Abd Al-Mu'min - Early Life

Early Life

Abd al-Mu'min was born near Tagra, in the Tlemcen area, present day Algeria. He belonged to the Goumia tribe, which in turn, belongs to the larger Berber Zenata tribe. The Goumia originated from Tagraret.
Ibn Khaldun wrote that was fro a noble family (The Banu Abed) of the Zenata. The Almohad biographers traced his descent as Abd al-Mu'min ben Ali ben Makhlouf ben Yali ben Merwan ben Nasr ben Ali ben Amer ben Al-Amir ben Musa ben Abdellah ben Yahya ben Ourigh ben Setfour (ben means son of). Ibn khaldun, however, strongly opposes this as a fabricated lineage, since Abdelmoumen was Berber of a well known tribe and the names reported are, for the most part, Arab.

Abdelmoumen went, as a youngster, to Tlemcen to learn the Fiqh. His tutor died before he could complete his study, at that time he learned about the existence of a well learned and pious Faqih known as Feqih Soussi (later known as Ibn Tumart) coming from the east on his way to his native land in Tinmel. Abdelmoumen and his peers wanted to convince Ibn Tumart to settle in Tlemcen, so he was sent to Ibn Tumart with a letter from the students inviting him to come to their land. The two met at Mellala near Bejaïa. Ibn Tumart turned down this invitation, but Abdelmoumen stayed with him and they continued the journey to Morocco. A strong friendship has grown between the two during this period, Ibn Tumart declared Abdelmoumen his best companion, to the point that he nominated him as his successor in leading the Almohads. Later, Abdelmoumen and the council of ten kept the death of Ibn Tumart secret for 3 years, since the Almohads were going into a difficult time in their fight against the Almoravids, he also feared that the Masmuda (The Berber tribe of Ibn Tumart) wouldn't accept him as their leader since he was an outsider. He will eventually lead the Almohads when an in-law relationship occurred between him and Cheikh Abu Hafs the leader of the Masmuda.