Yunfa
Yunfa (d. 1808). Ruler of the Hausa kingdom of Gobir (r. c.1801-c.1808). Tradition says that, in his youth, Yunfa was tutored by ‘Uthman, then a resident of Gobir. When Yunfa’s father, the ruler of Gobir died, ‘Uthman rallied support for Yunfa against his cousins. Yunfa soon came to fear ‘Uthman because of his immense popularity and the Muslim threat to traditional authority, and Yunfa may have attempted to assassinate him. He banished the Fula leader to Gudu, in a distant part of the kingdom. ‘Uthman attracted a large following which further frightened Yunfa, who attacked ‘Uthman in 1804. The war continued until the final Muslim victory at Alkalawa in 1808, when Yunfa was killed. The battles marked the beginning of ‘Uthman’s jihad (holy war) which swept through the Hausa states.
Yunfa was a king of the Hausa city-state of Gobir in what is now Nigeria. He is particularly remembered for his conflict with Islamic reformer Usman (Uthman) dan Fodio.
Nephew and designated heir of Bawa, Yunfa appears to have been taught by Fulani religious leader Usman dan Fodio as a young man. Though dan Fodio helped Yunfa succeed Nafata to the throne in 1801, the two soon came into conflict over dan Fodio's proposed religious reforms. Fearing dan Fodio's growing power, Yunfa summoned him and attempted to assassinate him in person. However, Yunfa's pistol backfired and wounded him in the hand. The following year, Yunfa expelled dan Fodio and his followers from their hometown of Degel.
Dan Fodio soon called for help from other Fulani nomad groups, and declared himself the imam of a new caliphate in jihad against Gobir. A widespread uprising soon began across Hausaland, and in 1804, Yunfa appealed to rulers of neighboring city-states for aid. In December of that year, Yunfa won a major victory in the Battle of Tsuntua, in which Dan Fodio's forces were said to have lost 2,000 men, 200 of whom knew the Qur'an by heart.
However, dan Fodio soon launched a successful campaign against Kebbi and established a permanent base at Gwandu. In October 1808, the jihadists seized the Gobir capital of Alkalawa and killed Yunfa.
Yunfa (d. 1808). Ruler of the Hausa kingdom of Gobir (r. c.1801-c.1808). Tradition says that, in his youth, Yunfa was tutored by ‘Uthman, then a resident of Gobir. When Yunfa’s father, the ruler of Gobir died, ‘Uthman rallied support for Yunfa against his cousins. Yunfa soon came to fear ‘Uthman because of his immense popularity and the Muslim threat to traditional authority, and Yunfa may have attempted to assassinate him. He banished the Fula leader to Gudu, in a distant part of the kingdom. ‘Uthman attracted a large following which further frightened Yunfa, who attacked ‘Uthman in 1804. The war continued until the final Muslim victory at Alkalawa in 1808, when Yunfa was killed. The battles marked the beginning of ‘Uthman’s jihad (holy war) which swept through the Hausa states.
Yunfa was a king of the Hausa city-state of Gobir in what is now Nigeria. He is particularly remembered for his conflict with Islamic reformer Usman (Uthman) dan Fodio.
Nephew and designated heir of Bawa, Yunfa appears to have been taught by Fulani religious leader Usman dan Fodio as a young man. Though dan Fodio helped Yunfa succeed Nafata to the throne in 1801, the two soon came into conflict over dan Fodio's proposed religious reforms. Fearing dan Fodio's growing power, Yunfa summoned him and attempted to assassinate him in person. However, Yunfa's pistol backfired and wounded him in the hand. The following year, Yunfa expelled dan Fodio and his followers from their hometown of Degel.
Dan Fodio soon called for help from other Fulani nomad groups, and declared himself the imam of a new caliphate in jihad against Gobir. A widespread uprising soon began across Hausaland, and in 1804, Yunfa appealed to rulers of neighboring city-states for aid. In December of that year, Yunfa won a major victory in the Battle of Tsuntua, in which Dan Fodio's forces were said to have lost 2,000 men, 200 of whom knew the Qur'an by heart.
