Muhammad al-Nasir

Muhammad al-Nasir
Caliph of the Almohads
Ruler of the Almohad Caliphate
Reign25 January 1199–1213
PredecessorAbu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur
SuccessorYusuf II, Almohad caliph
Bornc. 1182
Died1213 (aged c. 30–31)
SpouseQamar
IssueYusuf II
DynastyAlmohad
FatherAbu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur
MotherAmmet Allah bint Abu Isaac[1]
ReligionIslam

Muhammad al-Nasir (Arabic: الناصر لدين الله محمد بن المنصور, al-Nāṣir li-dīn Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Manṣūr, c. 1182[2] – 1213) was the fourth Almohad Caliph from 1199 until his death.[3] Contemporary Christians referred to him as Miramamolin.[4]

On 25 January 1199, al-Nasir's father Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur died; al-Nasir was proclaimed the new caliph that very day.[3] Al-Nasir inherited from his father an empire that was showing signs of instability. Because of his father's victories against the Christians in the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus), he was temporarily relieved from serious threats on that front and able to concentrate on combating and defeating Banu Ghaniya attempts to seize Ifriqiya (Tunisia). Needing, after this, to deal with problems elsewhere in the empire, he appointed Abu Mohammed ibn Abi Hafs as governor of Ifriqiya, so unwittingly inaugurating the rule of the Hafsid dynasty there, which lasted until 1574.

  1. ^ al-Fāsī, ʻAlī ibn ʻAbd Allāh Ibn Abī Zarʻ; al-Gharnāṭī, Ṣāliḥ ibn ʻAbd al-Ḥalīm (1860). Roudh el-Kartas: Histoire des souverains du Maghreb (Espagne et Maroc) et annales de la ville de Fès (in French). Impr. impériale. p. 326. ...had as mother a legitime wife (of his father) Ammet Allah (servant of God), daughter of the sid Abou Ishac ben Abd el-Moumen ben Aly
  2. ^ Rademacher, Cay: Der Kampf um Spanien., in: GEO EPOCHE 31, 2008, p. 33.
  3. ^ a b Évariste Lévi-Provençal, al-Nāṣir. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. 9 January 2013.
  4. ^ O'Callaghan, Joseph F. (1975). A History of Medieval Spain. Cornell University Press. p. 244. ISBN 978-0-8014-9264-8.