Hammadid dynasty

The Hammadid dynasty was a Berber Muslim kingdom in the central Maghreb, founded when Hammad ibn Buluggin broke away from the Zirids at the beginning of the eleventh century. Hammad built the fortified city of Qal'at Bani Hammad as his capital, and the state became known as the Hammadid Emirate or the Kingdom of Bejaia. Under Emir al-Nasir the Hammadids briefly dominated the central Maghreb, extending their authority from Tlemcen to Tunis and from the Mediterranean to the northern Sahara. Pressure from the Banu Hilal Arab tribes led the dynasty to move its capital to Bejaia, which grew into one of the largest and most prosperous cities of the region, with a population of more than 100,000. The Hammadids clashed with the Zirids, the Almoravids, the Normans of Sicily and finally the Almohads, who annexed the kingdom in 1152. Their architecture, especially the Qal'at Bani Hammad, is among the most important surviving monuments of the western Islamic world.