Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar (died in 1087) (Arabic: أبو بكر بن عمر‎) was an Almoravid ruler. He was appointed General of the Almoravid movement by its leader Abdallah ibn Yasin on the death of his brother Yahya Ibn Ibrahim in 1056 . He captured Sūs and its capital Aghmat in southern Morocco in 1057, and became leader of the Murabitūn on the death of Ibn Yasin in battle with the Berghwata Berbers in 1059. He married the wealthiest woman in Aghmat, Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyat, and began to found a new capital at Marrakech in 1070. On being recalled to the Sahara in 1071 to put down a rebellion, he left control of the Sūs to his cousin Yusuf ibn Tashfin while his son Ismail was given charge of Sijilmassa. He divorced Zaynab before he left and advised her to marry Yusuf, knowing that she was not suited to a life of jihad in the Sahara.

After suppressing the rebellion, he wanted to return to take up his former position. However, Yusuf had taken a liking to power. Acting on Zaynab's advice Yusuf was able to turn back Abu-Bakr using diplomacy rather than force. As a courtesy to his former leader, Yusuf kept Abu-Bakr's name on the Almoravid coinage until his death.

Abu-Bakr returned to the Sahara. He is said to have attacked ancient Ghana in 1076 and is often credited with initiating the spread of Islam on the southern periphery of the Sahara^[1]. Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar died shortly after receiving news of Yusuf Ibn Tashfin's victory at the Battle of Sagrajas near Badajoz (in modern Spain), in 1087.

A leader of remarkable ability, he fused his tribes with a religious reform movement; his remarkable tolerance of Yusuf ibn Tashfin's insubordination preserved the infant Almoravid state and permitted its rapid expansion into the Al-Andalus (Moorish Iberia) and most of North Africa as well.

Preceded by Abdallah ibn Yasin

Almoravid 1061–1087

Succeeded by Yusuf ibn Tashfin

[edit] Notes

1. ^ However, there is considerable controversy about this (see this review article). Even before Abu-Bakr's time, Muslim traders had already propagated Islam over much of the south of the Sahara.

Abu Bakr Ibn Umar main's interest was not to rule this kingdom rather than spread the word of Allah to all mankind. He started with a struggle between 2 tribes to mend the tie between them when he left Yusuf Ibn Tashfin to sit in his place on a small territory "Duila". When he finished and brought those two tribes in peace with each other, he realized there is a lot of work to be done to spread knowledge in tribes that worshiped idles such as trees and stones and was very primitive in their tools and knowledge of the world and history. He spent 15 years traveling around from one place to another in West and South West Africa. He reached as far as Central Africa Republic and Niger. By the time he finished those 15 years and decided to return back to Almoravid state "Duila" where his kingdom was, he realized that Yusuf Ibn Tashfeen who was his vice president that ruled in his place has already spread to the north and the state now was very large that included now what we know as Algiers, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Southern part of Spain (Andalusia).

At that point he decided that his best rule to serve this state is as a missionary calling for Islam rather than a king or ruler since he realized that Tashfin has shown amazing skills as a leader and administrator of this kingdom. Yusuf Ibn Tashfin offered to step down to Abu Bakr but Abu Bakr refused and he went on saying you are better in this position than I was.

[edit] References

• Ibn Idhari, Al-bayan al-mughrib Part III, annotated Spanish translation by A. Huici Miranda, Valencia, 1963.
• N. Levtzion & J.F.P. Hopkins, Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history, Cambridge University Press, 1981, ISBN 0521224225 (reprint: Markus Wiener, Princeton, 2000, ISBN 1-55876-241-8). Contains English translations of extracts from medieval works dealing with the Almoravids; the selections cover some (but not all) of the information above.