Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Political and Cultural History of Islam
Within two years, marked by numerous skirmishes between Almohads and Almoravids, most of the Anti-Atlas and Sus were actively backing Ibn Tumart and all the Masmuda tribes were ready to support him. The Almoravid government, now seriously alarmed, increased its efforts. Ibn Tumart, judging it prudent to move to a more easily defended position, ”emigrated” in 517/1123 to Tinmalal (var. Tinmal) in the upper Nfis valley, about 75 kms. south-southwest of Marrakush. The manner in which he and his followers took possession of Tinmallal and its territory is not entirely clear, but it led to a protest by one of the ten which cost him his life. The Ahl Tinmallal of the Almohad hierarchy are significantly a heterogeneous group. This fact and other evidence indicates that the original inhabitants of Tinmallal were liquidated and replaced by a mixed group of the Mahdi’s close followers.
The next few years were passed in the consolidation and steady extension of Almohad power. This was made easier by the preoccupation of the Almoravids with troubles in Spain but also made more difficult by discord among the Almohads themselves. Though the Almohad movement was certainly helped by the antipathy for the Almoravids shared by all the mountain tribes, it was at the same time hindered by the fragmentation of the Masmuda into very small and jealously independent groups who resisted incorporation into any larger federation. Perhaps impatience with the speed of the movement’s development was the main motive behind the next important event in the IVlahdi’s career, the tamyiz.
The Mahdi died a few months after the battle of al-Buhayra, in Ramzan 524/August 1130. His close companions concealed his death, presumably because they feared the effect on the morale of the Almohads of his death at this inauspicious moment without moreover his having justified any of his Mahdi-pretensions. His ”retreat” lasted for three years until the proclamation of ’Abd alMu’min in 527/1132. He was buried at Tinmallal. His tomb was still venerated, according to Leo Africanus, some five centuries later, but he and his movement no longer survive in local tradition .
Ibn Tumart regarded himself primarily as a religious reformer. It is not certain that even \vhen in later life he had adopted the mantle of the Mahdi and become the head of an embryonic state in declared rebellion against the Almoravids he had developed any secular ambitions beyond those necessary to back his religious ones. As a Muslim he naturally did not draw a sharp distinction between
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the religious and the secular. He was a fundamentalist who wished to re-establish what he conceived to be the original purity of the faith by reference to the Qur’an and the Sunnah and so rejected the takid which in his day dominated theology in the West. He placed especial stress on the doctrine of tawhid, which to him meant a complete abstraction or spiritualization of the concept of God, as opposed to tadisim, the literal acceptance of the anthropomorphic phrases of the Qur’an of which he so often accused the Almoravids. But there is nothing original in his religious ideas.
He adopted those which suited him wherever he found them, including the ShiM notion of the impeccable (ma’sum) Imam who he claimed to be. His theology is not important. His career followed a pattern, familiar in the Maghrib, of a charismatic personality being able briefly to unite groups who live normally in anarchical fragmentation. It is a question primarily of personalities, that of the Berber race and that of the leader, and doctrine is of minor importance. The role of Abd al-Mu’min in founding the Almohad state was as important as that of the Mahdi, though probably neither would have achieved anything without the other. The writings attributed to the Mahdi consist of a collection of short pieces without organic unity or title gathered in if unique manuscript, and one or two letters of doubtful authenticity. IBN AMMAR
Ibn Ammar, Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Ammar b. Hussain b. Ammar, was a famous poet and wazir of Muslim Spain. He was born in a village near Silves, he belonged to a poor family and his claim to be of Yemeni origin is doubtful. After beginning his studies at Silves, he received at Cordova an advanced literary education and then tried to make his literary talent pay, travelling throughout Spain in search of patrons. Nothing appears to have survived f his first panegyrics, addressed, it seems without much success, to various Andalusian petty kings, especially as he is said to have himself destroyed the works of his youth. In 445/1053, he arrived at Seville and decided to present himself to the local ruler, al-Mu’tadid, who had just gained some military successes and was eager to have his exploits praised in writing.
Seizing this opportunity, Ibn Ammar addressed to him a panegyric in which he praised his valour and bravery, attacked his Berber enemies and expressed the desire that his own talent should be rewarded. Al-Mu’tadid, beguiled by these praises, appointed Ibn

