Almohad doctrine

Almohad doctrine (الدَّعوَة المُوَحِّدِيَّة) or Almohadism was the ideology underpinning the Almohad movement, founded by Ibn Tumart, which created the Almohad Empire during the 12th to 13th centuries. Fundamental to Almohadism was Ibn Tumart's radical interpretation of tawḥid—"unity" or "oneness"—from which the Almohads get their name: al-muwaḥḥidūn (المُوَحِّدون). The reformist ideology and policies of the Almohads involved a series of attempted radical changes to Islamic religious and social doctrine under their rule. These policies affected large parts of the Maghreb and altered the existing religious climate in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain and Portugal) for many decades. They marked a major departure from the social policies and attitudes of earlier Muslim governments in the region, including the preceding Almoravid dynasty which had followed its own reformist agenda. The teachings of Ibn Tumart were compiled in the book Aʿazzu Mā Yuṭlab. On the grounds that Ibn Tumart proclaimed himself to be the mehdi, or renewer—not only of Islam, but of "the pure monotheistic message" common to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism—the Almohads rejected the status of Dhimma completely. As the Almohad Caliphate expanded, Abd al-Mu'min ordered Jews and Christians in conquered territories—as well as the Kharijites, Maliki Sunnis, and Shi‘is of the Muslim majority—to accept Almohad Islam, depart, or risk death. The Almohad conquest of al-Andalus led to the emigration of Andalusi Christians from southern Iberia to the Christian north, especially to the Tagus valley and Toledo. Andalusi Jews, an urban and visible population, faced intense, often violent Almohad pressure to convert, and many, instead of leaving life as a minority in one place to hazard life as a minority in another, converted at least superficially, though many of these converts continued to face discrimination. After the 13th century collapse of the Almohad Caliphate, an Arabized Jewish population reappeared in the Maghreb, but a Christian one did not.