The Almohade Hierarchy

J. F. P. Hopkins

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00143502

The Almohade Hierarchy

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

J. F. P. Hopkins

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It is well known that the Almohades instituted a politico-social system or hierarchy. In it the subjects of the Almohade state were divided into ranks or grades of aristocracy which do not appear to be closely connected with their administrative arrangements but may originally have been a battle-array. The broad lines of this system are fairly clear; it is the details that are often obscure. The Mahdī's, later the Caliph's, advisers, the ‘ cabinet’ of his government, were ten men known simply as ‘ the Ten’ or Ahl al-jamā'a. Below them came a council called ‘ the Fifty ’ {Ahl Khamsīn or Ayt Khamsīn). The mass of the people were divided thus in descending order (I follow here Ibn al-Qaṭṭān, later copied by the anonymous author of the Ḥulal al-mawshiyya): the Talaba, the Ḥuffāẓ, the Ahl al-dār, Hargha, Ahl Tīnmāl, Gadmīwa, Ganfīsa, Hintāta, the Jund, the Ghuzāt, and Rumāt. Other writers have additional categories and put them in a slightly different order. Gaudefroy-Demombynes has used the Kitāb al-ansāb for the light it throws on the description of Hafsid institutions given in his partial edition of ‘Umarl's Masālik al-abṣār, and more recently Terrasse has summarized its information in his Histoire du Maroc.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , February 1954 , pp. 93 - 112

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00143502 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1954

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^{page 93 note 1} Doc. In.48 sq.—The following abbreviations are used:—

Chr. Aim. An.: Six fragments inédits d'une chronique anonyme du début des Almohades, ed. Lévi-Provencal, E., in Mélanges Bené Basset, vol. 2, Paris, 1925.Google Scholar This proves to be a fragment of the Naẓm al-jumān of Ibn al-Qaṭṭān.

Doc. In.: Documents inedits d'histoire almohade, ed. Lévi-Provencal, E., Paris, 1928.Google Scholar This contains three distinct items: Letters by Ibn Tūmart and ‘Abd al-Mu'min; abridged extracts from a work called Kitāb al-ansāb fī ma'rifat al-aṣḥāb; part of a historical work about the Almohades by Al-Baydhaq.

Ḥulal: Anon., Al-ḥulal al-mawshiyya, ed. Allouche, I. S., Rabat, 1936.Google Scholar

IKh: Ibn Khaldūn, Histoire des Berbres, tr. Slane, de, reprinted Paris, 1925.Google Scholar Būlāq refers to the Arabic text published in seven volumes at Būlāq in 1284 A.H.

Masālik: Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-‘Umarī, Masālik al-abṣār, tr. Gaudefroy-Demombynes, with the sub-title L'Afrique, moins t'Egypte, Paris, 1927.Google Scholar ‘ Abd al- W. refers to the extracts from the Masāplik published by Ḥasan Ḥusni ‘Abd al-Wahhāb at Tunis, n.d., with the title Waṣf Ifrīqiya wa'l-Andalus awāasiṭ al-qarn al-thāmin li'l-hijra.

Mu'jib: ‘Abd al-Wāḥid al-Marrākushī, Al-mu'jib fī talkhīṣ akhbār al-maghrib. The first figure refers to the second edition of Dozy, , Leiden, 1881,Google Scholar the second figure to the excellent Cairo edition of 1949.

Tash.: Yūsuf b. Yahyā b. al-Zayyāt al-Tādilī, Kiiāb al-tashawwuf ilā rijāl al-taṣawwuf, Rabat MS. D767.

^{page 94 note 1} Mu'jib 273/376.

^{page 94 note 2} Mu'jib 227/309.

^{page 94 note 3} Doc. In. text 29.

^{page 94 note 4} Chr. Aim. An. text 4.

^{page 95 note 1} Mu'jib 246/338.

^{page 95 note 2} Chr. Alm. An. text 2.

