At a glance
Era 4- Dates
- c. 1009-1106 CE
- Who
- Almoravid ruler who saved al-Andalus at Zallaqa in 1086
- Era
- Al-Andalus
ProfileYusuf ibn Tashfin
Yusuf ibn Tashfin led the Almoravids, a reforming movement of Berbers from the western Sahara. In the 1060s and 1070s he took Morocco and founded the city of Marrakesh.
Meanwhile al-Andalus had split into small taifa kingdoms, and Alfonso VI of Castile took Toledo in 1085. The taifa kings asked Yusuf for help. In 1086 he crossed the strait and defeated Alfonso at Zallaqa, near Badajoz. He returned to Africa, but the taifa kings went back to quarrelling and paying tribute to Castile, and many scholars and ordinary people urged Yusuf to take over. From 1090 he removed the taifa kings one by one and brought al-Andalus under the Almoravids.
He was known for his simple life, wearing wool and eating plain food, and for his respect for the scholars. He died in Marrakesh in 1106, nearly a hundred years old.
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