The first combined history of two of the great Islamic empires of the 10th-13th centuriesAfrican invaders of Spain? Berber nationalists who destroyed the convivencia between Muslims, Christians and Jews? Or key contributors to the maturation of Islamic society in the Maghrib?The Almoravid and Almohad empires ruled substantial parts of the Maghrib and al-Andalus between the 10th and mid-13th centuries. This is the first survey of the rise and fall of these two hugely powerful empires whose rule fostered the emergence of the Islamic society which endured, in Morocco especially, until the early 20th century. Amira K. Bennison focuses on these dynasties from a positive perspective, placing them in their proper context of medieval Mediterranean and Islamic history.Key Features:*Places the Almoravids and Almohads within the broader sweep of Islamic history*Presents chapters on politics, society, economy & trade, religion & knowledge and art & architecture*Includes 50 illustrations: maps, genealogical tables, photographs, plans and diagramsKeywords: Almoravid, Almohad, Empire, the Maghrib, al-Andalus, Mediterranean.From the APF:This is the first book in English to provide a comprehensive account of the rise and fall of the Almoravids and the Almohads, the two most important Berber dynasties of the medieval Islamic west, an area that encompassed southern Spain and Portugal, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The Ṣanhāja Almoravids emerged from the Sahara in the 1050s to conquer vast territories and halt the Christian advance in Iberia. They were replaced a century later by their rivals, the Almohads, supported by the Maṣmūda Berbers of the High Atlas. Although both have often been seen as uncouth, religiously intolerant tribesmen who undermined the high culture of al-Andalus, this book argues that the eleventh to thirteenth centuries were crucial to the Islamisation of the Maghrib, its integration into the Islamic cultural sphere, and its emergence as a key player in the western Mediterranean, and that much of this was due to these oft-neglected Berber empires.