Abd al-Mu'min

Abd al-Mu'min (1094-1163) was the first Caliph of the Almohad Empire.

Abd al-Mu'min was a member of the group of Masmuda Berbers living in the Atlas Mountains. They had long been at odds with the Almoravids who then ruled Morocco and had been forced into exile in the mountains. Some time around 1117 he became a follower of Abdallah ibn Tumart a religious leader of renowned piety who had founded the Almohads as a religious order with the goal of restoring purity in Islam. When ibn Tumart died in 1130 al-Mu'min became the leader of the movement, he forged it into a powerful military force and under him the Almohads swept down from the mountains destroying the power of the faltering Almovarids by 1147.

Establishing his capital at Marrakech al-Mu'min spread his empire beyond Morocco conquering eastwards to the border of Egypt. He also was a prodigious builder of monuments and palaces. The last years of his life were spent campaigning in Spain first conquering the Muslim kingdoms and then campaigning inconclusively against the Christian states.