umar over al-Andalus, and grew up between the cavalry and the scholars: a firm jurist whose bent ran to wisdom and philosophy, his dinars the 'Yusufis' of the Maghreb. He crossed in 566 with a hundred thousand horse, and at Seville the death of Ibn Mardanish (Rajab 567 — his mother was said to have poisoned him) brought the sons to surrender all the east of al-Andalus; Yusuf raided to the gates of Toledo, took Gafsa in 575, and died of illness (some said a Frankish arrow) at the month-long siege of Santarém in Rabi' I 580, carried home in a coffin while the Almohad commanders settled the succession on his son Ya'qub without a written will.
Reign · Almohad Caliphate · no. 2 in the chain · 1163–1184 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Almohad Wars in Iberia
Draft card for the Almohad wars in Iberia, 1172–1212, the Almohad campaigns ending at Las Navas; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Calatrava (1173)
Draft card for Battle of Calatrava (1173); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Fahs al-Jullab
Draft card for the Battle of Fahs al-Jullab in 1165, the Almohads' victory over Ibn Mardanish near Murcia; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Palmela (1165)
Draft card for Battle of Palmela (1165); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Capture of Coruche (1180)
Draft card for Capture of Coruche (1180); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Capture of Juromenha (1170)
Draft card for Capture of Juromenha (1170); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Conquest of Cuenca (1177)
Draft card for the Conquest of Cuenca in 1177, Alfonso VIII's capture of the city from the Almohads; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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death of Ibn Mardanīsh — Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin takes his lands
Ibn Mardanīsh, lord of the Spanish east, died and the Almohad Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin took his lands — the eastern provinces and Qafsa fell to him, joined to his Maghreb realm.
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Ibn Ghaniya's seizure of Béjaïa (580 AH)
Sha'ban 580: hearing of Yusuf ibn Abd al-Mu'min's death, Ali 'Ibn Ghaniya' of Majorca sailed twenty vessels into Béjaïa's roadstead — two hundred mounted Mulaththamun and four thousand foot took the governor-less city without a fight; the Banu Hammad remnant flocked in, the returning governor's own thousand Arabs defected at first contact, and only Constantine held out until an Almohad army of twenty thousand horse and a great fleet lifted it in Safar 581, driving the brothers to Ifriqiya.
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Ibn Jubayr in Baghdad
Ibn Jubayr stayed at Baghdad describing the Nizamiyya college, the quarter of Abd al-Qadir and its markets.
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Ibn Jubayr sets out from Granada
In Safar 578/1183 Ibn Jubayr left Granada for the hajj, crossing the sea by way of Ceuta and the west.
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Ibn Jubayr's hajj, 579 AH
Ibn Jubayr performed the hajj of 579/1183, standing at Arafat and staying months at Mecca describing the Ka'ba, the tawaf and the sanctuary.
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Ibn Jubayr reaches Alexandria
Ibn Jubayr reached Alexandria — its lighthouse, its colleges, the dar al-adl and Sultan Saladin.
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Ibn Jubayr visits Medina
Ibn Jubayr visited Medina describing the Prophet's mosque, the tomb, the Rawda and Quba.
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Ibn Jubayr shipwrecked to Sicily
The ship carrying Ibn Jubayr was wrecked off Sicily; King William II rescued the passengers and he landed at Palermo.
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Ibn Rushd becomes the caliph's physician (1182)
In 1182 Ibn Rushd succeeded Ibn Ṭufayl as physician to the caliph Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, and to his son Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb in 1184.
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Ibn Ṭufayl presents Ibn Rushd to the caliph
Between 1153 and 1169 Ibn Ṭufayl presented Ibn Rushd to the Almohad caliph Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, who took to him and charged him with interpreting Aristotle.
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Siege of Abrantes (1179)
Draft card for the Siege of Abrantes in 1179, an Almohad attack on Portugal; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Badajoz (1169)
Draft card for the Siege of Badajoz in 1169, the Almohad intervention and capture of Afonso I of Portugal; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Évora (1181)
Draft card for Siege of Évora (1181); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Huete (1172)
Draft card for Siege of Huete (1172); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Moya (1183)
Draft card for Siege of Moya (1183); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Santarém
Draft card for the Siege of Santarém in 1171, Abu Ya'qub Yusuf the Almohad's siege of the city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Santarém
Draft card for the Siege of Santarém in 1184, Abu Yusuf the Almohad's campaign into Portugal; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Tahāfut al-Tahāfut written
In 1179–80 Ibn Rushd composed his three connected treatises in defence of philosophy: Faṣl al-Maqāl, Kashf al-Manāhij, and Tahāfut al-Tahāfut answering al-Ghazali.