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Amman a court poet and adopted him as a companion in his pleasures; this was for him the beginning of an eventful career, which was, however, always linked with the Abbadids. At the court he became the friend of the prince Muhammad, accompanying him to Silves when the prince was made governor there; but as he pandered to the desires of his friend, disagreeable rumours began to circulate about the two young men and al-Mu’tadid, mistrusting their friendship, recalled his son to Seville in 450/1058 and commanded the poet to leave the kingdom. Ibn Ammar then sought refuge in Saragossa, whence he addressed poems to the ruler of Seville and to his wazir, Ibn Zaydun in a vain attempt to make them relent. He had to wait until the death of al-Mu’tadid and the succession of his friend Muhammad (who took the title al-Mu’tamid) in 461/1069 before being recalled to Seville.
From then on Ibn Ammar gave up poetry to some extent in order to devote himself to politics, in an effort to play a prominent part in Muslim Spain. Soon after his return he was appointed governor of Silves and later became al-Mu’tamid’s chief minister. In

462/1070, he took part in the annexing to the kingdom of Seville of the town of Cordova, which became the seat of the court; the following year he got rid of Ibn Zaydun, whom he considered as his rival, by sending him back to Seville; he struggled successfully against the favourite I’timad, who was hostile to him; and succeeded in dominating the ruler completely and practically directing the state. He then advocated a policy of expansion based on the support of the Christians, i.e., of Alfonso VI, with whom he strengthened the relations of Seville to such an extent that he was even considered a traitor. His manoeuvres to take Granada with the help of Alfonso VI failed however, and his first action against Murcia (Tudmir) had no greater success. This attempt was part of a plan which he had conceived in order to gain possession of the town for himself personally; he therefore set himself up as independent governor of Murcia as soon as he had succeeded in taking possession of it, with the help of Ibn Rashik, in 471/1078.

Taking advantage of this victory, he turned to Toledo, leaving behind in Murcia Ibn Rashik, who in turn betrayed him and declared himself independent. Dispossessed of his short-lived conquest, Ibn ’Ammar took refuge once again at Saragossa with Mu’tamin Ibn Hud, in whose name he took part in a number of successful expeditions; he was, however, captured at Segura in
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Rabi’l 477/August 1084. and. forced to abandon all political activity returned to poetry. While in captivity, he wrote some moving poems in which he implores the help of al-Mu’tamid, but the latter had a score to settle and, instead of simply ransoming him, decided to make sure of his person by buying him. Ibn ’Ammar was brought back to Cordova in chains and paraded on a donkey, then taken to Seville, where1 he suffered the most degrading humiliations. In spite of interventions on his behalf, al-Mu’tamid stood firm and did not allow himself to be swayed again by the pleas which Ibn ’Ammar addressed to him from prison; nevertheless, the poems with which he tried to soften the heart of his former friend are marked by strong emotion and certainly such as to touch al-Mu’tamid’s feelings, to the extent that he seemed at one time to be on the point of yielding and granting pardon, but his prisoner made a blunder which was skillfully exploited by his enemies, in particular by the son of Ibn Zaydun, who had taken his father’s place, and al-Mu’tamid in a passion of anger cut off Ibn ’ Ammar’s head with one blow of an axe (479/1086).
As regards his character, Ibn ’Ammar is accorded in Spain the fame which he deserves; his intelligence and especially his unbounded ambition made him a dangerous and much-feared person, who knew too well how to attract people by charm of manner and conversation. His behaviour towards al-Mu’tamid as judged with severity but does not prevent the cities from recognizing his poetic talent. His poetry, very personal in inspiration and composed with remarkable technical skill, is indisputabK gifted and original, but his satires are bitter and his panegyrics often lacking in dignity.