Almoravids

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Berber Islamic dynasty that controlled much of North-West Africa and Muslim Spain in the eleventh and twelfth centuries ; the people or members belonging to that dynasty during their rule
2. An North African Berber royal line that built an empire spanning Morocco and al-Andalus during the 1000s and 1100s ; the individuals who belonged to this ruling house or its followers
3. Medieval Berber rulers whose Muslim empire stretched across Morocco and southern Spain in the 11th and 12th centuries ; the men and women who made up this dynasty and its adherents

Etymology: The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty that ruled much of North Africa and Al-Andalus in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and their name comes from an Arabic word meaning "one who is bound" or "one who stands guard at a frontier outpost." The Arabic "murābiṭ" was used for men garrisoned at a ribāṭ, a fortified frontier post, and the word was later applied to the movement that grew out of such outposts. The name reached European languages through Spanish, which took it as "almorávide." English then borrowed the term from Spanish, and the plural "almoravids" is the form used for the dynasty's members as a group. Because the Spanish form is the immediate source, the English word preserves the Arabic root only in a somewhat altered shape, with the Arabic "murābiṭ" sitting behind it.