Abu Bakr ibn Umar al-Lamtuni

Abu Bakr ibn Umar succeeded his brother Yahya as supreme Almoravid ruler in 1056. Conquering the Sous and the fertile Haouz plains of Morocco, he made the epochal decision in May 1062 to establish a magnificent new imperial capital at the crossroads of mountain and desert: Marrakech.

Called back to the Sahara to resolve inter-tribal warfare, he generously transferred the northern Moroccan command and his wife Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah to his cousin Yusuf ibn Tashfin. Returning south, Abu Bakr led historic campaigns down to the Niger and Senegal rivers, spreading Islam across West Africa until his heroic death in 1087.