ABSTRACT

In the late eleventh or early twelfth century, Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (d. 520/1126) issued a fatwā concerning a man who was accused of apostasy by the Muslim authorities of Marrakech. The fatwā dates from a period in which North African and Andalusi societies were largely Islamized. The apogee of the Umayyad caliphate had passed, succeeded by a period of civil strife and the creation of independent units of government, the so-called Taifa kingdoms. In addition to such internal fragmentation, the Muslims of al-Andalus also faced a growing threat from the Christian powers of the north, a threat that increased throughout the eleventh century and saw its first point of culmination in 1085 when Alfonso VI (1065–1109) conquered Toledo. The defeat of the Muslims at Toledo led to the rallying of the Taifa kings behind the dynasty of the Almoravids, al-Murābitūn in Arabic, Sanhāja Berbers from the Western Sahara. They had seized power in North Africa some decades earlier and ruled their empire from Marrakech.