0:00:04 > 0:00:08The Sahara Desert - one of the harshest climates in the world.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14A huge expanse of unforgiving rock,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17scrub and sand the size of Europe.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26To me, it looks like a place of nothingness,
0:00:26 > 0:00:30but it was from here that a group of desert nomads
0:00:30 > 0:00:34came to transform the north-west corner of Africa
0:00:34 > 0:00:39into a vast empire that stretched from the Sahara to Spain.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46What started with one man's mission
0:00:46 > 0:00:49grew into a kingdom which lasted for centuries.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Its rulers generated tremendous wealth,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54created great architecture,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57and promoted sophisticated ideas in an ordered society.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01They were called the Berber
0:01:01 > 0:01:04and they changed this part of Africa for ever.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11We know less about Africa's past than almost anywhere else on Earth,
0:01:11 > 0:01:16but the scarcity of written records doesn't mean Africa lacks history.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22It's found in artefacts, culture, and the traditions of the people.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26In this series, I'm exploring some of the richest
0:01:26 > 0:01:28and most vibrant histories in the world.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35I'm here in Morocco to explore how a small collection of Berber nomads
0:01:35 > 0:01:38created a vast kingdom out of nothing,
0:01:38 > 0:01:41and how the very forces that created that kingdom
0:01:41 > 0:01:43ultimately helped to destroy it.
0:02:01 > 0:02:0421st-century Morocco - a modern Islamic state
0:02:04 > 0:02:09whose Arab king claims descent from the prophet Muhammad.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13He rules over a country with a culture and history
0:02:13 > 0:02:16as diverse as its landscape.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24Morocco has coasts that face the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea,
0:02:24 > 0:02:28snow-covered mountains almost as high as the Alps,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32and the bone-dry fringes of the Sahara Desert.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47The dominant languages spoken here now are from Arabia and Europe,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51but nearly half the population still speak Berber -
0:02:51 > 0:02:54the language of the indigenous Africans.
0:02:57 > 0:03:001,000 years ago, this was their land,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03but there was no sense of a nation state.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07Instead, on either side of the Atlas Mountains,
0:03:07 > 0:03:11lived small independent Berber clans of farmers, traders and nomads.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18These people were Muslim...
0:03:22 > 0:03:26..but they maintained their traditional Berber customs,
0:03:26 > 0:03:31and they didn't always follow Islam to the letter of the law.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47But, in the mid-11th century, one man changed everything.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50A Berber who had studied the Koran,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53and had become a charismatic, fiery preacher.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57Idealistic and uncompromising,
0:03:57 > 0:04:02he had a clear mission to change his fellow Berbers into proper Muslims,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05schooled in the strict fundamentals of their religion.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08His name was Abdallah Ibn Yasin,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12and his travels to Islamic centres of learning
0:04:12 > 0:04:16left him a student of a legalistic interpretation of the Koran.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20He started his mission in the western Sahara
0:04:20 > 0:04:23where he pulled together an alliance of tribes
0:04:23 > 0:04:26and appointed himself as spiritual leader.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28In so doing,
0:04:28 > 0:04:34he started a series of events that transformed North-West Africa.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40In the year 1054, he led an army of thousands of nomads
0:04:40 > 0:04:45and headed for Sijilmasa, a trading post on the edge of the Sahara,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48and one of the most important cities in Africa.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Ibn Yasin and his followers were called "Almoravids"
0:04:55 > 0:04:59from a phrase meaning "Those bound together in the cause of God".
0:04:59 > 0:05:02They were determined to bind everyone to the cause.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05They had one simple mission - jihad.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14The term "jihad" today carries connotations for many people
0:05:14 > 0:05:16of anti-Western extremism.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20But Ibn Yasin's holy war,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24his struggle to uphold a true understanding of Islam,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27was aimed at his fellow Muslim Berbers.
0:05:36 > 0:05:41This spectacular ruin is now all that's left of Sijilmasa -
0:05:41 > 0:05:44a city of well over 50,000 people -
0:05:44 > 0:05:48built in the middle of one of the biggest oases in Africa.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52Now a quiet and tranquil backwater,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56the date palms and irrigated fields hide clues
0:05:56 > 0:05:59to a much bigger and more significant past.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04And it's on a shingle bank at the heart of the oasis
0:06:04 > 0:06:07where the ruins of the mud-built city lie.
0:06:07 > 0:06:12The taking of Sijilmasa would be the first major building block
0:06:12 > 0:06:14of an Almoravid kingdom.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17What attracted Ibn Yasin here?
0:06:17 > 0:06:21The wealth of the city. This city was very prosperous.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24In fact, it was the commercial hub of Morocco.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26A huge city in a huge oasis.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28Doctor Eric Ross has been involved
0:06:28 > 0:06:32in some of the recent archaeological studies here
0:06:32 > 0:06:36that confirmed why this was such an important prize for Ibn Yasin.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41I call it the Casablanca of 1,000 years ago
0:06:41 > 0:06:45because Morocco wasn't looking to Europe or the Atlantic -
0:06:45 > 0:06:47it was looking across the Sahara.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49The Sahara was wide open to trade.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52So there were goods coming from all over the region
0:06:52 > 0:06:54- they were being traded and exchanged here?- Yes.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57What sorts of things are being traded here?
