Following a complex era marked by expansion across North Africa and conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa underwent another stage that was no less difficult, with political instability and religious conflicts as the dominant historical constants. These were the eighth through tenth centuries, notable for heterodox emirates such as the Barġawāṭī of Tāmasnā, the ḫāriǧī states of Tāhart, Tlemcen and Siǧilmāsa, and the Fatimid Caliphate of al-Qayrawān, against which Cordoba’s Umayyads vied for hegemony over North African territory. It seemed unlikely for new dynasties to emerge from a tribal environment coming out of the desert and change the history of the Islamic West in the time period immediately thereafter. But that is precisely what happened: the Almoravids, Almohads and Merinids sought to unify the Maghreb and Al-Andalus under a single political authority, leaving behind a doctrinal mark through a new religious project, the revival of traditional values and the imposition of a very well-defined official ideology. This conference will address the commonalities and differences to be found amongst the three dynasties and their Berber-Maghreb identity, as well as other topics of interest. 

This scientific outreach activity resulted from the coordinated research project MAGNA II: “Transits and transformations in the Maghreb space and population” (TRAMAGHIS. PID2021-122872NB-C21 and DIANA. PID2021-122872NB-C22), financed by MICIN/AEI/13039/501100011033 and the ERDF. A Way to Make Europe. 

Miguel Ángel Manzano Rodríguez 
With a bachelor’s degree and PhD from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Miguel Ángel Manzano Rodríguez is a professor and department chair at the University of Salamanca’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and the principal investigator of the GIR ESARIS (Arabic and Islamic Studies) research group, affiliated with the IEMYRhd at the same university. 

He has taken part in some twenty research projects, most recently coordinating the MAGNA (2018–2021) and MAGNA II (2022–2026) projects, and serving as principal investigator (PI) for GEOMAGRED and TRAMAGHIS. He has served on several editorial boards, coordinated PhD programs and been a member of committees for scientific and academic quality and faculty accreditation.  

His main line of research has revolved around the history and historiography of the Maghreb during the Late Middle Ages (and more specifically, the history of the Merinid Sultanate of Fez). More recently, he has concentrated on the cultural geography of the Maghreb, primarily through sources from the Islamic East. He has also contributed to the field of Arabic language teaching (Alatul, Herder, 2010) and to the Digital Humanities (by creating the first Spanish-language website devoted to the Arabic language—Arabismo.com—in collaboration with Jesús Zanón and Xavier Cassasas; this includes a transcription module using the Keyman program (SIL Global); and a web portal about Islamic chronology, currently under development). Since 2015, he has been a collaborating member of the Al-Ándalus Maghreb Chair at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Santiago, Chile.

His most recent publications include “On the Merinid Army: Precisions and data,” in Javier Albarrán (coordinator), Al-Andalus and War (2024, Madrid: La Ergástula, pp. 97-123); “Ibn Sūda Family,” The Encyclopaedia of Islam, (2022, THREE, Brill online); “The Maghreb in Yāqūt al-Rūmī’s Muʿǧam al-buldān (d. 626/1229): Analysis of Content and Sources,” (2022, al-Qanṭara, 42/2, e17: 1–11); and, with Helena de Felipe Rodríguez (eds.), MAGNA: A cultural and human geography of the Maghreb (2021, Granada: Editorial Comares).