^{page 95 note 3} Ḥulal 89.

^{page 95 note 4} Mu'jib 245/338.

^{page 96 note 1} e.g.Mu'jib 247/340.

^{page 96 note 2} Chr. Aim. An. 360; Doc. In. 118; Doc. In. text 74.

^{page 96 note 3} IKh 2 170;Google ScholarBūlāq 6 228.14.Google Scholar

^{page 97 note 1} Chr. Alm. An. text 4.

^{page 97 note 2} Rawญ al-qirṭās, tr. Beaumier, 264; 117 ult. of the 276-page Fez lithographed edition.

^{page 97 note 3} Ḥulal 88.

^{page 97 note 4} Montagne, R., Les Berbères et le Makhzen, 221.Google Scholar

^{page 97 note 5} Chr. Alm. An. text 4.

^{page 97 note 6} Fagnan, E.; Annales du Maghrib et de l'Espagne (tr. from Ibn al-Athīr), 535.Google Scholar

^{page 97 note 7} Chr. Aim. An. text 3.

^{page 98 note 1} Ḥulal 89.

^{page 98 note 2} Doc. In. 55 sq.

^{page 98 note 3} Mu'jib 246; Chr. Aim. An. 2; IKh 2 258;Google Scholar Ḥulal 89.

^{page 98 note 4} IKhi 1 254;Google ScholarBūlāq 6 128.1.Google Scholar

^{page 98 note 5} IKh 2 118;Google ScholarBūlāq 6 203.18.Google Scholar

^{page 98 note 6} Doc. In. text 46.

^{page 98 note 7} I follow the translation and vocalization of the editor but, presuming the MS. to be unpointed, I should be inclined to read qudum.

^{page 98 note 8} Doc. In. text 47.

^{page 99 note 1} Doc. In. text 77.

^{page 99 note 2} Masālik 114; ‘Abd al-W. 10.

^{page 99 note 3} ‘Abd al-W. 10.

^{page 99 note 4} Brunot, L., Textes arabes de Rabat, 2 469.Google Scholar

^{page 99 note 5} Chr. Aim. An. text 2.

^{page 99 note 6} Ḥulal 89.

^{page 99 note 7} Ḥulal 114.

^{page 99 note 8} Doc. In. text 48.

^{page 99 note 9} Doc. In. 70.

^{page 100 note 1} Qur'an 3 106.Google Scholar

^{page 100 note 2} Mu'jib 129/179.

^{page 100 note 3} Salwat al-anfās 1 93.Google Scholar

^{page 100 note 4} Bābā, Aḥmad, Nayl al-ibtihāj, Cairo 1351 A.H., 253.17.Google Scholar

^{page 100 note 5} IKh 2 466;Google ScholarBūlāq 6 337 ult.Google Scholar

^{page 100 note 6} Masālik 122.

^{page 101 note 1} Montagne op. cit., p. 97, note 4, 222.

^{page 101 note 2} Chr. Aim. An. text 2.

^{page 101 note 3} ḤulalM 89.

^{page 101 note 4} Doc. In. text 48.

^{page 103 note 1} Tash. f. 113 ro.

^{page 103 note 2} al-Ghubrīnī, Ahmad b. Aḥmad, ‘Unwān al-dirāya, ed. Cheneb, Ben, Algiers, 1910, 160.7.Google Scholar

^{page 103 note 3} ‘al-Bādisī, Abd al-Ḥaqq b. Ismā'īl, Al-maqṣad al-sharīf, tr. Colin, G. S., being vol. 26 (1926)Google Scholar of Arckives Marocaines, 99.

^{page 103 note 4} Doc. In. text 47.

^{page 103 note 5} Vives, Prieto, La reforma numismātica de los almohades, in Miscelānea de estudios y textos árabes, Madrid, 1915.Google Scholar

^{page 103 note 6} ‘al-Andalusi, Muḥammad b. Muhammad al-WazIr, Al-ḥulal al-sundusiyya fī ‘l-akhbār al-lūnusiyya, Tunis, 1287/1870, 252.7.Google Scholar

^{page 104 note 1} Doc. In. 110.

