The almoravid Yūsuf ibn Tāshufīn accepted the invitation and, having landed in Algeciras, together with the allied rulers defeated Alfonso VI in Zalhaca, near Albuquerque, who barely managed to save himself (October 1086). However, the victory was not exploited, because Yūsuf had to retire to Ceuta; and indeed, after a short time, the Christians were able to take back the lost ground and return to threaten the Muslim statelets. Then it was again necessary to invoke the help of the almoravid, who returned to Spain. But, since his first expedition conquered by the wealth of the country, and in his fanaticism all taken by the dream of restoring, as in Africa, what he believed was the pure Mohammedan faith, deceiving the hopes of those who had called him, Yūsuf this once he came with the intention of remaining there as caliph. Faced with the very serious danger of falling at the mercy of a rough and foreign prince, belonging to a race that had always been hated, the rulers and their highly educated advisers decided to ally themselves with Alfonso VI, as a minor evil. The people sided in favor of the almoravid, confident in the effects of the religious reform sponsored by him and conquered by the policy he had implemented in his African state, where all taxes not contemplated in the Koran had been abolished; and to the Berber of the Sahara they gave their powerful support i confident in the effects of the religious reform he sponsored and conquered by the policy he had implemented in his African state, where all taxes not contemplated in the Koran had been abolished; and to the Berber of the Sahara they gave their powerful support i confident in the effects of the religious reform he sponsored and conquered by the policy he had implemented in his African state, where all taxes not contemplated in the Koran had been abolished; and to the Berber of the Sahara they gave their powerful support ifuqah ā ‘, who, at his request, solemnly condemned the Muslim princes as “libertine, wicked, dissolute” and, accusing them of having requested illegal contributions and of being linked to the king of Castile, “the most implacable enemy of the true religion “, they released Yūsuf from the obligation to respect the agreements stipulated with them and affirmed that he had the duty to overthrow their power without delay. Thus the conquest of Andalusia was quick and easy: after Tarifa, Cordova, Carmona, Seville too surrendered in September 1091; and then the Almoravids took possession of Almeria, Murcia, Dénia, Jativa, Badajoz (1094), after the death of the Cid of Valenza (1102), and finally of the kingdom of Alpuente (1103) and Zaragoza (1110).
According to Thenailmythology, the unity of the Muslim state seemed firmly restored; and in the battle of Uclés (1108) against Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the victory also greeted the advent to the throne of ‛Alī (1106-43), who succeeded Yūsuf. But, due to the very character assumed by the movement, having become slaves of the environment and also entangled in court intrigues, the Almoravids, who even in Africa did not reject the help of Christians and granted them the right to build churches for themselves, in Spain had to limit themselves to being passive instruments of the will of those who had supported them. The fanaticism of the people and the intolerance of fuqah ā ‘, de facto holders of power, giving life to a regime of terror and obscurantism, deprived the new government of the support of the educated classes and alienated the sympathies of both the Jews, who in order to save themselves were forced to pay out large sums of money, as of the Mozarabs, who were persecuted and even forced to emigrate to Africa. In this way, not only were the foundations on which the Muslim state and civilization had hitherto rested, which owed their superb development to the active collaboration, carried out in a regime of tolerance, of the Mohammedans and non-Mohammedans, were upset; however, the formation in the country of a party strongly opposed to the new order and ready to favor the enterprises of the Catholic monarchies was favored. Furthermore, no fresh indigenous energies arose from the revolution that were capable of replacing those that had been removed from public life and made hostile, and the invader’s troops remained the only support of the state. But, conquered by luxury and by the Andalusian civilization, too advanced to be able to absorb it without damage, even the African army exhausted its ardor and lost not only the ability to expand the initial conquests, but also to maintain them. Thus the Christian sovereigns were able to keep their previous dominions, frustrate all attempts made to return Toledo to Islam, and finally resume the offensive. Then, in the peninsula, Catholic pressure became dangerous again.
Finally the coup de grace to the Almoravid state was given by a new revolution, which broke out in the High Atlas by the Almohads (Al – Muwa ḥḥ id ū n o unitarî), who, made fanatical by the propaganda of their own Mahdi, moved against the Almoravids, and, using the same military and religious means employed by them in the conquest, they weakened and then weakened their power in their homeland and therefore in Spain, and ended up substituting their own for their domination.