0:06:57 > 0:07:00Cloth, manuscripts and books. Horses also.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05Most important was the gold, trading mostly south across the Sahara -
0:07:05 > 0:07:09places like Mali and Senegal today were producing especially gold,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12so gold was the main part of the wealth of the city.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15We know gold coins were minted here.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17They were stamped here and exported,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20and mostly they were exported eastward
0:07:20 > 0:07:22to Egypt, Iraq, Central Asia,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25and they ended up in places like India.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Wow! So, they're trading tendrils?
0:07:29 > 0:07:32They'd stretch all the way from West Africa as far as South Asia?
0:07:32 > 0:07:33Yes, absolutely.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36It's a trading powerhouse.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Yes, it is, and the envy of empires across the continent.
0:07:40 > 0:07:41They all tried to take it,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45and the Almoravid succeeded in doing that.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51Once they had Sijilmasa under their control,
0:07:51 > 0:07:56the Almoravids set about securing the source of the city's gold trade.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01They crossed 1,000 miles back to the opposite side of the Sahara
0:08:01 > 0:08:04and seized the trading town of Awdaghust.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08By controlling the supply of gold across the desert,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11they had a virtual monopoly on this most lucrative of trades.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16With a considerably strengthened army of weapons and camels
0:08:16 > 0:08:18taken from Sijilmasa,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21the Almoravids now had what they needed
0:08:21 > 0:08:23to carry their jihad beyond the Sahara.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30But they couldn't have done any of this
0:08:30 > 0:08:34without another important resource - the key to life itself.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Water sustains everything in this harsh climate,
0:08:41 > 0:08:47and the Berbers had the know-how to find and move it under the desert.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51These are "khettara".
0:08:51 > 0:08:57They're part of an ancient Berber irrigation system.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02And you see these mounds stretching out across this landscape -
0:09:02 > 0:09:08what you see on the surface belies a very complex network of tunnels
0:09:08 > 0:09:10that sit underneath the ground,
0:09:10 > 0:09:14funnelling the water across this landscape,
0:09:14 > 0:09:19because water was such a rare resource.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22These access shafts are all that you see
0:09:22 > 0:09:25of the gently sloping tunnel system
0:09:25 > 0:09:28that taps into the underground water table.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32These systems could take water for miles
0:09:32 > 0:09:35in this very arid, dry, hot landscape,
0:09:35 > 0:09:37and to take it where it was needed,
0:09:37 > 0:09:42and it just says how the Berber understood this landscape,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45how they worked with it,
0:09:45 > 0:09:50how they used the small resources that they had to their advantage.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57With a powerful army, money and the rallying call of Islam,
0:09:57 > 0:10:02Ibn Yasin now had the potential to create a Berber nation.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09The Almoravids' jihad had an unstoppable momentum,
0:10:09 > 0:10:13but now they wanted to take their brand of Islam to every Berber,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16and that meant crossing the Atlas Mountains.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26The high Atlas Mountains rise to over 13,500 feet,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30and they form a natural divide between the desert
0:10:30 > 0:10:34and the more fertile and populous lands on the other side.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40But these were dangerous times,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43and this was a perilous area to be travelling through.
0:10:48 > 0:10:491,000 years ago,
0:10:49 > 0:10:53these valleys would have carried one of the main trade routes
0:10:53 > 0:10:56through the mountains, and that made it attractive to thieves.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03Ibn Yasin and his men were in bandit country.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09This is called "The Road of 1,000 Kasbahs",
0:11:09 > 0:11:12and kasbahs are these fortified houses
0:11:12 > 0:11:16that were once owned and used by Berber merchants.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19These buildings would have often been used
0:11:19 > 0:11:23to house things like gold and silks
0:11:23 > 0:11:25that came across the desert,
0:11:25 > 0:11:30and they had to be fortified because this was a dangerous territory.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32These are beautiful buildings,
0:11:32 > 0:11:37but their fortification give a sense of what it was like in those days.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52The Almoravid army traversed this hostile environment
0:11:52 > 0:11:57with 400 horsemen, 800 cameleers and 2,000 foot soldiers.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04It was a treacherous journey in an alien landscape.
0:12:06 > 0:12:101,000 years ago, when Ibn Yasin and his army
0:12:10 > 0:12:13came up these passes to cross these mountains,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17they were entering completely new territory.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24They were desert warriors, and these mountains and everything beyond
0:12:24 > 0:12:27was a completely different environment to them.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33But they had a clear goal.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37To the north-west of the mountains lived the tribes of Berbers
0:12:37 > 0:12:40that the Almoravids considered to be heretics.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47In 1058, the first people to feel the force of Ibn Yasin's army
0:12:47 > 0:12:49were the rulers of Aghmat -
0:12:49 > 0:12:53a small city nestling in a lush valley north of the mountains.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59Aghmat became the new headquarters
0:12:59 > 0:13:04for where the army took their jihad to the tribes nearby.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09It's been difficult for historians to uncover what life was like
0:13:09 > 0:13:12in Aghmat at the time for one simple reason.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16No-one knew where ancient Aghmat was.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19It was thought to be a lost city,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22but actually it was right here beneath our feet.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29The dig has revealed only a small portion of the city so far,
0:13:29 > 0:13:31but this hamam, or bath-house,
0:13:31 > 0:13:35is one of the most substantial and important finds.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39These remains illustrate the scale of the settlement here,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42and show just how expertly they understood how to use water
0:13:42 > 0:13:45as a foundation of civic society.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54Abdullah Fille has been slowly unearthing the remains
0:13:54 > 0:13:57of the buildings here since the dig first started.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30Remarkably, this entire building, which dates
0:14:30 > 0:14:33from the time of the Almoravids more than 1,000 years ago,
0:14:33 > 0:14:35was excavated almost intact.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23This is absolutely amazing.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26I'm used to seeing their earth-built buildings but to see this kind
0:15:26 > 0:15:31of stone and mortar construction, but also the water engineering.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35This is real innovation - so exciting.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41'There was hot and cold running water.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44'The temperature of the three rooms increased the nearer they were
0:15:44 > 0:15:47'to the huge fires that heated the water as it came into the hamam.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50'This was civilised living.'
