Around 1065, the geopolitical landscape of North Africa and the western Mediterranean was marked by fragmentation, migration, and the rise of new regional powers. Older political structures were weakening, while emergent dynasties and mobile confederations reshaped the balance of power. This period illustrates how environmental pressures, religious alignments, and shifting imperial loyalties combined to produce rapid and often destabilizing change across the medieval Mediterranean world.
In North Africa, the Hammadid dynasty (c. 1014–1152) consolidated control over much of present-day Algeria after breaking away from the Zirids, whose authority collapsed following the arrival of the Banū Hilāl and Banū Sulaym, Arab tribal confederations encouraged by the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171) to punish the Zirids for abandoning Shiʿi allegiance. These migrations devastated agricultural regions and accelerated the decline of the Badicid emirate. At the same time, the Almoravids (c. 1040–1147), a reformist Berber movement emerging from the Sahara, were expanding northward, poised to intervene decisively in both North Africa and al-Andalus. Across the sea, Norman forces continued their conquest of Sicily, while the taifa kingdoms of Iberia, politically divided after the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate (1031), struggled against internal rivalry and mounting external pressure. Together, these parallel developments signaled a major realignment that would reshape the medieval western Mediterranean in the decades to follow.
With sincere thanks and admiration to Boutkhil Tayeb for his inspiration, patience, and fantastic research.
About the Author
Related Images
Map of the Norman Conquest of Britain, 1066 - 1086 - From Hastings to Domesday – The Making of Norman England
Map of the Norman World, c. 1130 - Conquest, Power and State-Building
Map of the Taifa Kingdoms of al-Andalus (c. 1031–1086) - Iberian Peninsula on the Eve of the Almoravid Intervention
The Bantu Migration in Africa
Map of WWII North Africa Campaign, 1940-1943
Expansion of the Fatimid Caliphate
Cite This Work
APA Style
Netchev, S. (2026, January 03). Map of North Africa and the Western Mediterranean c. 1065: Power Shifts in the Post-Caliphate Maghreb. 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: Power Shifts in the Post-Caliphate Maghreb." World History Encyclopedia, January 03, 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: Power Shifts in the Post-Caliphate Maghreb." World History Encyclopedia, 03 Jan 2026, https://www.worldhistory.org/image/19431/map-of-north-africa-and-the-western-mediterranean/.
