Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd al-Haqq

Abu Yusuf Yaqub united the Zenata Berber clans of Morocco following the decline of the Almohads. In 1276, he founded Fes Jdid (New Fez), constructing magnificent stone walls, royal palaces, hydraulic water wheels, and the Grand Mosque of Fes Jdid.

Responding to appeals from Sultan Muhammad I of Granada, he crossed the Strait of Gibraltar four times with his armies, decisively defeating Castilian forces at the Battle of Écija in 1275. He endowed the royal necropolis of Chellah outside Rabat where his tomb remains an architectural treasure.