North Africa and the Twelfth-century Renaissance: Christian Europe and the Almohad Islamic Empire

Abstract

This article explains the impact of the rise of the Berber, Islamic Almohad Empire on Mediterranean history. The influence of the Almohads on the twelfth-century European Renaissance and the connections and interactions between the Almohads of North Africa and centres of power in Europe has been overlooked by scholars. While scholars of the medieval period have focused on the interactions between Europe and the East, including the great Islamic centres of Baghdad and Cairo and the Crusader states, the North African Almohads also had an important role in the twelfth-century milieu. The central role of the Almohads and the western Mediterranean, an often overlooked area of medieval studies, deserves a reassessment.