0:16:29 > 0:16:32These were a people who came from the desert,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36for whom water was a precious resource.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38This is more than a bath-house.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43This is a temple to water - and what a place.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55'The Almoravids were beginning to appreciate city life,
0:16:55 > 0:16:56'but there was a problem.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00'For desert nomads this city was just in the wrong place.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06'Surrounded by mountains and hills on three sides,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09'Aghmat was not in a good defensive position.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12'As people most suited to fighting in the open
0:17:12 > 0:17:16'it made them feel vulnerable.'
0:17:16 > 0:17:20After a little more than a decade the Almoravids looked for a new home.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23A new base from where they could expand,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26and take on even more territory and infidels.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35'The Almoravids had the desert in their DNA,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39'and they chose a flat dry open piece of land around 20 miles
0:17:39 > 0:17:42'from the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.
0:17:45 > 0:17:46'They pitched their tents
0:17:46 > 0:17:51'and named their city after the Berber words for "Land of God".
0:17:57 > 0:17:59'It was called Marrakech.'
0:18:04 > 0:18:07The founding of Marrakech in 1070 represents a point
0:18:07 > 0:18:10where the loose band of marauding jihadists
0:18:10 > 0:18:14become an imperial force to be reckoned with.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20'What began as a collection of tents rapidly became an established city.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24'The Berbers who settled here were offered security
0:18:24 > 0:18:27'in return for their taxes, and that paid for
0:18:27 > 0:18:30'the further expansion of the Almoravids territory.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35'The movement seemed unstoppable, even when Ibn Yasin died
0:18:35 > 0:18:39'while fighting Berber heretics.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42'The holy enterprise continued unabated.'
0:18:44 > 0:18:47After the death of the fiery preacher Ibn Yasin
0:18:47 > 0:18:50a new man took charge of the jihad.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54His name was Yusuf Ibn Tashfin,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58and he made a greater contribution to the dynasty than any other man.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01He turned a fledgling kingdom into an empire.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08'While Ibn Yasin had been the spiritual leader who'd
0:19:08 > 0:19:12'inspired the Almoravid movement and led it out of the desert,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15'Ibn Tashfin would take the dynasty even further.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20'He began with Marrakech.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24'Khettara were dug to supply water to the growing population
0:19:24 > 0:19:26'and walls were built to surround it.'
0:19:27 > 0:19:31The street where we are, it was made at this time and especially
0:19:31 > 0:19:34the walls we will see, the walls were made at this time.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39'Former Minister of Education, Professor Mohamed Kinidiry,
0:19:39 > 0:19:41'knows Ibn Tashfin's city well.'
0:19:41 > 0:19:46What sort of man was Ibn Tashfin? What was he like?
0:19:46 > 0:19:52Ibn Tashfin was a very high man, very courageous
0:19:52 > 0:19:54and a beautiful, handsome man.
0:19:54 > 0:19:55- Handsome.- Yes, handsome,
0:19:55 > 0:20:00and especially, he was very curious and very,
0:20:00 > 0:20:05very strong man, and had a big personality.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07And how did he change Marrakech?
0:20:07 > 0:20:12He said that, "Here, we'll have a palace. Here, we'll have commerce.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16"Here, we'll have an administration," and he make a very good plan,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19and he began to make construction of that to realise.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22Really? So, he built these streets?
0:20:22 > 0:20:25The street was made at this time just like as you see it now,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29with the commerce and the sellers of everything for the table,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33and also spices with colour, smells,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36and many smells, many colours,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39it was like that since long time, since the 11th century.
0:20:41 > 0:20:42So, wandering round here,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46you still get a flavour of the days of Ibn Tashfin?
0:20:46 > 0:20:48Yes, of course.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51'The walls that Ibn Tashfin commissioned
0:20:51 > 0:20:57'have been rebuilt many times, but one of his original gates,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00'the Bab Doukkalaa, still stands.'
0:21:00 > 0:21:03It's huge, but it's remarkably simple.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07The architecture of the Almoravid is very simple.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11The Almoravid came from the Sahara and they were Muslims
0:21:11 > 0:21:16and they had the of Islam which is that you have harmony,
0:21:16 > 0:21:20you have beauty but simplicity.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24I love that. The idea of harmony, of beauty, of simplicity.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26All of those things together in this gate,
0:21:26 > 0:21:30and every time you pass through here you're going to remember that,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34and for those people that felt part of this community,
0:21:34 > 0:21:39they were tied together by that simple, beautiful philosophy.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42And I think it is the philosophy of life.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45But it's something which begins here.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47That's right.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51'The Almoravids had created a worthy capital.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54'Now they set about establishing an empire.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59'Their army took the jihad north, taking city after city,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03'expanding their influence east as far as Algiers,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05'well beyond what we now call Morocco.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11'Back in Marrakech, the Almoravids reflected
0:22:11 > 0:22:14'on their extraordinary achievements.'
