AlmoravidAl Andalus, 1085. The western jewel of Islam had broken into pieces. The petty Taifa emirs who inherited the once mighty Caliphate squabbled and fought, then paid the Christian lords Parias in gold to avoid fighting at all. Alfonso VI, Christian king of a unified Len and Castilla, could now put his extorted dinars to work. He would muster a great feudal hostnot merely for plunder but to rip out the heart of Muslim Spain. He would seize the ancient