ابن تومرت
The Almohad ideology preached by Ibn Tumart is described by Amira Bennison as a "sophisticated hybrid form of Islam that wove together strands from Hadith science, Zahiri and Shafi'i "fiqh", Ghazalian social actions ("hisba"), and spiritual engagement with Shi'i notions of the imam and "mahdi"". This contrasted with the highly orthodox or traditionalist Maliki school ("maddhab") of Sunni Islam which predominated in the region up to that point. Central to his philosophy, Ibn Tumart preached a fundamentalist or radical version of "tawhid" – referring to a strict monotheism or to the "oneness of God". This notion gave the movement its name: "al"-"Muwaḥḥidūn" (), meaning roughly "those who advocate "tawhid"", which was adapted to "Almohads" in European writings. Ibn Tumart saw his movement as a revolutionary reform movement much as early Islam saw itself relative to the Christianity and Judaism which preceded it, with himself as its "mahdi" and leader.