0:22:14 > 0:22:18It had taken 26 years from their first incursion out in the desert,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20with the taking of Sijilmasa, to the point where
0:22:20 > 0:22:23they controlled the whole of North-West Africa.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29'Their next move extended the Almoravids' jihad
0:22:29 > 0:22:35'beyond anyone's expectations, north into Europe.'
0:22:42 > 0:22:47'A parallel Islamic world had existed in Spain and Portugal
0:22:47 > 0:22:50'since the early 8th century.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55'It was called Al-Andalus and it had flourished under
0:22:55 > 0:22:59'the Caliph of Cordoba into a rich civilisation
0:22:59 > 0:23:02'of lavish palaces and elegant gardens.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08'Now, in the 11th century it had broken up into weaker city states.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11'These were being attacked by Christian armies
0:23:11 > 0:23:14'from the north of Spain and the Muslim rulers appealed
0:23:14 > 0:23:16'to the Almoravids for help.'
0:23:25 > 0:23:28'Yusuf Ibn Tashfin helped repel the Christians
0:23:28 > 0:23:32'but he was disgusted at the decadence of the Muslim princes
0:23:32 > 0:23:34'he'd agreed to help.'
0:23:34 > 0:23:38Ibn Tashfin had enough of these party princes and their moaning.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41He also disliked their lack of dedication to Islam.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44But he decided he had an obligation
0:23:44 > 0:23:47to save the souls of their Muslim subjects,
0:23:47 > 0:23:54and in 1090 he returned in force and deposed their rulers one-by-one.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57The Almoravids now ruled over a vast kingdom
0:23:57 > 0:24:00that reached from the Sahara to Spain,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03and from Africa's Atlantic coast to Algeria.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07Never before had all this Muslim territory been united
0:24:07 > 0:24:12under one management, one kingdom united politically and spiritually
0:24:12 > 0:24:16and it was the so-called "barbarians of the desert" that had done it.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22The beating heart of the kingdom was Marrakech.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38This was a place where people came to exchange stories, ideas.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Stories that had been traded across the desert from as far away
0:24:41 > 0:24:44as West Africa, stories that had come from Southern Europe,
0:24:44 > 0:24:45from the Middle East,
0:24:45 > 0:24:50they all ended up here - here in the central square in Marrakech.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57By the beginning of the 12th century, the square here had become
0:24:57 > 0:24:59the news hub of the empire.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04But in 1106, the news running around this square
0:25:04 > 0:25:06was of terrible importance.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Yusuf Ibn Tashfin had died.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Ibn Tashfin was more than 80-years-old when he died.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19He had seen his Berber kingdom grow from the founding days
0:25:19 > 0:25:23of Marrakech to the farthest reaches of his empire.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33But now the warrior king was dead and the mantle of ruler
0:25:33 > 0:25:39of the Almoravids' dynasty passed to Ibn Tashfin's 23-year-old son
0:25:39 > 0:25:42and a very different era began.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48One of power and privilege.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54Ali was the first Almoravid leader not to have known a desert
0:25:54 > 0:25:56or its hardships.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59He knew the royal palace and its luxuries.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02At the time of his father's death, the royal treasury
0:26:02 > 0:26:09housed 13,000 boxes of silver and 5,400 boxes of minted gold.
0:26:09 > 0:26:10He was loaded.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18The new leader worked hard to make Marrakech even more splendid
0:26:18 > 0:26:20and he ordered a new palace to be built.
0:26:22 > 0:26:27It was part of a beautification plan for the city which drew heavily
0:26:27 > 0:26:30on the architectural influences of Andalusia.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37It was thought that no buildings were left that could show us
0:26:37 > 0:26:40what Ali's grand vision might have looked like.
0:26:41 > 0:26:49Then in 1952, buried under some outbuildings, they found this.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59The Koubba Ba'adiyin.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07It's not only a rare example of Almoravid architecture,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10but it gives us some sense of what this city
0:27:10 > 0:27:14looked like at the high point of the dynasty.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18This is the Koubba.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22This is the masterpiece of the architecture
0:27:22 > 0:27:25- of the Almoravid period. - It is a masterpiece.- Yes.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Professor Mohammed El-Faiz
0:27:27 > 0:27:31has written extensively on the buildings of Marrakech.
0:27:31 > 0:27:37And I think that the architects came in from Andalusian Spain,
0:27:37 > 0:27:39they make this journey.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44It's very unique in the architecture of Morocco.
0:27:44 > 0:27:50Look at the simplicity of lines and of proportions.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53It is absolutely gorgeous.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56So this was a place where people before prayer would come
0:27:56 > 0:27:59and they would wash their bodies?
0:27:59 > 0:28:03They wash their bodies, they prepare and they go to the mosque.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05It's a sumptuous building.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09It tells us just what Marrakech may have looked like.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14It must have been a place with fantastic architecture
0:28:14 > 0:28:17and also very, very wealthy people
0:28:17 > 0:28:20who were obviously living the high life.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25Yes. It was a very rich civilisation because Marrakech
0:28:25 > 0:28:30was capital of empire, like New York
0:28:30 > 0:28:33or other cities - very important.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41This delicately carved interior is such a contrast
0:28:41 > 0:28:44to the bold simple shape we see outside.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46It was also highly fashionable.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51These wonderful scallop-shell shapes were common in Andalusia
0:28:51 > 0:28:55and this is the first time that they've been seen in Africa.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58Ali wanted nothing but the best.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02What was Ali Ibn Yusuf like?
