Almoravid empire begins to crumble

1135

In the wake of Almohad victories in the south, the governors of Valencia and Murcia declared independence from Marrakech. The Almoravid empire, which twenty years earlier had stretched from Ghana to Zaragoza, began to come apart in both Iberia and North Africa at once. Local strongmen carved out petty states called second taifas, recapitulating the fragmentation that the Almoravids had originally crossed the strait to prevent.