Ibn Tumart

Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Tūmart (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد ابن تومرت, Berber languages: ⵎⵓⵃⵎⵎⴰⴷ ⵓⵜⵎⵔⵜ; ca. 1080– August 1130) was a Muslim religious scholar, teacher and political leader, from the Sous in southern present-day Morocco. He founded and served as the spiritual and first military leader of the Almohad movement, a puritanical reform movement launched among the Masmuda Berbers of the Atlas Mountains. Ibn Tumart launched an open revolt against the ruling Almoravids during the 1120s. After his death his followers, the Almohads, went on to conquer much of North Africa and part of Spain. Although the Almohad movement itself was founded by Ibn Tumart, after his death the second ruler Abd al-Mu'min was elected in 1133 by the Masmuda Shaykhs the leading authority of the state the councils of 10 and 50.

Ibn Tumart is proclaimed Mahdi. Folio from a manuscript of Nigaristan, Iran, probably Shiraz, dated 1573-74