0:29:02 > 0:29:06He is different from his father. He was a liberal man.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10I think that the reign of Ali Ibn Yusuf is very important
0:29:10 > 0:29:16because with him, we have a development of architecture,
0:29:16 > 0:29:22of cultural...humanities,
0:29:22 > 0:29:30poets and it's not the same character as his father.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40This is a massive architectural statement
0:29:40 > 0:29:43in the palace grounds which shows just how far the Almoravids had come
0:29:43 > 0:29:47since their days as desert warriors bent on Holy War.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54But while Ali beautified the Almoravid capital,
0:29:54 > 0:29:58the kingdom was starting to slip from his grasp.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09Under Ali, the link to the desert tradition was broken
0:30:09 > 0:30:12and to some, the Almoravids seemed to be going soft.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20High in the mountains behind the city, a force even more powerful
0:30:20 > 0:30:23than the Almoravids was stirring.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31The fires of dissent were being stoked by rival Berbers holed up
0:30:31 > 0:30:33in the High Atlas Mountains.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37This precarious mountain track leads to what was, in effect,
0:30:37 > 0:30:39their mountain hideout.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43The Almoravids were never comfortable with the hills
0:30:43 > 0:30:46and mountains of the high Atlas and whenever they tried
0:30:46 > 0:30:48to root out trouble they were evaded
0:30:48 > 0:30:51and there was plenty of trouble brewing.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56Here, a new group of Islamic revolutionaries laid
0:30:56 > 0:31:00the groundwork for their domination of this whole region.
0:31:01 > 0:31:03They were called the Almohads
0:31:03 > 0:31:07meaning "The people who believed in the unity of God".
0:31:10 > 0:31:14The leader of the revolution was Muhammad Ibn Tumart.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16He wasn't a desert warrior like the Almoravids.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19He was a mountain Berber.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25Ibn Tumart had spent decades studying Islam.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28He claimed to have been divinely chosen to restore the true faith
0:31:28 > 0:31:30as he understood it.
0:31:33 > 0:31:38This is Tinmel, the village where Ibn Tumart started his revolution.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41From here, he preached against the arrogance
0:31:41 > 0:31:44and corruption of the Almoravids.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51Professor Muhammed Rabatatdin has studied the power struggle that
0:31:51 > 0:31:54developed between the Almoravids and their fiercest critic.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36So your interpretation is the religious manipulation
0:32:36 > 0:32:41of the text was something that Ibn Tumart
0:32:41 > 0:32:46was...spearheading as a way of changing regimes?
0:33:04 > 0:33:08So Ibn Tumart wants to increase his political influence
0:33:08 > 0:33:12and then go down the mountain to attack Marrakech.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25Ibn Tumart undermined the support for the Almoravids
0:33:25 > 0:33:29by questioning their understanding of Islam
0:33:29 > 0:33:31and therefore their claim for legitimate rule.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36And he goaded Ali Ibn Yusuf into combat.
0:33:38 > 0:33:43In 1130, the battle of words finally turned to war
0:33:43 > 0:33:46and the army of the Almohads came out of the mountains to face
0:33:46 > 0:33:50the Almoravids and lay siege to their cities.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52It would be a long campaign.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00In Marrakech, the city walls were reinforced and rebuilt
0:34:00 > 0:34:04by the Almoravids in direct response to the Almohad threat.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09A culture based on nomadic tradition and tents
0:34:09 > 0:34:12turned in its most desperate moment
0:34:12 > 0:34:15to huge walls like this to protect themselves.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24But their ancient belief that walls imprisoned rather than protected
0:34:24 > 0:34:28proved true as they became increasingly confined to the city.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37It took almost 20 years of skirmishing battles
0:34:37 > 0:34:41for the Almohads to finally enter the city of Marrakech
0:34:41 > 0:34:46and in 1147, the dynasty of the Almoravids was finally over.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55Once inside the city walls,
0:34:55 > 0:34:58the Almohads wanted to stamp their authority on the city
0:34:58 > 0:35:01and they started by replacing
0:35:01 > 0:35:06the most significant of the Almoravids' buildings.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10This is the Koutoubia mosque, named after the al-Koutoubiyyin
0:35:10 > 0:35:13or the booksellers who used to ply their trade here.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16It's also Marrakech's most important building.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25Legend has it that the predecessor to this mosque was torn down
0:35:25 > 0:35:29by the Almohads because it wasn't correctly aligned with Mecca.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35In fact, all the mosques in the city were pulled down
0:35:35 > 0:35:37and replaced on religious grounds.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43This sent a big bold message to the people of Marrakech.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47They were making it clear that their way
0:35:47 > 0:35:51and their interpretation of Islam was the correct one...
0:35:54 > 0:35:57..and anyone arriving in the city got a similar message.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02This is the Bab Agnaou or the "Gate Of Guinea".
0:36:04 > 0:36:08It was built by one of Ibn Tumart's successors,
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Sultan Yaqub al-Mansur, in 1185.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18It's a beautiful gate, this one. So ornate.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24This is an Almohad gate and it's so different.
0:36:24 > 0:36:30Earlier I did a quick sketch of the Almoravid Gate
0:36:30 > 0:36:38and the Almoravid gate is just one of those perfect, very simple gates.
