Abu Bakr ibn Umar

Who was Abu Bakr ibn Umar?

Abu Bakr ibn Umar ibn Ibrahim ibn Turgut, sometimes suffixed al-Sanhaji or al-Lamtuni was a chieftain of the Lamtuna Berbers of the western Sahara, 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 of the western Sahara. 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 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