Editing Abu Bakr ibn Umar (section)

==Amir al-Muslimin==
Upon the death of [[Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni|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 and amir 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 then mopping up the area north of Aghmat, wheeled the Almoravid army around and conquered the Berghwata in a brutal campaign of revenge.

The death of the spiritual leader Abdallah ibn Yasin left the Almoravids under the sole command of Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr continued carrying out the Almoravid program without assuming the pretence of religious authority in himself.  Abu Bakr, like later Almoravid rulers, took up the comparatively modest title of ''amir al-Muslimin'' ("Prince of the Muslims"), rather than the [[caliph]]al ''[[amir al-Mu'minin]]'' ("Commander of the Faithful").

Abu Bakr married the wealthiest woman in [[Aghmat]], [[Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah]], who helped him navigate the complicated politics of southern Morocco. But Abu Bakr, a rustic desert warrior, found crowded Aghmat and its courtly life stifling. In 1060/61, Abu Bakr and his Sanhaja lieutenants left the city and pitched their tents on the pastures along the [[Tensift River]], setting up an encampment for their headquarters, as if they were back in the Sahara desert.  Stone buildings would eventually replace the tents, and the encampment would become the city of [[Marrakesh]], an unusual-seeming city for the time, evocative of desert life with planted palms and an oasis-like feel.

Abu Bakr placed his cousin [[Yusuf ibn Tashfin]] in charge of Aghmat, and assigned him the responsibility of maintaining the front against the Zenata to the north. In a series of campaigns through the 1060s, while Abu Bakr held court in Marrakesh, Yusuf directed Almoravid armies against northern Morocco, reducing Zenata strongholds one by one. In 1070, the Moroccan capital of [[Fez, Morocco|Fez]] finally fell to the Almoravids.  Discontent, however, had arisen in the Almoravid ranks.