Abu Bakr ibn Umar

Abu Bakr ibn Umar ibn Ibrahim ibn Turgut, sometimes suffixed al-Sanhaji or al-Lamtuni (died 1087; Arabic: أبو بكر بن عمر‎‎) was a chieftain of the Lamtuna Berber Tribe and commander of the Almoravids from 1056 until his death.

Abu Bakr ibn Umar was a member of the Banu Turgut, a clan of the Lamtuna Berbers. His brother, Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni was the chieftain of the Lamtuna who invited the Maliki teacher Abdallah ibn Yasin, and together launched the Almoravid (murabitūn) movement in the early 1050s.

Upon the death of Yahya ibn Umar in the Spring of 1056 at the Battle of Tabfarilla, the spiritual leader Abdallah ibn Yasin appointed Abu Bakr as the new military commander of the Almoravids. That same year, Abu Bakr recaptured Sijilmassa from the Maghrawa of the Zenata confederation. The city had been taken earlier by Yahya, but subsequently lost; Abu Bakr recaptured it definitively for the Almoravids in late 1056.

In order to ensure they did not lose Sijilmassa again, Abu Bakr launched a campaign to secure the roads and valleys of southern Morocco. He immediately captured the Draa valley, then moved along the Wadi Nul (along the edge of the Anti-Atlas, picking up the adherence of the Sanhaja tribes of the Lamta and the Gazzula (Jazzula) to the Almoravid movement. Abu Bakr led the conquest of the Sous valley of southern Morocco, seizing the local capital of Taroudannt in 1057. By negotiation, Abdallah ibn Yasin secured an alliance with the Masmuda Berbers of the High Atlas, which allowed the Almoravids to cross the mountain range with little incident and seize the critical Zenata-ruled citadel of Aghmat in 1058 with little opposition. Delighted at the apparent ease of their advance, Abdallah ibn Yasin, ventured into the lands of the Berghwata of western Morocco with only a light escort and was promptly killed. Abu Bakr, who was them mopping up the area north of Aghmat, wheeled the Almoravid army and conquered the Berghwata in a brutal campaign of revenge.

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