Grand Sharif Yusuf I (Yarmuk)

Murabit Yusuf Khalifah, later to be Grand Sharif Yusuf I of the Almoravid Empire was, by the standards of both previous and successive Berber rulers, a great man. During the 15 years that he ruled the Maghreb, conquered in its entirety by 1062, he set the foundations for a great and wealthy state, that was set to dominate the Maghreb for 80 years.

Beginnings
Murabit Yusuf Khalifah was born in 1045, the only son of the ambitious leader of the Almoravid sect, Murabit Yusuf. The Almoravids inhabited a northern area of the Empire of the Songhai until a failed rebellion led by Murabit Yusuf caused them to be expelled from the Songhai empire and hunted down by their former overlords. Murabit Yusuf managed to deny the Songhai emperors the pleasure of destroying the Almoravids completely and clung to the semi desert lands that he now controlled with unusual tenacity.

Establishment of the Almoravid Empire
By the time of his father's death in 1058, Murabit Yusuf Khalifah was a boy of 13 - and already a better leader than his father. Murabit Yusuf had always professed to be a strictly military man, but even in that department he boasted only the talent of a tribal chieftain. His son, Murabit Yusuf Khalifah, was a man of intellect in all fields of government.