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A.D. 1144.] WAR OF THE ALMORAVIDES AND ALMOHADES. 421

CHAP. XXXVI.—OF THE WAR IN AFRICA BETWEEN THE ALMORAVIDES
AND THE ALMOHADES, AND OF THE UNHAPPY DEATH OF KING ALY BEN
JUZEF.

THE affairs of Africa were meanwhile not in a better con-
dition than those of Spain: King Aly had hoped that the
bravery and good fortune of his son Taxfin would avail to
restrain the advance of the Almohades, and change the fate
of the war which they were waging against him, marching
triumphant and victorious through his dominions, and
making themselves gradually masters of his territories.
During the ten years of implacable and obstinate warfare
which he had himself been conducting against that faction,
he had not been able to obtain any advantage over them;
nay rather it was they who had been the conquerors, since
they had taken possession of his towns, and made themselves
lords of his provinces one after the other, more especially
those wherein dwelt the Cabilas of Ateza, Gebala, and Gieza.

Prince Taxfin passed over into Africa, as we have said, and in his company went the flower of the Almoravide cavalry, whose absence produced an unhappy effect on the condition of Spain, where the perpetual revolts and tribulations above described did indeed most pressingly require the restriction which might have been effected by those troops, and were much aggravated by the departure of the Prince. When the latter arrived at Morocco, he made immediate preparation for marching against the Almohades, and having assembled a considerable force, he went forth to seek the enemy. But his first campaign in Africa had not equal fortune with those of Andalusia, seeing that he was several times defeated with great loss, every day appearing to render his affairs worse. The King Aly, his father, seeing his hopes thus disappointed, and receiving no intelligence but such as brought news of defeat and rout, took the matter so deeply to heart that he fell into heavy sickness, his malady arising solely from the profound sadness and grief of heart with which he was afflicted. The continued addition which he received to these sorrows increased his bodily sufferings, until at last they ended his life, and he died at his Alcazar of Morocco in the moon

Regeb of the year 539,* after having reigned thirty-nine years and seven months. His son was at that time in Aceya, and the death of King Aly was concealed for more than three months.

When at length the decease of the king was made known, his son Taxfin, who had received the oath of allegiance as his successor on the throne of the Almora vides, was proclaimed King of the Moslemah. The new monarch then despatched letters to all his provinces, exhorting the people to continue in their loyalty and obedience to his rule. He likewise wrote to the principal Almoravide generals then commanding in Spain, as for example, to Abu Zacaria Yahye Aben Gania, to Ozman Ben Adha, and to his uncle Ali Ben Abi Bekir, who instantly replied by letters of congratulation on his accession to the throne: from that time forward the name of Taxfin Ben Aly alone was heard in the public prayers of the mosques.

Anxious to restrain the pride of Abdelmumen Ben Aly, Prince of the Almohades, King Taxfin Ben Aly again assembled a large force, with the purpose of marching against him; Abdelmumen having once more had the boldness to descend from the mountains of Tedula and Gomera with a considerable army, laying waste the level country, taking prisoners or slaying the inhabitants, and carrying desolation into every district he entered. This devastating tempest of war had now taken its course towards the sierras which rise between Fez and Telenzen, swift troops of Abdelmumen's light horse making incursions on the Cabilas dwelling on either side of that range, at one and the same time. King Taxfin proceeded, therefore, to the encounter of those ferocious bands, which were falling, as might hungry tigers, on everything that came in their way. Surrounding them with a force of great numbers, the king made a horrible slaughter among them, and the Almohades fled, leaving the field of battle covered with their corpses as an acceptable feast for the beasts and birds of prey. By that defeat the Prince Ab

A.D. 1144 or 1145.

delmumen Ben Aly was compelled to retire to the mountains and ascend for shelter to the most inaccessible wilds of his rock-hewn holds, King Taxfin pursuing him through the lowlands and across the spacious plains of the country.

But the Almohades, although fewer in numbers, were yet enabled to defend themselves by the advantages of their position and in their impregnable fastnesses; they were also well supplied with provision, which failed almost entirely in the sandy deserts and would not suffice to the maintenance of so many troops as composed the king's army. The Berbers of that district were besides altogether devoted to Abdelmumen Ben Aly, and would not supply the Almoravides with the means of life.

The leader of the Almohades established his camp for some time in the mountains of Gomera, whence he subsequently passed to those of Telencen and Wadi Tehlit, inducing the Zenete Cabilas who dwelt in those regions. to submit themselves to his rule on all his line of march. King Taxfin, who still followed in pursuit, arrived in his turn at Wadi Tehlit, when, as the winter was now far advanced, he there pitched his camp and remained during two months; but the cold was so intense, that his troops were finally compelled to burn the houses and cabins, nay, the very tent-poles and handles of their lances, to save themselves from being frozen to death.

