Abu al-Ala Idris al-Ma'mun
Almohad Caliph
Ruler of the Almohad Caliphate
Reign1229–1232
PredecessorYahya al-Mu'tasim
SuccessorAbd al-Wahid II
Bornunknown date
Died16/17 October 1232
IssueAbd al-Wahid II
Abu al-Hasan as-Said al-Mutadid
FatherAbu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur
MotherSafiya bint Abu Abdallah ben Merdnych[1]
ReligionIslam
Coins of Ferdinand III of Castile, who helped Idris al-Ma'mun

Abu al-Ala Idris al-Ma'mun (Arabic: أبو العلا المأمون إدريس بن المنصور; Abū Al-`lā Al-Mā'mūn Idrīs ibn Al-Manṣūr; died 16 or 17 October 1232) was an Almohad rival caliph who reigned in part of the empire from 1229 until his death. He was a son of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur and brother of Muhammad al-Nasir and Abdallah al-Adil.[2]

Life

At the death of Abdallah, a civil war broke out between Idris and his nephew Yahya, who had the support of the capital Marrakesh. Idris asked Ferdinand III of Castile for help,[3][4] receiving 12,000 knights[lower-alpha 1] who allowed him to conquer that city and to massacre the sheikhs that had supported Yahya.[5]

Idris abandoned the Mahdi doctrine, in favour of the Sunni one. He went so far as to claim that the Mahdi was Jesus and not Ibn Tumart, the founder of his dynasty. This sacrilege caused the break away of the Hafsid dynasty in the Ifriqiya province. Following his victory, Idris honored the treaty with Ferdinand III and allowed the construction of a Christian church in Marrakesh in 1230, which was destroyed two years later by Yahya.[6] The side changes of Idris soon lost him popular consent. In the early 1232, when he was besieging Ceuta, Yahya took the occasion to capture Marrakesh. Idris died during the march to reach the city, and was succeeded by his son Abd al-Wahid II.[7]

Idris’ other son was Abu al-Hasan as-Said al-Mutadid.

Notes

  1. Ibn 'Idhari states the number was likely 500 knights[5]

References

  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. 355. His mother... Safya ... daughter of emir Abou Abd Allah ben Merdnych
  2. J. Gordon Melton, Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History, p. 824
  3. Janet E Burton, Phillipp R Schofield i Björn K U Weiler, Thirteenth Century England XIV: proceedings of the Aberystwyth and Lampeter Conference, 2011
  4. M. Th. Houtsma, E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936
  5. 1 2 Lower 2014, p. 610.
  6. Lower 2014, p. 610-611.
  7. Yahya al-Mutasim

Sources

  • Lower, Michael (2014). "The Papacy and Christian Mercenaries of Thirteenth-Century North Africa". Speculum. The University of Chicago Press. 89 (3 JULY): 601–631. doi:10.1017/S0038713414000761. S2CID 154773840.
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