However, dan Fodio soon launched a successful campaign against Kebbi and established a permanent base at Gwandu. In October 1808, the jihadists seized the Gobir capital of Alkalawa and killed Yunfa.
Yunus al-Katib
Yunus al-Katib (al-Mughanni). Musician and writer on music in the eighth century. He is mentioned in the Thousand-and-One Nights and composed verses extolling the beauty of Zaynab bint ‘Ikrima ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman, which became the rage under the name of Zayanib.
Katib, Yunus al- see Yunus al-Katib
Mughanni, al- see Yunus al-Katib
Yunus al-Katib (al-Mughanni). Musician and writer on music in the eighth century. He is mentioned in the Thousand-and-One Nights and composed verses extolling the beauty of Zaynab bint ‘Ikrima ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman, which became the rage under the name of Zayanib.
Katib, Yunus al- see Yunus al-Katib
Mughanni, al- see Yunus al-Katib
Yunus ibn Tashufin
Yunus ibn Tashufin (Yusuf ibn Tashfin). Sanhaja Berber who was the first independent ruler of the Almoravids (r.1061-1106). In 1062, he founded Marrakesh as his capital. After Toledo had fallen to Alphonso VI of Castile in 1085, he was summoned by the Muluk al-Tawa’if to save Islam in the Iberian Peninsula. He defeated Alphonso in the battle of Zallaqa in 1086 and suppressed almost all the Tawa’if.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin was a king of the Berber Almoravid empire in North Africa and Al-Andalus (Moorish Iberia).
Yusuf ibn Tashfin emerged from a line of military rulers. Abu Bakr ibn Umar, one of the original disciples of Ibn Yasin, a natural leader of Sanjaha extraction who served as a spiritual liaison for followers of the Maliki school of thought, was appointed general after the death of his brother Yahya ibn Ibrahim. His brother oversaw the military for Ibn Yasin but was killed in a Saharan revolt in 1056. Ibn Yasin, too, would die in battle with the Barghawata three years later. Abu-Bakr was an able general, taking the fertile Sūs and its capital Aghmāt a year after his brother's death, and would go on to suppress numerous revolts in the Sahara himself, on one such occasion delegating permanent governorship of Sūs and thus the whole of his northern provinces to his pious cousin Yusuf, who had received such authority in the interim; even going so far as to giving him his wife, Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyat, purportedly the richest woman of Aghmāt. This sort of trust and favor on part of a seasoned veteran and savvy politician reflected the general esteem in which Yusuf was held, not to mention the power he attained as a military figure in his absence. Daunted by Yusuf's newfound power, Abu Bakr saw any attempts at recapturing his post politically unfeasible and returned to the fringes of the Sahara to settle the unrest of the southern frontier.
In the year 1091 the last sovereign king of al-Andalusia, al-Mu'tamid, saw his Abbadid-inherited taifa of Seville, controlled since 1069, in jeopardy of being taken by the increasingly stronger king of Castile-León, Alfonso VI. The Taifa period followed the demise of the Umayyad Caliphate. Previously, the emir launched a series of aggressive attacks on neighboring kingdoms to garner more territory for himself. However, his military aspirations and capabilities paled in comparison to the Castilian king, who in the name of Christendom, in 1085, captured a culturally refined Toledo and induced parias, or tribute, from proud Muslim princes in places like Granada, al-Mu'tamid of Seville being no exception. The tribute of the emirs bolstered the economy of the Christian kingdom. These are the circumstances that led to the Almoravid conquest.