Abdelmumen Ben Aly had meanwhile directed his march towards the mountains of Telencen, pursuing his route along the chain of those hills; King Taxfin also persisting in the pursuit of the Almohade prince; who, having ultimately fixed his camp on the summit of the heights above Telencen, made perpetual descents on the cultivated lands at the base, which he overran with his light cavalry.

Now King Taxfin had requested assistance from the Beni Amat of Zanhaga, whose territories border on the eastern parts of Africa, and from them he received a powerful body of both horse and foot, on whose arrival the king himself, with his principal generals, went forth to give them welcome. Those troops, united to his own, seemed to fill all the level plains as might a swarm of locusts, showing forth the greatness of the Kings of Morocco, and presenting a gladsome, remarkable, and very

amazing sight, which would have been indeed a subject for rejoicing over, had not the destruction of so much grandeur been now so near!

King Taxfin received the generals of the Beni Amat with great honour, expressing his satisfaction at the sight of so magnificent a camp, and discoursing with them of his intentions as regarded attacking the enemy. He furthermore imparted to those chiefs his plans for succouring and fortifying the city of Telencen, which was that most immediately threatened by the Almohades.

Abdelmumen Ben Aly was on his part observing minutely all that passed in the plains beneath him from the tops of his high mountains, feeling no apprehension of that numerous host, and not permitting the infinite number of their many-coloured banners to inspire him with a shade of fear: the clamour of their Atabals and the clangour of their trumpets filled the air, causing the earth to tremble and resounding through the distant mountains, but awakening no terror in the heart of Abdelmumen Ben Aly.

King Taxfin now detached a body of lightly armed cavalry, which directed its march towards that part of the Sierra where the Almohades then were; these troops ascended the hills by Tobad, which is near Telencen, and making their way through numerous defiles, they thus approached the foe. The Almohades, on their part, advanced to the encounter, when a fierce combat was commenced amidst those wild regions, and continued until the Almohades, defeating and dispersing the cavalry of King Taxfin, drove vast numbers of the men over the fearful precipices around them, while the portion of that discomfited body which succeeded in reaching the plains, filled the countless multitude composing the Almoravide force with terror and dismay.

All the ability and bravery of their noble king, with the utmost valour of his distinguished generals, were then found insufficient to restrain the fears of that host, or maintain order among its bands, which fled, vanquished by its own fears rather than by the might of their enemies. But the latter did not fail to profit by that disorderly flight and panic terror; they slew large numbers of the Almo

ravide troops, on whose rear they hung like famished' tigers, whom they drove at the point of their lances across the wide extended plains.

After that unhappy defeat King Aly wrote letters to all his provinces, exhorting them to send him forces for the continuance of the war; nor did the Walies of the kingdom delay the assembling of their strength,-numerous bands arrived from Sigilmesa, Bugia, and other parts: King Taxfin's son, the Ameer Abu Ishac Ibrahim, also coming from Andalusia, with a finely-appointed body, composed of the Andalusian cavalry and the Christians of his guard, in number about four thousand cavaliers.

The king then held a review of all his troops, whom he divided and ranged in squadrons; when the sight of that vast multitude, glittering in arms of all kinds, cavalry and infantry, was such as might well cause admiration, to say nothing of the vast stores of provision, the immense extent of the pavilions, and the flocks of all kinds, with their many herdsmen and shepherds; all which covered so vast a space, that the whole power of the population of Africa might have been supposed to have gathered on that field. The review was held before the gate called Bab Carmedin, and the warriors in their serried squadrons extended over the entire plain, nay, even to the foot of the mountains which were in front of the city. This, as Aben Iza Ben Muza El Magif tells us, was the last effort of the Almoravide princes.

Abdelmumen Ben Aly now moved his camp, directing his march towards Telencen, while King Taxfin, following close on the trace of the Almohades with his innumerable force, endeavoured to compel Abdelmumen to give him battle; nay, the light skirmishers of King Taxfin's army did so greatly disquiet the advance of the Almohade leader, that they compelled him to descend into the plains and take his way towards the country of the Zenetes; but being then attacked in his rear, he resolved to offer battle to the Almoravide army.

Abdelmumen Ben Aly was much inferior in numbers to the enemy he had now to encounter, whether as regarded his cavalry or infantry; he therefore determined, as the best means of defending himself, that his force should be

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