Islamic World, Almohad Caliphate (1121-1269 Ce), Square Dirham(C)

The Almohad Caliphate was a Berber dynasty that seized power in North Africa and Spain from the Almoravid dynasty. By 1147 CE the Almohads were in control of both the Maghreb (North Africa) and Al-Andalus (Spain), with their large Christian and Jewish subject populations. Unlike their predecessors, they rejected the mainstream Islamic doctrine of dhimmi (protected) status, for these groups as ‘people of the book’ and either forced conversion to Islam or killed those who refused to do so. They ultimately lost their lands in Spain to the pace of the Christian Reconquista and the Maghrib to the Marinids.