Yusuf was an effective general and administrator, evidenced by his ability to organize and maintain the loyalty of the hardened desert warriors and the territory of Abu Bakr, as well as his ability to expand the empire, cross the Atlas Mountains onto the plains of Morocco, reaching the Mediterranean and capturing Fez in 1075, Tangier in 1079, Tlemcen in 1080, Ceuta in 1083, as well as Algiers, Ténès and Oran in 1082-83. He is regarded as the co-founder of the famous Moroccan city Marrakech (in Berber Murakush, corrupted to Morocco in English). The site had been chosen and work started by Abu Bakr in 1070. The work was completed by Yusuf, who then made it the capital of his empire, in place of the former capital Aghmāt. By the time Abu Bakr died in 1087, after a skirmish in the Sahara as result of a poison arrow, Yusuf had crossed over into al-Andalus and also achieved victory at the Battle of az-Zallaqah, also known as the Battle of Sagrajas in the west. He came to al-Andalus with a force of 15,000 men, armed with javelins, daggers, most of his soldiers carried two swords, shields, cuirass of the finest leather and animal hide, as well as drummers for psychological combat. Yusuf's cavalry was said to have included 6,000 shock troops from Senegal mounted on white Arabian horses. Camels were also put to use. On October 23, 1086, the Almoravid forces, accompanied by 10,000 Andalusian fighters from local Muslim provinces, decisively checked the Reconquista, defeating the largest Christian army ever assembled up to that point. The death of Yusuf's heir, however, prompted his speedy return to Africa.
When Yusuf returned to al-Andalus in 1090, he saw the lax behavior of the taifa kings, both spiritually and militarily, as a breach of Islamic law and principles, and left Africa with the express purpose of usurping the power of all the Muslim principalities, under the auspices of the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, who he had shared correspondence with and under the shibboleth "The spreading of righteousness, the correction of injustice and the abolition of unlawful taxes." The emirs in such cities as Seville, Badajoz, Almeria and Granada had grown accustomed to the extravagant ways of the east. On top of doling out tribute to the Christians and giving Andalusian Jews unprecedented freedoms and authority, they had levied burdensome taxes on the populace to maintain this lifestyle. After a series of fatwas and careful deliberation, Yusuf saw the implementation of orthodoxy as long overdue. That year he exiled the emirs 'Abd Allah and his brother Tamim from Granada and Málaga, respectively, to Aghmāt, and a year later al-Mutamid of Seville would suffer the same fate. When all was said and done, Yusuf united all of the Muslim dominions of the Iberian Peninsula, with the exception of Zaragoza, to the Kingdom of Morocco, and situated his royal court at Marrakech. He took the title of amir al-muslimin (Prince of the Muslims), seeing himself as humbly serving the caliph of Baghdad, but for all intents and purposes he was considered the caliph of the western Islamic empire. The military might of the Almoravids was at its peak.
The Sanhaja confederation, which consisted of a hierarchy of Lamtuna, Musaffa and Djudalla Berbers, represented the military's top brass. Amongst them were Andalusian Christians and heretic Africans, taking up duties as diwan al-gund, Yusuf's own personal bodyguard; including 2,000 black horsemen, whose tasks also included registering soldiers and making sure they were compensated financially. The occupying forces of the Almoravids were made up largely of horsemen, totaling no less than 20,000. Into the major cities of al-Andalus, Seville (7,000), Granada (1,000), Cordoba (1,000), 5,000 bordering Castile and 4,000 in western Andalusia, succeeding waves of horsemen in conjunction with the garrisons that had been left there after the Battle of Sagrajas, made responding, for the Taifa emirs, difficult. Soldiers on foot used bows and arrows, sabres, pikes, javelins, each protected by a cuirass of Moroccan leather and iron piked shields. During the siege of the fort-town Aledo, in Murcia, captured by the Spaniard Garcia Giménez previously, Almoravid and Andalusian hosts are said to have used catapults, in addition to their customary drum beat. Yusuf also established naval bases in Cadiz, Almeria and neighboring ports along the Mediterranean. Ibn-Maymun, the governor of Almeria, had a fleet at his disposal. Another such example is the Banu-Ganiya fleet based off the Balearic Islands that dominated the affairs of the western Mediterranean for much of the 12th century.
