يعقوب المنصور الموحدي
The Almohad caliph al-Mansur, victor of Alarcos — dark, tall, handsome and sonorous, versed in usul, furu', chancery, history, geometry and medicine; when the truce with Alfonso of Castile lapsed at the end of 590 he fell deathly ill at Salé on the eve of the campaign, then rose and broke the Franks.
Reign · Almohad Caliphate · no. 3 in the chain · 1184–1199 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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The battle of al-Arak (Alarcos)
The famous Battle of al-Arak (Alarcos): after the truce lapsed and the Franks raided, the Almohad sultan Ya'qub al-Mansur crossed to al-Andalus in 591; the armies met north of Cordoba near Qal'at Rabah on Thursday 9 Sha'ban, the Franks charged the sultan's flags held by Abu Yahya ibn Abi Hafs — a decoy — then al-Mansur broke them utterly; sixty thousand Frankish mail-coats entered the treasury and chroniclers ranked it with or above Zallaqa.
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Battle of Monteagudo (1190)
Draft card for Battle of Monteagudo (1190); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Ali ibn Ghaniya takes Ifriqiya
In the year 581, Ali ibn Ishaq al-Mulaththam ibn Ghaniya marched to Ifriqiya. Sulaym, Riyah and other Arab groups gathered to him there, and Turks who had entered from Egypt with Sharaf al-Din Qaraqush joined them. They gave him the title Amir al-Muslimin and together took all of Ifriqiya, east and west, except Tunis and Mahdiya, where the Muwahhidun remained in fear and hardship. They ravaged the lands, fortresses and villages, violated sanctities and cut down trees. They made for the island of Bashrawhi near Tunis, whose people were granted safety, but then the army plundered its wealth until people were stripped of their clothes. They then made for Tunis, where the poor went begging until the winter cold and disease destroyed them; the dead were counted at 12,000 from a single place. Al-Mulaththam ended the khutba for the sons of Abd al-Mu'min, proclaimed the Abbasid caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah, and sent to him asking for robes of investiture and black banners.
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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 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 Jubayr returns to Granada
Ibn Jubayr returned to Granada in 581/1185 after two years' travel and wrote his rihla, the Tadhkira.
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Ibn Rushd exiled to Lucena, 591 AH
The caliph Abū Yūsuf dismissed Ibn Rushd from office and banished him to Lucena in 1195 during the jihad season; after the return to Marrakech he was recalled.
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The Mahdiyya revolt (594–595 AH)
The Almohad field-commander Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim — terror of the Arabs of Ifriqiya — fell out with the vizier Abu Sa'id ibn Umar Inti over the Banu Awf captives, seized Mahdiyya, ransomed the governor for twelve thousand dinars, and allied with Ibn Ghaniya; when al-Mansur died, the new caliph Muhammad al-Nasir's sea and land armies came, Ibn Ghaniya fled to the desert, and Ibn Abd al-Karim answered the fleet: 'I obey the Commander of the Faithful Muhammad — I will only hand it to whom he sends'.
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Siege of Alcácer do Sal (1191)
Draft card for Siege of Alcácer do Sal (1191); 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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Siege of Silves
Draft card for the Siege of Silves in 1189, Sancho I and the crusaders' capture of the Almohad city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Silves (1190)
Draft card for the Siege of Silves in 1190, the Almohad attempt to retake the city from the Portuguese; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Silves (1191)
Draft card for Siege of Silves (1191); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tomar (1190)
Draft card for the Siege of Tomar in 1190, Abu Yusuf al-Mansur's investment of the Templar castle in Portugal; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Recovery of Silves from the Franks
Al-Mansur's recovery of Silves (586): told the Franks had taken the western city, he marched himself, besieged and took it, and sent an army that won back four towns the Franks had held for forty years — whereupon the lord of Toledo sued for a five-year truce.