^{page 104 note 2} Doc. In. text 47.

^{page 104 note 3} Mu'jib 248/341.

^{page 104 note 4} Mu'jib 246/339.

^{page 104 note 5} Ḥulal 89.

^{page 105 note 1} ‘Abd al-W. 18, 24.

^{page 105 note 2} cf. Fagnan, op. cit. note 18, 536; ‘Abd al-W. 10, 24.

^{page 105 note 3} e.g. Rawḍ al-qirṭās, tr. Beaumier, , 310;Google Scholar Fez edn. (see p. 97n.), 140.7 a.

^{page 105 note 4} Mu'jib 248/341.

^{page 106 note 1} Tash. f. 130 vo 11.Google Scholar

^{page 106 note 2} Tash, f. 101 ro 7.

^{page 106 note 3} Doc. In. text 47.

^{page 107 note 1} Brunot, op. cit. p. 99, note 4, 2 s.v.Google Scholar

^{page 107 note 2} Dozy, Supplèment s.v.

^{page 107 note 3} Chr. Aim. An. text 2.

^{page 107 note 4} Doc. In. text 48.

^{page 107 note 5} Tash. f. 195 ro 8.

^{page 107 note 6} Mu'jib 144/201, 248/342.

^{page 108 note 1} Mu'jib 248/342.

^{page 108 note 2} ‘al-Ṣlāt, Abd al-Malik b. Ṣāḥib, Al-mann bi'l-imāma, Bodleian MS. Marsb433, f. 59 ro 8.Google Scholar

^{page 108 note 3} Doc. In. text 139.

^{page 108 note 4} Doc. In. text 132.

^{page 108 note 5} Doc. In. 67.

^{page 108 note 6} IKh 2 118;Google ScholarBūlāq 6 203.8 a. f.Google Scholar

^{page 108 note 7} Lévi-Provencal, E. (ed.), Un recw.il de lettres officidles almohades, text Rabat, 1941,Google Scholar commentary in Hespéris xxviii (1941).

^{page 108 note 8} Doc. In. text 48.

^{page 109 note 1} Doc. In. text 120.

^{page 109 note 2} Ibn ṣāḥib al-Ṣalāt, op. cit. p. 108 n. f. 59 ro, in two places.

^{page 109 note 3} Ḥulal 125.

^{page 109 note 4} This is the book edited, with others, by Goldziher, with the title Le livre de Mohammed ibn Toumert, Algiers, 1903.Google Scholar

^{page 110 note 1} Chr. Alm. An. text 19.

^{page 110 note 2} Al-Bādisi, op. cit. note 49, 51.

^{page 110 note 3} Al-Wazīr al-Andalusi, op. cit. note 52, 117.10, 160.6, 163.7.

^{page 110 note 4} Al-Ghubrīni, op. cit. p. 103, n. 21.

^{page 110 note 5} al-Abbār, Ibn, TakmiUt al-ṣila, ed. Codera, , Madrid, 1886, no. 1920.Google Scholar

^{page 110 note 6} Doc. In. 73.

^{page 111 note 1} Chr. Alm. An. text 1.

^{page 111 note 2} Ḥulal 89.

^{page 111 note 3} Chr. Alm. An. 4.

^{page 111 note 4} op. cit. note 77, 54.

^{page 111 note 5} IKh 2 170;Google ScholarBūlāq 6 228.14.Google Scholar

^{page 111 note 1} Unpublished.

^{page 111 note 2} al-Maqqarā, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad, Nafḥ al-ṭīb, Leiden, 1858–1861, 2 68–76;Google Scholar Cairo edn 1949, iv 96–108.

^{page 111 note 3} Khallikān, Ibn, Wafayāt al-a'yān, tr. Slane, de, 4 337.Google Scholar

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