1159 -- The Movement Takes Algiers

In 1014 the Hammadi Berbers (green) had taken Algiers from their cousins, the Zirid Berbers.

944 circa -- The refounding of Algiers on site of Roman (Berber) Icosium by the Zirid Berbers, who establish a dynasty of control in the region.


1014 -- The Zirid Berbers lose control of Algiers to the Hammadid Berber tribe (see map above)

1062 -- Founding of Marrakesh by the Almohavid Berber dynasty in Morocco.

1120 by -- The Almohavid Berbers, ruing from Marrakesh, establish an empire over Morocco and southern Spain (see map)

1120 c -- The Almohad movement was founded among the Berber Masmuda tribes in the Atlas Mountains in the south of modern Morocco by Ibn Tumart, a Berber Muslim religious reformer.

Ibn Tumart's followers took up the name "al-Muwwahidun", meaning those who affirm the unity of God. Spanish authors wrote that down as "Almohades", by which "Almohads" entered other languages. 

Ibn Tumart's main principle was a rigid unitarianism (tawhid) which denied the existence of the attributes of God as incompatible with his unity and therefore a polytheistic idea. Ibn Tumart represented a revolt against what he perceived as anthropomorphism in the Muslim orthodoxy, but he was a rigid predestinarian and a strict observer of the law. He laid the blame for the "theological flaws" of the nation upon the ruling dynasty of the Almoravids. Ibn Thumart strongly opposed their sponsorship of the Maliki school of jurisprudence, whom he accused of neglecting the Sunnah and Hadith (traditions and sayings of the Prophet and his companions) and relying too much on ijma (consensus of jurists) and other sources, an anathema to the stricter Zahirism favored by Ibn Tumart. Ibn Tumart condemned the subtle reasoning of Maliki scholars as "innovations" (bid‘ah), obscurantist, perverse and possibly heretical (a charge previously made by Ibn Hazm and al-Ghazali, and the main reason why their works were proscribed by Almoravid authorities.).^[18] Ibn Tumart also blamed the Almoravid governance for the latitude he found in Maghrebi society, notably the public sale of wine and pork in the markets, something the Qur'an forbids. Another reform was the destruction or hiding of any type of religious art in mosques. His rule and the rule of the Almohads after were full of reforms that attempted to turn the area under his control into a place where his doctrines held sway.

1120 -- The Almohad movement establishes a state in Tinmel in the Atlas Mountains. 

1147 -- The Almohad movement overthrows ruling Berber Almoravid dynasty in Morocco, taking possession of their empire (which becomes the Almohad Empire).

1148 -- The Norman invasion of formerly Roman Africa under Roger II (Hauteville).

1159 -- The Almohad Empire expands eastward, taking Algiers from the Hammadid Berber tribe.

The Almohad Empire. It began around 1120 as a religious reform movement among Berbers of southern Morocco in the Atlas Mountains. By 1159, they had captured Algiers from the Hammadid Berbers.