Abd al-Mumin
Abd al-Mumin was a Berber leader from western Algeria who founded the Almohad empire. As caliph from 1130 to 1163, he brought North Africa west of Egypt under one rule. He was born around 1094 at Tagra, near Nedroma, in the wilaya of Tlemcen, and died at Salé, in present-day Morocco, in 1163.
Abd al-Mumin was a Berber leader from western Algeria who founded the Almohad empire. As caliph from 1130 to 1163, he brought North Africa west of Egypt under one rule. He was born around 1094 at Tagra, near Nedroma, in the wilaya of Tlemcen, and died at Salé, in present-day Morocco, in 1163.
The future caliph came from a humble family, and his father was a potter, but the boy studied Islam and Arabic, first in Tlemcen.
A chance meeting changed his life. Around 1117, at Mellala near Béjaïa, he heard the preacher Ibn Tumart, founder of the Almohad movement, and became his follower.
When Ibn Tumart died in 1130, the disciple took his place. After 17 years of struggle against the Almoravid dynasty, he took Marrakesh in 1147 and made it his capital.
By 1159 his power covered the whole Maghreb, and the Almohads then extended their rule into Muslim Spain.
Today a statue of Abd al-Mumin stands in Nedroma. The town remembers him as the son of the region who built one of the great empires of North Africa.
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