The Almohads

The Berber Muslim reform movement and empire that preached absolute divine oneness, ruled the Maghreb and Muslim Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries, persecuted Jews and Christians, yet sheltered the philosophers Ibn Tufayl and Averroes suffering a decisive blow at Las Navas de Tolosa before collapsing in the Maghreb by 1269.

A regime built on an uncompromising reading of God's oneness paid the salary of the man who taught Europe to read Aristotle. The Almohads suspended the old protections for Jews and Christians, drove out families like that of the young Maimonides, and burned books they judged impure. The same court kept Averroes close, until it did not. Few empires hold their contradictions this openly.