Abu Yusuf (World of Sultans)

Migdal-Abu Yusuf ibn Sulaiman al-Ishbiliya (Hebrew: מגדל-אבו יוסף בן סולימן אל-סביליה, Arabic: مجدال أبو يوسف بن سليمان إشبيلية، c. 1495 - 1566) also known by the Hebrew acronym MiAbYu (Hebrew: מיאביו) and Abu Yusuf in short, was an Andalusian Sephardic Jewish conquistador, astronamer and sailor during the Age of Exploration. He is best known for helping the Andalusian Empire gain overseas territory in some regions of North Africa, the near-whole of Eastern Africa and Central America. He was funded by Sultan Waleed to lead Andalusia's first overseas expedition into North Africa, and later accomplishing an expedition and later conquest of Tenochtitlan in Mexico when all odds were against him.

In addition, he's also made various travels and journeys in Jerusalem and Damascus, visiting Jerusalem three times, in 1502 as a practing Crypto Jew with his family, and another one in 1520 independantly, and one in Yom Kippur of 1569, shortly after Al-Andalus re-gained its inependance from Spanish Catholic rule. In the third-mentioned journey, he also reached and travelled to other places in the Middle East and North Africa, including Damascus in Syria all the way south into Cairo in Egypt. While in Egypt, he befriended many Islamic imams and Arab sheikhs

He would be one of the contributing factors, in many of Andalusia's naval victorious against the Spanish Empire. Along with Hahim ibn Waleed and Abd-ar-Qasim, he is considered one of the greatest sailors of Andalusia.

Abu-Yusuf recorded his travel and his experiences in his book Glory for Al-Andalus (Arabic: المجد للالأندلس). His great grandfather was a student of the famous Jewish philosapher Maimonides. As a child, Abu-Yusuf lived through the Spanish Reconquista, in which all non-Catholics in Iberia were not only to convert to Roman Catholicism, but abandon their native names and adopt a Christian Spanish name.

Abu Yusuf had practiced Crypto-Judaism during the days of the Spanish Inquisition, as he adopted the name Diego. When Aben Humeya and Aben Aboo defeated the Castilian forces, his father had joined them in their war effort against the Catholic kings.