0:36:38 > 0:36:43But this one - so different from the Almoravids and that modesty.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46It's so much more sumptuous.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50Layers upon layers of decoration have been built up
0:36:50 > 0:36:53with this beautiful green stone.
0:36:55 > 0:37:00This is an empire, a kingdom that is very, very pleased
0:37:00 > 0:37:03to announce it to everyone who enters the city.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11Almost everything the Almohads built seemed more substantial,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15more impressive than that built by their predecessors,
0:37:15 > 0:37:18and that included the Berber kingdom.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21Just like the rulers before them,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24the Almohad used Marrakech as an imperial base
0:37:24 > 0:37:27for an expansion even more ambitious than their predecessors.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35The Almohads took over almost all the territory
0:37:35 > 0:37:37previously run by the Almoravids
0:37:37 > 0:37:40and they also seized the neighbouring lands of Africa
0:37:40 > 0:37:43which stretched into what is now Libya.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45In Spain, they took Andalusia
0:37:45 > 0:37:49and made Seville their second capital after Marrakech.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Under the Almohads, the kingdom was to become an even stronger force
0:37:56 > 0:37:59in the Mediterranean than the Almoravids had been...
0:38:03 > 0:38:07..and their wealth and ideas went hand in hand.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11Here in the Bank of Magreb is evidence to show how both dynasties
0:38:11 > 0:38:15used their currency to spread the word of Islam.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21- This is a gold dinar.- It's from Sijilmasa Almoravid dynasty.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23Oh, I see.
0:38:23 > 0:38:29That's beautiful. With an Arabic inscription right in the centre.
0:38:29 > 0:38:31What does it say on there?
0:38:37 > 0:38:41"It shall not be acceptable that anyone takes a faith
0:38:41 > 0:38:43"other than Islam".
0:38:43 > 0:38:46That's in the centre of the coin
0:38:46 > 0:38:50so they're actually helping to evangelise.
0:38:50 > 0:38:57Those coins were circulated around the Mediterranean Sea.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59We have it in Spain and Portugal.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03In London, in Germany and Holland and China.
0:39:04 > 0:39:09- Really? This was the dollar of its day?- Yes.
0:39:09 > 0:39:15It's about trade but it's also taking, wherever it goes, religion.
0:39:15 > 0:39:22Because a lot of Christian kingdoms used these coins at this time.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26It's a beautiful thing. Absolutely beautiful.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30The Almoravids' dinar was widely valued.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32The Almohads wanted to build on its success
0:39:32 > 0:39:36but they also wanted to do things differently.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38They introduced innovations including a new coin
0:39:38 > 0:39:44with a square design that proclaimed the ambition of their jihad.
0:39:44 > 0:39:49So this one is the first round dirham
0:39:49 > 0:39:53minted by Almohad.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57It's round but with a square in the middle
0:39:57 > 0:39:58but after this one...
0:40:03 > 0:40:04Now, that's square.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's square.
0:40:06 > 0:40:11So they created these circular coins first with the square inscription
0:40:11 > 0:40:16in the centre and then, they reduced them down just to these squares.
0:40:16 > 0:40:22Particularly, in the mint of coins it's easy to do, sometimes,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25the coins which is square.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29So these squares were much more efficient to be minted
0:40:29 > 0:40:33because there was much less wastage in a square sheet of silver.
0:40:33 > 0:40:34That's correct.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39And it's amazing that that's just a tiny thin wafer of silver
0:40:39 > 0:40:41and yet it represents so much.
0:40:41 > 0:40:48These four sides were seen as being symbolic of the four sides
0:40:48 > 0:40:52of the kingdom, of the different directions
0:40:52 > 0:40:58looking eastward, eastward towards India, towards China,
0:40:58 > 0:41:04looking north up toward Europe, looking south towards the desert
0:41:04 > 0:41:07and west towards new opportunities
0:41:07 > 0:41:11but this is about an empire expanding.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21Under the Almohads, the Berber kingdom
0:41:21 > 0:41:24become extraordinarily powerful and wealthy.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27They undertook increasingly ambitious projects
0:41:27 > 0:41:29to reflect the magnificence of their empire.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41These are the Agdal Gardens
0:41:41 > 0:41:45in the grounds of the Royal Palace in Marrakech.
0:41:47 > 0:41:53Almost a thousand acres of orange, lemon, fig, apricot
0:41:53 > 0:41:56and pomegranate trees linked by olive-lined walkways
0:41:56 > 0:42:00all irrigated by water brought from the mountains
0:42:00 > 0:42:03over 20 miles away...
0:42:03 > 0:42:05and I think they're beautiful.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24What a gorgeous place!
0:42:24 > 0:42:30This is the Almohad using water in such a luxuriant way.
0:42:30 > 0:42:35This setting was meant to be a place in which you could come
0:42:35 > 0:42:38and reflect on this landscape
0:42:38 > 0:42:42and what they're using are all the traditional constituent parts
0:42:42 > 0:42:43of Berber culture.
0:42:43 > 0:42:49You have here, water, you have the palms, you have olives,
0:42:49 > 0:42:50you have fruit trees.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54These are things that they would have had in their oases,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57but what they're using them for here is for recreation
0:42:57 > 0:43:01and for just simply for people to come and reflect
0:43:01 > 0:43:04on the beauty of Berber culture.
0:43:05 > 0:43:13Even today, hundreds of years on, who can doubt that they succeeded?
