Abu Bakr b. 'Umar
Abu Bakr was the younger brother of Yahya b. 'Umar, of the Lamtuna people. Their mother was a Judala princess. He was raised a rider and a warrior like his brother, a commander and a leader as his brother, and he fostered justified ambition like his brother.
When Yahya became leader of all the Sanhaja confederation in 1049, they received together from Ibn Yasin the military leadership of his Murabitun, and together they started the conquest of the neighbouring territories. The taken of the glorious city of Sijilmasa in 1054 was their first greatest coup. They entrusted the city to a garrison and returned to their own strongholds.
But Sijilmasa rebelled against its new conqueror. Abu Bakr rode again against her, decided to cross the Sahara again and establish permanent rulership of his people on the riches of the metropolis. In 1056, he entered Sijilmasa once again and submitted its inhabitants. He made it his headquarters and entrusted the city itself to his cousin, Yusef u Tacfin. At this juncture, he learned that his brother had been killed in the south, campaining against the Judala rebels. Now sole military leader of the Murabitun, he minted coins in his name in gold.
Once the Murabitun hold of Sijilmasa was stabilised, Abu Bakr and his lieutenants continued their path of conquest. In 1058, the cities of Massa an Taroudant yielded to them without fight. There they massacred the chiits who lived there under the Fatimid rule. There Ibn Yasin died, and Abu Bakr received the religious leadership of the Murabitun he already led militarly. At this point they turned to the Masmuda people, and then the Haha and Regraga people.
In 1063, they found themselves in a position to contest the Zeneta Confederation. They managed to take Aghmat, the great city, and pursued almost to Fas. Stopped there by the Maghrawa, they turned to the Barghwata Realm. In the meantime, in 1068, Abu Bakr obtained the hand of the widow Zinb bint Eisaq, who despite her relative youth, was the richest person in the city and a prominent political figure. Shortly after, the Murabitun finally took Fas, and Abu Bakr' planned the foundation of a new capital by the clearing of a smugglers' camp and building a Csar al-Hajar there.
Abu Bakr then had to return south to quench a quarrel between the Imassufen and the Lamtuna. According to tradition, before leaving for the desert for an extended period of time, he had to divorce of his wife so she wouldn't be stuck in forceful solitude. He did break his vows with Zaynab, but to keep their agreements and relationship, presented her with his cousin, the younger Yusef u Tacfin.
Abu Bakr thus returned to the Sahara where, to calm down all the Sanhaja, be them Imassufen or Lamtuna, he united them on a quest to conquer the lands to the South "up to ninety days of travel away from the Murabitun", deep in Sudan territory. That is how he came to take the realm of Ghana in 1076-1077, pillaged a bit and forcelly converted as many as he could.
He returned then in 1078 to the North and upon arriving, learned that his cousin had a brand new army, riches, and followers. It seemed frightening and they almost fought; a terrible mishap that may have erased them all from history and which was avoided by the diplomat in the triumvirate, namely Zaynab.
Abu Bakr died a few years later in 1087 and his possessions and titles went to his cousin Yusef u Tacfin.
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