Abu Muhammad Abd al-Wahid 'al-Makhlu' (also known as Abd al-Wahid I, ar, أبو محمد عبد الواحد بن يوسف ''Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Yūsuf'') was the

Almohad The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the unity of God) was a North African Berber Muslim empire fou ...

Caliph for less than a year in 1224.

Life

Abd al-Wahid was the son of the great

conqueror

Abu Yaqub Yusuf Abu Ya`qub Yusuf or Yusuf I ( ''Abū Ya‘qūb Yūsuf''; 1135 – 14 October 1184) was the second Almohad ''Amir'' or caliph. He reigned from 1163 until 1184 in Marrakesh. He was responsible for the construction of the Giralda in Seville, whi ...

and younger brother of the late Caliph

Yaqub al-Mansur Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Yūsuf ibn Abd al-Muʾmin al-Manṣūr (; c. 1160 – 23 January 1199 Marrakesh), commonly known as Yaqub al-Mansur () or Moulay Yacoub (), was the third Almohad Caliph. Succeeding his father, al-Mansur reigned from 118 ...

(d.1199). He had served with distinction on campaign in

al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

, was appointed governor of

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most po ...

in 1202, and ''sheikh'' of the

Masmuda The Masmuda ( ar, المصمودة, Berber: ⵉⵎⵙⵎⵓⴷⵏ) is a Berber tribal confederation of Morocco and one of the largest in the Maghreb, along with the Zanata and the Sanhaja. They were composed of several sub-tribes: Berghoua ...

tribe of the Haskura in 1206. He served for some time after that as governor in

Sijilmassa , alternate_name = , image = 1886608-the ruins of Sijilmassa-Rissani.jpg , alt = , caption = Sijilmasa ruins , map_type = Morocco , map_alt = , coordinates = , location = Errachidia, Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco , region = , type = Se ...

, and around 1221, was briefly governor in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

.Hugh Kennedy (1996) ''Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus''. London: Addison-Wesley-Longman Abd al-Wahid was back in

Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

in February 1224, when his grand-nephew, the young Almohad caliph Yusuf II, was accidentally killed, leaving no heirs. The palace

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...

Abu Sa`id Uthman ibn Jami'i quickly drafted the elderly Abd al-Wahid, then in his sixties, and presented him before the Almohad sheikhs of Marrakesh, who promptly elected him as the new Almohad Caliph. However, the hastiness of the election and the probable unconstitutionality of these proceedings, was disputed by his other nephews, the brothers of al-Nasir, who governed in

. Like other leading Almohad family nobles, the brothers had probably hoped for a less-experienced and more pliable candidate, likelier to give them freer rein to carry on autonomously in the provinces, as they had enjoyed during the caliphate of Yusuf II. The succession stunt unbalanced the careful coalition that had been built up over decades, setting different branches of the Almohad family member against each other, and against the palace bureaucrats and the tribal sheikhs. It was the first serious succession dispute in the Almohad Caliphate. Despite disagreements, the Almohad coalition had hitherto loyally lined up behind the new caliph. Not this time. Instigated by the shadowy figure of Abu Zayd ibn Yujjan, a former high bureaucrat who had been disgraced and exiled by ibn Jami'i, the brothers decided to elect their own Caliph Abdallah al-Adil in

, and set about ferrying troops from Spain to challenge Abd al-Wahid I in Morocco. Abd al-Wahid I did not last long as Caliph. Ibn Yujjan used his contacts in southern Morocco, notably Abu Zakariya, the sheikh of the

Hintata The Hintata or Hin Tata were a Berber tribal confederation belonging to the tribal group Masmuda of the High Atlas, Morocco. They were historically known for their political power in the region of Marrakesh between the twelfth century and sixtee ...

tribe, and Yusuf ibn Ali, governor of Tinmal, who seized the Marrakech palace and removed Ibn Jami'i and his supporters (Ibn Jami'i was eventually killed, while in exile in the

Atlas Mountains The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. It separates the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range. It stretches around through ...

). The caliph, Abd al-Wahid I, was murdered by strangulation in September 1224. The nickname by which he is frequently referred to in the chronicles, "''al-Makhlu''", means "the Deposed".

References

*Julien, Charles-André. ''Histoire de l'afrique du Nord, des origines à 1830'', édition originale 1931, réédition Payot, Paris, 1994. {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdul-Wahid I, Almohad Caliph 1224 deaths 13th-century Al-Andalus people 13th-century Almohad caliphs Year of birth unknown 13th-century Berber people Berber rulers