Editing Almohad Caliphate (section)

=== Decline in al-Andalus ===
In 1225, Abd Allah al-Bayyasi's band of rebels, accompanied by a large Castilian army, descended from the hills, besieging cities such as [[Siege of Jaén (1225)|Jaén]] and [[Siege of Andújar|Andújar]]. They [[raid (military)|raid]]ed throughout the regions of [[Province of Jaén (Spain)|Jaén]], [[Province of Córdoba (Spain)|Cordova]] and [[Vega de Granada]] and, before the end of the year, al-Bayyasi had established himself in the city of [[Córdoba, Andalusia|Cordova]]. Sensing a power vacuum, both [[Alfonso IX of León]] and [[Sancho II of Portugal]] opportunistically ordered raids into Andalusian territory that same year. With Almohad arms, men and cash dispatched to Morocco to help Caliph al-Adil impose himself in Marrakesh, there was little means to stop the sudden onslaught. In late 1225, with surprising ease, the Portuguese raiders reached the environs of [[Seville]]. Knowing they were outnumbered, the Almohad governors of the city refused to confront the Portuguese raiders, prompting the disgusted population of Seville to take matters into their own hands, raise a militia, and go out in the field by themselves. The result was a veritable massacre – the Portuguese men-at-arms easily mowed down the throng of poorly armed townsfolk. Thousands, perhaps as much as 20,000, were said to have been slain before the walls of Seville. A similar disaster befell a similar popular levy by [[Murcia]]ns at [[Aspe]] that same year. But Christian raiders had been stopped at [[Cáceres, Spain|Cáceres]] and [[Requena, Valencia|Requena]]. Trust in the Almohad leadership was severely shaken by these events – the disasters were promptly blamed on the distractions of Caliph al-Adil and the incompetence and cowardice of his lieutenants, the successes credited to non-Almohad local leaders who rallied defenses.

But al-Adil's fortunes were briefly buoyed. In payment for Castilian assistance, al-Bayyasi had given Ferdinand III three strategic frontier fortresses: [[Baños de la Encina]], Salvatierra (the old [[Order of Calatrava]] fortress near [[Ciudad Real]]) and [[Capilla, Badajoz|Capilla]]. But Capilla refused to surrender, forcing the Castilians to lay a long and difficult siege. The brave defiance of little Capilla, and the spectacle of al-Bayyasi's shipping provisions to the Castilian besiegers, shocked Andalusians and shifted sentiment back towards the Almohad caliph. A popular [[uprising]] broke out in Cordova – al-Bayyasi was killed and his head dispatched as a trophy to Marrakesh. But Caliph al-Adil did not rejoice in this victory for long – he was assassinated in Marrakesh in October 1227, by the partisans of Yahya, who was promptly acclaimed as the new Almohad caliph [[Yahya, Almohad Caliph|Yahya "al-Mu'tasim"]].

The Andalusian branch of the Almohads refused to accept this turn of events. Al-Adil's brother, then in Seville, proclaimed himself the new Almohad caliph [[Idris I, Almohad Caliph|Abd al-Ala Idris I 'al-Ma'mun']]. He promptly purchased a [[truce]] from Ferdinand III in return for 300,000 ''[[maravedi]]s'', allowing him to organize and dispatch the greater part of the Almohad army in Spain across the [[Straits of Gibraltar|straits]] in 1228 to confront Yahya.

That same year, Portuguese and [[Leonese Country|Leonese]] renewed their raids deep into Muslim territory, basically unchecked. Feeling the Almohads had failed to protect them, popular uprisings took place throughout al-Andalus. City after city deposed their hapless Almohad governors and installed local strongmen in their place. A Murcian strongman, [[Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Hud al-Judhami]], who claimed descendance from the [[Banu Hud]] dynasty that had once ruled the old [[taifa of Zaragoza|taifa of Saragossa]], emerged as the central figure of these rebellions, systematically dislodging Almohad garrisons through central Spain. In October 1228, with Spain practically all lost, al-Ma'mun abandoned Seville, taking what little remained of the Almohad army with him to Morocco. Ibn Hud immediately dispatched emissaries to distant [[Baghdad]] to offer recognition to the [[Abbasid]] [[Caliph]], albeit taking up for himself a quasi-caliphal title, 'al-Mutawwakil'.

[[File:Almohads after 1212.jpg|thumb|250px|Almohads after 1212]]
The departure of al-Ma'mun in 1228 marked the end of the Almohad era in Spain. Ibn Hud and the other local Andalusian strongmen were unable to stem the rising flood of Christian attacks, launched almost yearly by [[Sancho II of Portugal]], [[Alfonso IX of León]], [[Ferdinand III of Castile]] and [[James I of Aragon]]. The next twenty years saw a massive advance in the Christian [[reconquista]] – the old great Andalusian [[citadel]]s fell in a grand sweep: [[Mérida, Spain|Mérida]] and [[Badajoz]] in 1230 (to Leon), [[Mallorca]] in 1230 (to Aragon), [[Beja, Portugal|Beja]] in 1234 (to Portugal), [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]] in 1236 (to Castile), [[Valencia]] in 1238 (to Aragon), [[Niebla, Spain|Niebla]]-[[Huelva]] in 1238 (to Leon), [[Silves, Portugal|Silves]] in 1242 (to Portugal), [[Murcia]] in 1243 (to Castile), [[Jaén, Spain|Jaén]] [[Siege of Jaén (1245-46)|in 1246]] (to Castile), [[Alicante]] in 1248 (to Castile), culminating in the fall of the greatest of Andalusian cities, the ex-Almohad capital of [[Seville]], into Christian hands in 1248. Ferdinand III of Castile entered Seville as a conqueror on December 22, 1248.

The Andalusians were helpless before this onslaught. Ibn Hud had attempted to check the Leonese advance early on, but most of his Andalusian army was destroyed at the [[battle of Alange]] in 1230. Ibn Hud scrambled to move remaining arms and men to save threatened or besieged Andalusian citadels, but with so many attacks at once, it was a hopeless endeavor. After Ibn Hud's death in 1238, some of the Andalusian cities, in a last-ditch effort to save themselves, offered themselves once again to the Almohads, but to no avail. The Almohads would not return.

With the departure of the Almohads, the [[Nasrid dynasty]] ("''Banū Naṣr''", {{langx|ar|بنو نصر}}) rose to power in [[Granada]]. After the great Christian advance of 1228–1248, the [[Emirate of Granada]] was practically all that remained of old [[al-Andalus]]. Some of the captured citadels (e.g. Murcia, Jaen, Niebla) were reorganized as tributary vassals for a few more years, but most were annexed by the 1260s. Granada alone would remain independent for an additional 250 years, flourishing as the new center of al-Andalus.