0:43:30 > 0:43:35At the end of the 14th century, the Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldun
0:43:35 > 0:43:40wrote about the Berber state being just like a garden.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44Within this garden, the government turned like a wheel.
0:43:46 > 0:43:51He said that there was no justice without the monarch.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56No monarch without the army. No army without taxes.
0:43:56 > 0:44:01No taxes without wealth and no wealth without justice.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06Ibn Khaldun's vision of a garden in perfect balance
0:44:06 > 0:44:10highlighted just how interdependent these elements of government were.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15Justice was defined by the monarch who was supported by the army.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17They were paid for by taxes
0:44:17 > 0:44:22that were generated by the wealth of its citizens.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25While all of those things were in place and intimately connected
0:44:25 > 0:44:28the wheel could continue to turn.
0:44:35 > 0:44:40And 240 miles north of Marrakech is a city that shows how well
0:44:40 > 0:44:43the system worked while it remained in perfect balance.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50Its medina is probably the most complete medieval city centre
0:44:50 > 0:44:52in the world.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56A place that has changed little since the days of the Almohads.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03This is Fez, one of the great cities of the empire.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08Then, as now, a great centre of trade.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12From here the Almohad traded in things like sugar cane
0:45:12 > 0:45:15and cotton, like gold and copper and pottery.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21But some of the most significant things they dealt in were ideas.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24In spite of their religious views,
0:45:24 > 0:45:27the Almohads were not intellectually repressive.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31The ancient university of Fez attracted thinkers
0:45:31 > 0:45:34and scholars from right across the Mediterranean.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40Deep in the centre of the old medina is a theological college.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45It welcomed hundreds of scholars through its doors
0:45:45 > 0:45:48during the years of the Almohad reign.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53Librarian Abu Baqa showed me some of the most priceless books
0:45:53 > 0:45:55in the collection.
0:45:56 > 0:46:01And this volume is actually illuminated and that some
0:46:01 > 0:46:04of the words are picked out in gold and this plate here.
0:46:04 > 0:46:09Written by Ibn Tumart, it describes in detail his interpretation
0:46:09 > 0:46:11of the finer points of the Koran.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13HE GASPS
0:46:13 > 0:46:15Look at that!
0:46:18 > 0:46:20You'd come in here to learn
0:46:20 > 0:46:24but this is just so uplifting, visually, as well.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26It's just such a privilege to see it.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30It's just the richness of it.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57One of the scholars who worked here, perhaps surprisingly,
0:46:57 > 0:46:59was Moses Maimonides,
0:46:59 > 0:47:02still regarded as the most important Jewish philosopher
0:47:02 > 0:47:04for the past 2,000 years.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07And this beautifully bookworm-ridden volume
0:47:07 > 0:47:11was written by another of the intellectual titans based here
0:47:11 > 0:47:14the Andalusian philosopher, Ibn Rushd,
0:47:14 > 0:47:16known in Europe as "Averroes".
0:47:18 > 0:47:20Oh, look at that!
0:47:20 > 0:47:23Most famous for his commentary on the works of Aristotle,
0:47:23 > 0:47:27he was a significant link between the ideas of ancient Greece
0:47:27 > 0:47:28and medieval Europe.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33On its extremely delicate wafer-thin pages
0:47:33 > 0:47:36are his thoughts on Islamic law.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55It's fascinating because these are figures
0:47:55 > 0:47:57who talk about Islamic studies
0:47:57 > 0:48:02but they're putting it into a much wider intellectual context.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06Here there are all of these great thinkers all working together
0:48:06 > 0:48:10and they're pushing philosophy, pushing on astronomy,
0:48:10 > 0:48:13pushing on a number of great disciplines
0:48:13 > 0:48:18further than anywhere else in the area around the Mediterranean.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02These weren't just people who were interested in business,
0:49:02 > 0:49:06in conquering their neighbours, just look at this,
0:49:06 > 0:49:11they knew beauty and they knew how to celebrate it.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14These are exquisite books.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16Absolutely exquisite.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26Directly outside the college,
0:49:26 > 0:49:31the atmosphere is peppered with the almost constant sound of hammering -
0:49:31 > 0:49:34the medina is still a place of work.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39At the height of the Almohad empire,
0:49:39 > 0:49:43Fez had 372 mills,
0:49:43 > 0:49:459,082 shops,
0:49:45 > 0:49:4747 soap factories,
0:49:47 > 0:49:50and 188 pottery workshops.
0:49:50 > 0:49:55This wasn't so much as a market town as a centre of industry.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02And, in one corner of the medina, is an ancient industry
0:50:02 > 0:50:04as old as the city itself.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16Binding and protecting the priceless books and their precious contents
0:50:16 > 0:50:19is some of the finest leather in the world,
0:50:19 > 0:50:21and it's still made today
0:50:21 > 0:50:24as it would been during the Almohads' reign.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32The skins are first scraped free of hair and fat,
0:50:32 > 0:50:34then soaked in lime baths,
0:50:34 > 0:50:38before being softened in a mixture of guano and water.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41It's a process that is still remarkably natural.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47What do you actually use to dye?
0:50:47 > 0:50:50This is a herb that you're actually using to dye it?
0:50:55 > 0:50:59So, this is all natural? This bright pink is a natural substance -
0:50:59 > 0:51:04so this process has remained unchanged for hundreds of years?
0:51:07 > 0:51:11Way before Henry Ford created his factory for assembling cars,
0:51:11 > 0:51:15the Berbers of Fez already had a production line.
