especially when he donned the ceremonial teaching robe (1) at the Niẓāmiyya, for on such occasions Ibn Tūmart voiced the severest censure of him—and of others as well.
He later performed the pilgrimage and, on returning (2) to his homeland, busied himself with commanding what is right and forbidding what is wrong. He taught the people the Quran and occupied them with jurisprudence until his name flew far and wide among the populace.
Yahya ibn Tamim ibn al-Muʿizz ibn (3) Bādis, ruler of Ifrīqiyya, met him, honoured him greatly, and asked him to pray for him; in consequence his fame increased and his renown spread even farther (4), though he possessed nothing but a waterskin and a staff and would stay only in mosques.
After that (5) he moved from town to town until he entered Marrakesh, accompanied by his disciple ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn ʿAlī, in whom he had discerned intelligence and courage (6). In Marrakesh (7) he encountered violations far worse than any he had seen elsewhere: the men concealed their faces with the lithām (face-veil) while the women walked about bare-faced. He therefore began to denounce this.
One day the sister of the Amir al-Muslimīn passed by him (8) while riding. Her brother was ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn (9), sovereign of Marrakesh and its environs, and she was accompanied by other women (10) who were likewise unveiled. He and his companions began to reproach them (11), striking the faces of the animals, so the king’s sister fell from her mount. The ruler summoned him and gathered the jurists; he prevailed over them with proof, then admonished the king privately until he moved him to tears. Nevertheless, Ibn Tāshfīn banished him from the city (12). Ibn Tūmart thereupon began vilifying him and calling the people to fight him, and many followed him. Ibn Tāshfīn therefore dispatched (13) a large army against him, but Ibn Tūmart routed it; his standing rose, his cause was exalted, and his power grew formidable (14). He assumed the title “the Mahdī,” named his troops “the Army of the Muwaḥḥidūn (Almohads),” composed a book on tawḥīd (divine unity), and produced a creed known as al-Murshida.