The Almohad movement [Arabic al-Muwahhidun, the Unitarians] ruled variously in the Maghrib starting about 1130 until 1248 (locally in Morocco until 1275). This movement had been founded by Ibn Tumart (1077-1130), a Masmuda Berber from the Atlas mountains of Morocco, who became the mahdi. After a pilgrimage to Mecca followed by study, he had returned to the Maghrib about 1218 inspired by the teachings of al-Ash'ari and al-Ghazali. A charismatic leader, he preached an interior awareness of the Unity of God. A puritan and a hard-edged reformer, he gathered a strict following among the Berbers in the Atlas, founded a radical community, and eventually began an armed challenge to the current rulers, the Almoravids (1056-1147).