Abū Bakr ibn ʿUmar

Article abstract: Military significance: His conquests led to the conversion to Islam of the Soninke people and the further spread of Islamic political influence in western Africa.

Abū Bakr ibn ʿUmar was the son of a chief of the Lamtunah branch of the Sanhājah Berbers, nominally Muslims, in what is now southern Mauretania. After his birth, the exact date of which is uncertain, the pagan kingdom of Ghana extended its control to the strategically important Berber town of Audaghost. In reaction to both the unenthusiastic Islamic practice of the Berbers and the...

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