Although the Almoravids had not gained much in the way of territory from the Christians, rather they merely offset the Reconquista, Yusuf did succeed in capturing Valencia. A city divided between Muslims and Christians, under the waffling rule of a petty emir paying tribute to the Christians, including the famous El Cid, Valencia proved to be an obstacle for the Almoravid military, despite their untouchable reputation. Abu Bakr ibn Ibrahim ibn Tashfin and Yusuf's nephew Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad both failed in defeating the El Cid. Yusuf then sent Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali al-Hajj but he was not successful either. In 1097, upon his fourth trip to al-Andalus, Yusuf sought to personally dig down and fight the armies of Alfonso VI, making way toward the all but abandoned, yet historically important, Toledo. Such a concerted effort was meant to draw the Christian forces, including those laying siege to Valencia, into the center of Iberia. On August 15, 1097, the Almoravids delivered yet another blow to Alfonso's forces, a battle in which the El Cid's son was killed.
Muhammad ibn 'A'isha, Yusuf's son, who he had appointed governor of Murcia, succeeded in delivering an effective pounding to the El Cid's personnel at Alcira. Still not capturing the city, but satisfied with the results of his campaigns, Yusuf left for his court at Marrakesh only to return two years later on a new effort to take the provinces of eastern Andalusia. El Cid had died in the same year, 1099, and his wife, Jimena, had been ruling until the coming of another Almoravid campaign at the tail end of 1100, led by Yusuf's trusted lieutenant Mazdali ibn Banlunka. After a seven month siege, Alfonso and Jimena, hopeless to the prospects of staving off the Almoravids, set fire to the great mosque in anger and abandoned the city. Yusuf had finally conquered Valencia and exerted complete dominance over the east of al-Andalus, now unquestionably the most powerful ruler in western Europe. He receives mention in the Spanish epic Poema del Cid, also known as El Cantar del Mio Cid, the oldest of its kind.
A wise and shrewd man, neither too prompt in his determinations, nor too slow in carrying them into effect, Yusuf was very much adapted to the rugged terrain of the Sahara and had no interests in the pomp of the Andalusian courts. According to Abd Allah's "Roudh el-Kartas" (History of the Rulers of Morocco) and A. Beaumier's French translation of the 14th century work, Yusuf was of "teint brun, taille moyenne, maigre, peu de barbe, voix douce, yeux noirs, nez aquilin, meche de Mohammed retombant sur le bout de l'oreille, sourcils joints l'un a l'autre, cheveux crepus"; meaning - "Brown color, middle height, thin, little beard, soft voice, black eyes, straight nose, lock of Muhammad falling on the top of his ear, eyebrow joined, wooly hair". He went on to reach the 100 years old mark and, unlike his predecessors, not die in battle.
Since Yusuf's reign represented the apogee of the Almoravid dynasty, something has to be said for its certain demise after his death. His son and successor, Ali ibn Yusuf, was viewed just as devout a Muslim but he neither commanded the same respect nor retained the clientele of his father. As he prayed and fasted the empire crumbled about him. Córdoba, in about 1119, served as the launch pad for Andalusian insurrection. Christians on the northern frontier gained momentum shortly after his father's death, and the Almohads, beginning about 1120, were to engulf the southern frontier. Both respective hosts seeing to the ultimate disintegration of Yusuf's hard-fought territories by the time of Ibrahim ibn Tashfin (1146) and Ishaq ibn Ali (1146–1147), the last of the Almoravid dynasty.
Much of the disparaging things written about the Almoravids, whether it be from Almohads or Christian sources, was propaganda. While Yusuf was the most honorable of Muslim rulers, he spoke Arabic poorly. Ali ibn Yusuf in 1135 exercised good stewardship by attending to the University of Al-Karaouine and ordering the extension of the mosque from 18 to 21 aisles, expanding the structure to more than 3,000 square meters. Some accounts suggest that Ali ibn Yusuf hired two Andalusian architects to carry out this work who also built the central aisle of the Great Mosque of Tlemcen, Algeria, in 1136.
In popular culture
* Ben Yussuf is the name of Yusuf ibn Tashfin in El Cid.
* Yusuf appears in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors as one of the primary antagonists in the "El Cid" campaign. However, he is described as "never showing his face", always covering it with a cloth.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin see Yunus ibn Tashufin
Yunus ibn Tashufin (Yusuf ibn Tashfin). Sanhaja Berber who was the first independent ruler of the Almoravids (r.1061-1106). In 1062, he founded Marrakesh as his capital. After Toledo had fallen to Alphonso VI of Castile in 1085, he was summoned by the Muluk al-Tawa’if to save Islam in the Iberian Peninsula. He defeated Alphonso in the battle of Zallaqa in 1086 and suppressed almost all the Tawa’if.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin was a king of the Berber Almoravid empire in North Africa and Al-Andalus (Moorish Iberia).
Yusuf ibn Tashfin emerged from a line of military rulers. Abu Bakr ibn Umar, one of the original disciples of Ibn Yasin, a natural leader of Sanjaha extraction who served as a spiritual liaison for followers of the Maliki school of thought, was appointed general after the death of his brother Yahya ibn Ibrahim. His brother oversaw the military for Ibn Yasin but was killed in a Saharan revolt in 1056. Ibn Yasin, too, would die in battle with the Barghawata three years later. Abu-Bakr was an able general, taking the fertile Sūs and its capital Aghmāt a year after his brother's death, and would go on to suppress numerous revolts in the Sahara himself, on one such occasion delegating permanent governorship of Sūs and thus the whole of his northern provinces to his pious cousin Yusuf, who had received such authority in the interim; even going so far as to giving him his wife, Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyat, purportedly the richest woman of Aghmāt. This sort of trust and favor on part of a seasoned veteran and savvy politician reflected the general esteem in which Yusuf was held, not to mention the power he attained as a military figure in his absence. Daunted by Yusuf's newfound power, Abu Bakr saw any attempts at recapturing his post politically unfeasible and returned to the fringes of the Sahara to settle the unrest of the southern frontier.
In the year 1091 the last sovereign king of al-Andalusia, al-Mu'tamid, saw his Abbadid-inherited taifa of Seville, controlled since 1069, in jeopardy of being taken by the increasingly stronger king of Castile-León, Alfonso VI. The Taifa period followed the demise of the Umayyad Caliphate. Previously, the emir launched a series of aggressive attacks on neighboring kingdoms to garner more territory for himself. However, his military aspirations and capabilities paled in comparison to the Castilian king, who in the name of Christendom, in 1085, captured a culturally refined Toledo and induced parias, or tribute, from proud Muslim princes in places like Granada, al-Mu'tamid of Seville being no exception. The tribute of the emirs bolstered the economy of the Christian kingdom. These are the circumstances that led to the Almoravid conquest.
Yusuf was an effective general and administrator, evidenced by his ability to organize and maintain the loyalty of the hardened desert warriors and the territory of Abu Bakr, as well as his ability to expand the empire, cross the Atlas Mountains onto the plains of Morocco, reaching the Mediterranean and capturing Fez in 1075, Tangier in 1079, Tlemcen in 1080, Ceuta in 1083, as well as Algiers, Ténès and Oran in 1082-83. He is regarded as the co-founder of the famous Moroccan city Marrakech (in Berber Murakush, corrupted to Morocco in English). The site had been chosen and work started by Abu Bakr in 1070. The work was completed by Yusuf, who then made it the capital of his empire, in place of the former capital Aghmāt. By the time Abu Bakr died in 1087, after a skirmish in the Sahara as result of a poison arrow, Yusuf had crossed over into al-Andalus and also achieved victory at the Battle of az-Zallaqah, also known as the Battle of Sagrajas in the west. He came to al-Andalus with a force of 15,000 men, armed with javelins, daggers, most of his soldiers carried two swords, shields, cuirass of the finest leather and animal hide, as well as drummers for psychological combat. Yusuf's cavalry was said to have included 6,000 shock troops from Senegal mounted on white Arabian horses. Camels were also put to use. On October 23, 1086, the Almoravid forces, accompanied by 10,000 Andalusian fighters from local Muslim provinces, decisively checked the Reconquista, defeating the largest Christian army ever assembled up to that point. The death of Yusuf's heir, however, prompted his speedy return to Africa.
When Yusuf returned to al-Andalus in 1090, he saw the lax behavior of the taifa kings, both spiritually and militarily, as a breach of Islamic law and principles, and left Africa with the express purpose of usurping the power of all the Muslim principalities, under the auspices of the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, who he had shared correspondence with and under the shibboleth "The spreading of righteousness, the correction of injustice and the abolition of unlawful taxes." The emirs in such cities as Seville, Badajoz, Almeria and Granada had grown accustomed to the extravagant ways of the east. On top of doling out tribute to the Christians and giving Andalusian Jews unprecedented freedoms and authority, they had levied burdensome taxes on the populace to maintain this lifestyle. After a series of fatwas and careful deliberation, Yusuf saw the implementation of orthodoxy as long overdue. That year he exiled the emirs 'Abd Allah and his brother Tamim from Granada and Málaga, respectively, to Aghmāt, and a year later al-Mutamid of Seville would suffer the same fate. When all was said and done, Yusuf united all of the Muslim dominions of the Iberian Peninsula, with the exception of Zaragoza, to the Kingdom of Morocco, and situated his royal court at Marrakech. He took the title of amir al-muslimin (Prince of the Muslims), seeing himself as humbly serving the caliph of Baghdad, but for all intents and purposes he was considered the caliph of the western Islamic empire. The military might of the Almoravids was at its peak.
The Sanhaja confederation, which consisted of a hierarchy of Lamtuna, Musaffa and Djudalla Berbers, represented the military's top brass. Amongst them were Andalusian Christians and heretic Africans, taking up duties as diwan al-gund, Yusuf's own personal bodyguard; including 2,000 black horsemen, whose tasks also included registering soldiers and making sure they were compensated financially. The occupying forces of the Almoravids were made up largely of horsemen, totaling no less than 20,000. Into the major cities of al-Andalus, Seville (7,000), Granada (1,000), Cordoba (1,000), 5,000 bordering Castile and 4,000 in western Andalusia, succeeding waves of horsemen in conjunction with the garrisons that had been left there after the Battle of Sagrajas, made responding, for the Taifa emirs, difficult. Soldiers on foot used bows and arrows, sabres, pikes, javelins, each protected by a cuirass of Moroccan leather and iron piked shields. During the siege of the fort-town Aledo, in Murcia, captured by the Spaniard Garcia Giménez previously, Almoravid and Andalusian hosts are said to have used catapults, in addition to their customary drum beat. Yusuf also established naval bases in Cadiz, Almeria and neighboring ports along the Mediterranean. Ibn-Maymun, the governor of Almeria, had a fleet at his disposal. Another such example is the Banu-Ganiya fleet based off the Balearic Islands that dominated the affairs of the western Mediterranean for much of the 12th century.
Although the Almoravids had not gained much in the way of territory from the Christians, rather they merely offset the Reconquista, Yusuf did succeed in capturing Valencia. A city divided between Muslims and Christians, under the waffling rule of a petty emir paying tribute to the Christians, including the famous El Cid, Valencia proved to be an obstacle for the Almoravid military, despite their untouchable reputation. Abu Bakr ibn Ibrahim ibn Tashfin and Yusuf's nephew Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad both failed in defeating the El Cid. Yusuf then sent Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali al-Hajj but he was not successful either. In 1097, upon his fourth trip to al-Andalus, Yusuf sought to personally dig down and fight the armies of Alfonso VI, making way toward the all but abandoned, yet historically important, Toledo. Such a concerted effort was meant to draw the Christian forces, including those laying siege to Valencia, into the center of Iberia. On August 15, 1097, the Almoravids delivered yet another blow to Alfonso's forces, a battle in which the El Cid's son was killed.
Muhammad ibn 'A'isha, Yusuf's son, who he had appointed governor of Murcia, succeeded in delivering an effective pounding to the El Cid's personnel at Alcira. Still not capturing the city, but satisfied with the results of his campaigns, Yusuf left for his court at Marrakesh only to return two years later on a new effort to take the provinces of eastern Andalusia. El Cid had died in the same year, 1099, and his wife, Jimena, had been ruling until the coming of another Almoravid campaign at the tail end of 1100, led by Yusuf's trusted lieutenant Mazdali ibn Banlunka. After a seven month siege, Alfonso and Jimena, hopeless to the prospects of staving off the Almoravids, set fire to the great mosque in anger and abandoned the city. Yusuf had finally conquered Valencia and exerted complete dominance over the east of al-Andalus, now unquestionably the most powerful ruler in western Europe. He receives mention in the Spanish epic Poema del Cid, also known as El Cantar del Mio Cid, the oldest of its kind.
A wise and shrewd man, neither too prompt in his determinations, nor too slow in carrying them into effect, Yusuf was very much adapted to the rugged terrain of the Sahara and had no interests in the pomp of the Andalusian courts. According to Abd Allah's "Roudh el-Kartas" (History of the Rulers of Morocco) and A. Beaumier's French translation of the 14th century work, Yusuf was of "teint brun, taille moyenne, maigre, peu de barbe, voix douce, yeux noirs, nez aquilin, meche de Mohammed retombant sur le bout de l'oreille, sourcils joints l'un a l'autre, cheveux crepus"; meaning - "Brown color, middle height, thin, little beard, soft voice, black eyes, straight nose, lock of Muhammad falling on the top of his ear, eyebrow joined, wooly hair". He went on to reach the 100 years old mark and, unlike his predecessors, not die in battle.
Since Yusuf's reign represented the apogee of the Almoravid dynasty, something has to be said for its certain demise after his death. His son and successor, Ali ibn Yusuf, was viewed just as devout a Muslim but he neither commanded the same respect nor retained the clientele of his father. As he prayed and fasted the empire crumbled about him. Córdoba, in about 1119, served as the launch pad for Andalusian insurrection. Christians on the northern frontier gained momentum shortly after his father's death, and the Almohads, beginning about 1120, were to engulf the southern frontier. Both respective hosts seeing to the ultimate disintegration of Yusuf's hard-fought territories by the time of Ibrahim ibn Tashfin (1146) and Ishaq ibn Ali (1146–1147), the last of the Almoravid dynasty.
Much of the disparaging things written about the Almoravids, whether it be from Almohads or Christian sources, was propaganda. While Yusuf was the most honorable of Muslim rulers, he spoke Arabic poorly. Ali ibn Yusuf in 1135 exercised good stewardship by attending to the University of Al-Karaouine and ordering the extension of the mosque from 18 to 21 aisles, expanding the structure to more than 3,000 square meters. Some accounts suggest that Ali ibn Yusuf hired two Andalusian architects to carry out this work who also built the central aisle of the Great Mosque of Tlemcen, Algeria, in 1136.
In popular culture
* Ben Yussuf is the name of Yusuf ibn Tashfin in El Cid.
* Yusuf appears in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors as one of the primary antagonists in the "El Cid" campaign. However, he is described as "never showing his face", always covering it with a cloth.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin see Yunus ibn Tashufin
Yusef Islam
Yusef Islam (Yusuf Islam) (Cat Stevens) (Steven Demetri Georgiou) (b. July 21, 1947/1948). Pop musician who achieved notoriety during the 1970s under the name Cat Stevens. He was born in Soho, London, the son of a Greek London restaurateur and a Swedish mother. In July 1966, he began his musical career playing folk music at Hammersmith College. He contracted tuberculosis in 1968 and spent over a year recuperating. