Ali ibn Yusuf explained
Ali ibn Yusuf (also known as "Ali Ben Youssef") (c. 1084 – 28 January 1143) was the 5th Almoravid emir. He reigned from 1106 to 1143.
Early life
Ali ibn Yusuf was born in 1084–1085 (477 AH) in Ceuta.[2] He was the son of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the fourth Almoravid ruler. According to some sources, his mother was Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah.[3] [4] According to some others, his mother was Qamar or Qamra, surnamed Fadl al-Hasan,[5] a Christian captive from al-Andalus who became Yusuf's concubine. A woman Qamar is also cited by some sources as Ali Ibn Yusuf's own concubine[6] [7] and the mother of his son Syr.
Reign
At the time of his father's death, in September 1106, he was 23 years old. He succeeded his father on 2 September 1106.[8] [9] Ali ruled from Morocco and appointed his brother as governor of Al-Andalus. Ali expanded his territories in the Iberian Peninsula by capturing the Taifa of Zaragoza in 1110 but eventually lost it again to Alfonso I, King of Aragon, in 1118. Córdoba rebelled against the Almoravids in 1121.
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 died on 28 January 1143 and was succeeded by his son Tashfin ibn Ali.[10]
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 (destroyed under the Almohads), in the imperial capital, Marrakesh.[11] The Almoravid Qubba also bears Ali's name.
At the advice of Abu Walid Ibn Rushd (grandfather of Averroes), Ali built walls around Marrakesh as Ibn Tumart became more influential.[12] [13] 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.[14]
He also established an irrigation system in Marrakesh, a project managed by Obeyd Allah ibn Younous al-Muhandes.[15] This irrigation system made use of qanawat (Arabic: قناة, p. Arabic: قنوات). Ali also had the first bridge over the Tensift River built.
Sargasso Sea
According to the Muslim cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi, the Mugharrarin (also translated as "the adventurers") 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,[16] which stretches into the Atlantic from Bermuda.
Family
Ali was the son of Yusuf ibn Tashfin. He had at least two sons:
Notes and References
- Book: Gordon . Matthew S. . Concubines and Courtesans: Women and Slavery in Islamic History . Hain . Kathryn A. . 2017. Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-062220-6 . 240 . en . Zaynab bint Ali ibn Yusuf.
- Book: Messier, Ronald A. . The Almoravids and the Meanings of Jihad . Bloomsbury Publishing USA . 2010 . 978-0-313-38590-2 . 121 . en.
- Book: La Penza su Historian in Vestigada con el Carbonero Alcalde – 1859 . 2022 . Manuel Rodríguez Garrido . 45–46 . es . Yusuf ibn Tasufin,..., married Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah with whom he had three children: Ali ibn Yusuf, Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Aisa and Tamima bint Yusuf ibn Tashfin.
- Web site: Robinson . Marsha R. . 2006 . Crossing the Strait from Morocco to the United States: The Transnational Gendering of the Atlantic World Before 1830 . 76–77 . Zeineb and Yusef ibn Tashfin had a son, Ali ibn Yusef ibn Tashfin, who is described as having an excellent character. He ruled until 1142–43 CE/537 AH. He was succeeded by Tashfin ibn Ali ibn Yusef ibn Tashfin. Legitimacy still passed through her even though her name was no longer affixed to his, at least in this account...Ghania’s sons were raised under the patronage and supervision of Ali Ibn (Zeineb and) Yusef Ibn Tashfin.
- Book: al-Fāsī . ʻAlī ibn ʻAbd Allāh Ibn Abī Zarʻ . Roudh el-Kartas: Histoire des souverains du Maghreb (Espagne et Maroc) et annales de la ville de Fès . al-Gharnāṭī . Ṣāliḥ ibn ʻAbd al-Ḥalīm . 1860 . Impr. impériale . 224 . fr . 14th century.
- Book: Bennison, Amira K. . Almoravid and Almohad Empires . 2016 . Edinburgh University Press . 978-0-7486-4682-1 . 156–157 . en . one example of a powerful concubine was Qamar, the mother of Sir, one of 'Ali b. Yusuf's sons.
- Book: Azar, Henry A. . The Sage of Seville: Ibn Zuhr, His Time, and His Medical Legacy . 2008 . American Univ in Cairo Press . 978-977-416-155-1 . 50 . en . Qamar, 'Ali's favorite concubine....
- Encyclopedia: 1986. Clifford Edmund Bosworth. W.P.. Heinrichs. E.. van Donzel. C.E.. Bosworth. Th.. Bianquis. P.. Bearman. Wolfhart Heinrichs. Peri Bearman. b. Yūsuf b. Tās̲h̲ufīn. 9004081143. 389. I. 2nd. Leiden, Netherlands. 1960. E.. Lévi-Provençal. Brill Publishers. Encyclopaedia of Islam. Évariste Lévi-Provençal.
- Book: Bennison, Amira K.. The Almoravid and Almohad Empires. 2016. Edinburgh University Press. 978-0-7486-4680-7. 54. en. Amira Bennison.
- Book: Reilly, Bernard F. . The Kingdom of León-Castilla Under King Alfonso VII, 1126–1157 . 1998 . University of Pennsylvania Press . 978-0-8122-3452-7 . 77 . en.
- Book: Bloom. Jonathan. The Minbar from the Kutubiyya Mosque. Toufiq. Ahmed. Carboni. Stefano. Soultanian. Jack. Wilmering. Antoine M.. Minor. Mark D.. Zawacki. Andrew. Hbibi. El Mostafa. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Ediciones El Viso, S.A., Madrid; Ministère des Affaires Culturelles, Royaume du Maroc. 1998. 3–4. Jonathan Bloom. Ahmed Toufiq.
- Book: كتاب الحلل الموشية في ذكر الأخبار المراكشية. 1811. مطبعة التقدم،. 71. ar.
- Book: Deverdun, Gaston. Marrakech: Des origines à 1912. Éditions Techniques Nord-Africaines. 1959. Rabat. 108–109.
- Web site: دولة الإسلام في الأندلس • الموقع الرسمي للمكتبة الشاملة. https://web.archive.org/web/20170213072704/http://shamela.ws/browse.php/book-1009/page-407. dead. 2017-02-13. 2017-02-13. 2020-05-19.
- Book: Viollet, Pierre-Louis. Water Engineering inAncient Civilizations: 5,000 Years of History. 2017. CRC Press. 978-0-203-37531-0. en.
- Fromherz, Allen James, ‘The Near West’, p. 133, 2016, Edinburgh University Press.
- Extrait de la Chronique intitulée Kamel-Altevarykh par Ibn-Alatyr, RHC Historiens orientaux I, p. 413.