0:51:24 > 0:51:29Intellectually and economically, the Almohads were in charge of an empire
0:51:29 > 0:51:34that ranked alongside the greatest of that time anywhere in the world.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39This was the high point of the Berber kingdom,
0:51:39 > 0:51:43but controlling such a massive realm brought its own problems.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48By the end of the 12th century, this fort at Rabat
0:51:48 > 0:51:51overlooked an armada of ships at anchor.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54The Almohads controlled substantial amounts
0:51:54 > 0:51:57of the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast,
0:51:57 > 0:52:01and armies were being carried by sea to far off battlegrounds.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05Sea ports like Rabat became crucial,
0:52:05 > 0:52:08and by the end of the 12th century,
0:52:08 > 0:52:10the Almohads' greatest ruler Yaqub al-Mansur,
0:52:10 > 0:52:14developed the town into his military headquarters.
0:52:19 > 0:52:24First came the fortification of the old town with ramparts and gates,
0:52:24 > 0:52:28and then, in 1195, something really grand.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37It had 400 columns and pillars.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43It was big enough to hold an entire army.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49It would have been the largest mosque in the Islamic west,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52if not the entire Muslim world.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57As ambitious as the great Roman architecture of North Africa,
0:52:57 > 0:52:59or the buildings of Mecca,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02it spoke to their heritage, and to God,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05and it was as permanent a statement as could be made.
0:53:07 > 0:53:12We'll never know if this would have been the world's grandest mosque
0:53:12 > 0:53:16as this isn't just a ruin, it's an unfulfilled dream.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20The reason why there's no top on the minaret,
0:53:20 > 0:53:22or roof on the prayer hall here,
0:53:22 > 0:53:27is because in 1199, only four years after worked started,
0:53:27 > 0:53:29Yaqub al-Mansur died.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33The mosque remained in this unfinished state.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36His grand vision was never complete.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Al-Mansur was the last strong leader of the Almohads
0:53:41 > 0:53:45and his death marked a critical turning point.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50It was the beginning of the end of Almohad dynasty.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57Squabbles over his succession meant rival Berber tribes vied for power,
0:53:57 > 0:54:02and the weakness at the centre had repercussions further afield.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06In Andalusia, a fundamentalist Christian crusade
0:54:06 > 0:54:11gained the upper hand against the equally fundamentalist jihad.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14The Almohads were humiliated by the Christians
0:54:14 > 0:54:16in a decisive battle in Spain,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19from which their army never really recovered.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21And the grip on Africa was lost
0:54:21 > 0:54:25as Arab tribes rebelled against the Almohad rulers.
0:54:29 > 0:54:31Professor El-Faiz has studied the factors
0:54:31 > 0:54:35that led to the decline of the Almohads' Berber kingdom.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40Several external factors.
0:54:40 > 0:54:47Almohad army facing the Christian army in Spain, they don't succeed.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50They lost also the control of the Mediterranean Sea.
0:54:50 > 0:54:54So, on every front things are collapsing in?
0:54:54 > 0:54:57Economic factors are very important
0:54:57 > 0:55:00in the explanation of the decline.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03They don't control the trade.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07There is no money or no budgets to control population.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11Internally, they lose their tax revenue
0:55:11 > 0:55:14as local people begin to turn against them.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19The different ethnic groups began to fracture and fight the regime,
0:55:19 > 0:55:23and gradually, the empire begins to disintegrate.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27It is that kind of wheel, one of those factors breaking down
0:55:27 > 0:55:32which means the whole empire then begins to fail.
0:55:32 > 0:55:38All these factors continued in time to the collapse of this dynasty.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42In 1269, Almohad rule ended
0:55:42 > 0:55:46when a rival Berber dynasty seized power in Marrakech.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50The collapse of the Almohad empire didn't happen overnight.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52It happened over decades.
0:55:52 > 0:55:58But nothing that followed could come close to what they had achieved.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02None of the Berber dynasties that succeeded the Almohads
0:56:02 > 0:56:06was powerful enough to rule North Africa.
0:56:06 > 0:56:11Attempts to return to the glory days of the Almohads failed.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16In the 16th century,
0:56:16 > 0:56:19the kingdom of Morocco was revived.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29But this vast palace was built by a different dynasty.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33Claiming the right to rule as true interpreters of Islam,
0:56:33 > 0:56:37these people saw themselves as Arabic, not Berber.
0:56:41 > 0:56:46The importance of Islam altered the identity of the kingdom.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53The religious zeal that brought the African Berbers an Islamic empire
0:56:53 > 0:56:56had ensured that it would be an Arab dynasty
0:56:56 > 0:56:59claiming direct descent to the prophet Muhammad
0:56:59 > 0:57:03that would rule the kingdom that the Berber had created.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10An Arab dynasty is still in power today.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25After five centuries of Arab rule,
0:57:25 > 0:57:30many now think of Morocco as an Arab state with an Arab history.
0:57:33 > 0:57:38This is a kingdom with roots that are distinctly African.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42A group of indigenous nomads from the desert
0:57:42 > 0:57:45had achieved what no-one else has ever done.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49They united a disparate group of Berber peoples
0:57:49 > 0:57:51under the banner of Islam
0:57:51 > 0:57:56and created an African empire that stretched into Europe.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00The Berber story deserves its place
0:58:00 > 0:58:03among the continent's great histories.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd