Around 1065, North Africa and the western Mediterranean were undergoing political fragmentation, migration, and the rise of new powers. The Zirids of Ifriqiya had broken with the Fatimid Caliphate in 1048–1049 and suffered major defeats amid the westward migrations of the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym. The loss of Kairouan in 1057 accelerated their decline and the emergence of autonomous principalities, while the related Hammadid dynasty dominated much of the central Maghreb.
Farther west, the Almoravids, a Sanhaja Amazigh (Berber) religious reform movement, expanded from the Sahara into Morocco, securing strategic trade centres and laying the foundations of an empire. Across the Mediterranean, the Normans began their conquest of Muslim Sicily in 1061, while the taifa kingdoms of al-Andalus remained divided after the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031. Together, these developments transformed political authority, migration patterns, and trade networks across the medieval western Mediterranean.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Netchev, S. (2026, October 23). Map of North Africa and the Western Mediterranean c. 1065: Almoravids, Zirids, Hilalian Migrations & Norman Sicily. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/19431/map-of-north-africa-and-the-western-mediterranean/
Chicago Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of North Africa and the Western Mediterranean c. 1065: Almoravids, Zirids, Hilalian Migrations & Norman Sicily." World History Encyclopedia, October 23, 2026. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/19431/map-of-north-africa-and-the-western-mediterranean/.
MLA Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of North Africa and the Western Mediterranean c. 1065: Almoravids, Zirids, Hilalian Migrations & Norman Sicily." World History Encyclopedia, 23 Oct 2026, https://www.worldhistory.org/image/19431/map-of-north-africa-and-the-western-mediterranean/.
