Abu Bakr ibn Amer

Operating across the southern theater of the Almoravid movement while his cousin Yusuf ibn Tashfin consolidated Morocco and Spain, Abu Bakr ibn Amer commanded an army of Sanhaja desert camel cavalry. In 1076, his forces captured Koumbi Saleh, the capital of the ancient Ghana Empire.

He established Azougui as the flourishing administrative and religious center of the Sahara, patronizing scholars like Imam al-Hadrami. He unified the pastoral tribes from the Senegal River to the Draa, permanently rooting Islam across western sub-Saharan Africa until his death in combat in 1087.