us a journey, and
it was not without considerable difficulty that Abdallah ben Yassim, the
disciple of another alfaqui, was persuaded to accompany the patriotic
Yahia.

Abdallah was one of those ruling minds which, fortunately for the peace
of society, nature so seldom produces. Seeing his enthusiastic reception
by the tribe of Gudala, and the influence he was sure of maintaining
over it, he formed the design of founding a sovereignty in the heart of
these vast regions. Under the pretext that to diffuse a holy religion
and useful knowledge was among the most imperative of duties, he
prevailed on his obedient disciples to make war on the kindred tribe of
Lamtuna. That tribe submitted, acknowledging his spiritual authority,
and zealously assisted him in his great purpose of gaining proselytes by
the sword. His ambition naturally increased with his success: in a short
time he had reduced, in a similar manner, the isolated tribes around
him. To his valiant followers of Lamtuna he now gave the name of
_Muraditins_, or _Almoravides_,[30] which signifies men consecrated to
the service of God.

[Footnote 30: This Moslem dynasty, founded about 1050, ruled in Africa,
and afterward in Spain, until 1147, when it was overthrown and succeeded
by that of the Almohades.]

The whole country of Darah was gradually subdued by this new apostle,
and his authority was acknowledged over a region extensive enough to
form a respectable kingdom. But though he exercised all the rights of
sovereignty, he prudently abstained from assuming the title: he left to
the emir of Lamtuna the ostensible exercise of temporal power; and when,
in A.D. 1058, that emir fell in battle, he nominated Abu-Bekr ben Omar
to the vacant dignity. His own death, which was that of a warrior, left
Abu-Bekr in possession of an undivided sovereignty. The power and
consequently the reputation of the emir, spread far and wide, and
numbers flocked from distant provinces to share in the advantages of
religion and plunder. His native plains were now too narrow for the
ambition of Abu-Bekr, who crossed the chain of Mount Atlas, and fixed
his residence in the city of Agmat, between those mountains and the sea.

But even this place was soon too confined for his increased subjects,
and he looked round for a site on which he might lay the foundations of
a great city, the destined metropolis of a great empire. One was at
length found; and the city of Morocco began to rear its head f