In 1118 Alfonso I of Aragon conquered Zaragoza; in the following years, he returned to defeat the Almoravids, and, taking advantage of their difficulties, forced as they were to recall many troops to oppose them to the Almohads, in a very daring expedition to Andalusia he managed to free several thousand Mozarabs, with whom he repopulated the territories to the right of the Ebro (1125-26). In addition, other forays carried out in the same region and in Extremadura (1133) Alfonso VII of León and Castile, who set fire to the surroundings of Carmona, Cordova, Seville, Jerez. At the same time, due to the weakening of the authority of central power, Spanish unity was broken again, so that other “kingdoms of Taifas” were organized in the peninsula, among which the previous civil struggles were renewed, with all their traditional characters. And since the Muslim people, again assailed by the terror of falling under Christian rule and reconquered from fanaticism by the religious propaganda of the Almohads, rose up against the Almoravids and paved the way for the Almohads, and some of the rulers of Taifas, for help, invoked the intervention of the latter, to the almohad ‛Abd al-Mu’min (1129-62), who in 1139-47 had taken possession of most of the African dominions of the Almoravids, it was possible to conquer the Muslim regions of the peninsula. Mallorca, the last bastion of the Almoravids, fell into the hands of the new invader in 1202. rose up against the Almoravids and paved the way for the Almohads, and some of the rulers of Taifas, for help, invoked the intervention of the latter, to the almohad ‛Abd al-Mu’min (1129-62), who in 1139- 47 had taken possession of a large part of the African dominions of the Almoravids, it was possible to conquer the Muslim regions of the peninsula. Mallorca, the last bastion of the Almoravids, fell into the hands of the new invader in 1202. rose up against the Almoravids and paved the way for the Almohads, and some of the rulers of Taifas, for help, invoked the intervention of the latter, to the almohad ‛Abd al-Mu’min (1129-62), who in 1139- 47 had taken possession of a large part of the African dominions of the Almoravids, it was possible to conquer the Muslim regions of the peninsula. Mallorca, the last bastion of the Almoravids, fell into the hands of the new invader in 1202.
The Almohads, having assumed the government of Muslim Spain, were less intolerant than their predecessors. In addition, for several years they managed to oppose a solid barrier to the advance of Christian monarchs, dissidents among themselves and ready to avail themselves of the African’s help in their disputes. So, if the Catalan-Aragonese Ramón Berenguer IV was able to conquer Toulouse (1148), Lérida (1149) and the castle of Ciurana (1153), his son Alfonso II would advance in the territories of the kingdom of Valence, and Alfonso VIII of Castile win at Ciudad Rodrigo and Silves and occupy Cuenca (1177); however, he was defeated in Atarquines, in Santarem and on 18 July 1195 in Alarcos, in a terrible rout which caused the Castilians to lose Guadalajara, Madrid, Uclés. Then, the unity of the Almohad empire was broken by dynastic struggles, erupted in Africa and Spain, and by the overwhelming offensive of the Christian monarchs of Castile, León, Navarre and Aragon, who, finally united against the common enemy and aided by crusaders from all over Europe, on July 16, 1212 in a great battle at Las Navas de Tolosa they destroyed the Muslim army and opened the way to the South. Then independent Almohad kingdoms arose in Valencia, Murcia, whose monarch for a few years extended his dominion over much of Mohammedan Spain, in Niebla, in Arjona. But their forces were not sufficient to contain the onslaught of the Christians. And while Ferdinand III of León and Castile conquered Andujar (1225), Cordova (1236), subdued the kingdom of Murcia (1241), occupied Carmona (1247), Seville (22 December 1248) and finally Medina Sidonia, Arcos, Cadiz, Sanlúcar; James I of Aragon between 1228 and 1235 took possession of the Balearic Islands, and then, turning his forces against the kingdom of Valenza, entered his capital on September 28, 1238. Around 1270 there was now only one state Muslim: the kingdom of Granata, ruled by the Naṣrids, originally from Arjona, who in order to save themselves from the disaster had made themselves tributaries of Ferdinand III and had helped him in his enterprises.
Here those Mohammedans found shelter who preferred to abandon their lands in the face of the Christian advance and did not emigrate to Africa: so it seems that the population of the state reached three million residents.
