Ali ibn Yusuf


Ali ibn Yusuf was the 5th Almoravid emir. He reigned from 1106-1143.

Biography

Ali ibn Yusef was born in 1084 in Ceuta. He was the son of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the fourth Almoravid Emir, and a Christian concubine. At the time of his father's death, in September 1106, he was 23 years old. He succeeded his father on 2 September 1106. Ali ruled from Morocco and appointed his brother as governor of Al-Andalus. Ali expanded his territories in the Iberian Peninsula by capturing Zaragoza in 1110 but eventually lost it again to Alfonso I, King of Aragon, in 1118. Cordoba rebelled against the Almoravids in 1121.

Patronage

He commissioned a minbar now known as the Minbar of the Kutubiyya Mosque from a workshop in Córdoba to furnish his grand mosque, the original Ben Youssef Mosque, in the imperial capital, Marrakesh. The Almoravid Qubba also bears Ali's name.
At the advice of Abu Walid Ibn Rushd, Ali built walls around Marrakesh as Ibn Tumart became more influential. There had been walls around the mosque and the palace, but Ali ibn Yūsuf spent 70,000 gold dinars on the city's fortifications, doubling the city's size, and told the amirs of Al-Andalus to fortify their walls as well.
He also established an irrigation system in Marrakesh, a project managed by Obeyd Allah ibn Younous al-Muhandes. This irrigation system made use of qanawat. Ali also had the first bridge over the Tensift River built.
, written for Ali ibn Yūsuf.
In 1139, he lost the Battle of Ourique against the Portuguese forces led by the count Afonso Henriques, which allowed Afonso to proclaim himself an independent King.
Ali was succeeded by his son Tashfin ibn Ali in 1143.

Sargasso Sea

According to the Muslim cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi the Mugharrarin sent by Ali ibn Yusuf, led by his admiral Ahmad ibn Umar, better known under the name of Raqsh al-Auzz reached a part of the ocean covered by seaweed, identified by some as the Sargasso Sea, which stretches into the Atlantic from Bermuda.

Family

Ali was the son of Yusuf ibn Tashfin. He had at least two sons: