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]

Abu al-Ala Idris al-Ma'mun
Almohad Caliph
Ruler of the Almohad Caliphate
Reign	1229–1232
Predecessor	Yahya al-Mu'tasim
Successor	Abd al-Wahid II
Born	unknown date
Died	16/17 October 1232
Issue	Abd al-Wahid II Abu al-Hasan as-Said al-Mutadid
Father	Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur
Mother	Safiya bint Abu Abdallah ben Merdnych[1]
Religion	Islam

Coins of Ferdinand III of Castile, who helped Idris al-Ma'mun

Life

Al-Ma'mun was the first Almohad ruler to officially renegade on the Imamate of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart, recognizing instead the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad as Imam^[3] and reverted back to promoting the Taqlid of the Maliki madhab formerly promoted by the Almoravids whom the Almohads had ousted less than a century earlier. He claimed instead that the title Mahdi applied to Jesus.^{[citation needed]} His nephew Yahya took this step as license to proclaim himself caliph and a civil war broke out.^[4] At the same time, a revolt took place in Murcia under emir al-Mutawakkil. Al-Ma'mun therefore send his relative Abu Zayd from Valencia to Murcia to squash the revolt, but Abu Zayd was defeated.^[4] Al-Ma'mun then went with an army to confront al-Mutawakkil, but he could not capture the city itself. As the situation in North Africa also became worse, al-Ma'mun departed to Morocco and ended thus Almohad rule on the peninsula.^[5]

Idris asked Ferdinand III of Castile for help,^[6][7] receiving 12,000 knights^[a] who allowed him to conquer that city and to massacre the sheikhs that had supported Yahya.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10]

The rejection of typical Almohad doctrine also caused the break away of the Hafsid dynasty in the Ifriqiya province.

One of his consort was a Christian woman, Habbaba, who upon his death informed the Christian palace militia before she informed the Muslim members of the court, giving the former an advantage. ^[11]

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

Notes

1. Ibn 'Idhari states the number was likely 500 knights^[8]

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. Al-Ma'mun already as Governor of Cordoba had coins minted which replaced the Almohad motto Al Mahdi Imam al-Uma (the Mahdi is the Leader of the Nation) with the phrase Al-Abbasi Imam al-Uma (the Abbasi is the Leader of the Nation), in line with the Maliki traditionalist view of the cast of jurists of Cordoba and Seville who resented the Almohads and revolted against Ibn Rushd
4. Minnema 2024, p. 66.
5. Minnema 2024, p. 67.
6. Janet E Burton, Phillipp R Schofield i Björn K U Weiler, Thirteenth Century England XIV: proceedings of the Aberystwyth and Lampeter Conference, 2011
7. M. Th. Houtsma, E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936
8. Lower 2014, p. 610.
9. Lower 2014, p. 610-611.
10. Yahya al-Mutasim
11. Military Diasporas: Building of Empire in the Middle East and Europe (550 BCE-1500 CE). (n.d.). Storbritannien: Taylor & Francis.

Sources

• Lower, Michael (2014). "The Papacy and Christian Mercenaries of Thirteenth-Century North Africa". Speculum. 89 (3 JULY). The University of Chicago Press: 601–631. doi:10.1017/S0038713414000761. S2CID 154773840.
• Minnema, Anthony H. (15 May 2024). The Last Ta'ifa: The Banu Hud and the Struggle for Political Legitimacy in Al-Andalus. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-7490-4. Retrieved 10 May 2024.

Preceded by Yahya, Almohad Caliph	Almohad dynasty 1229–1232	Succeeded by Abd al-Wahid II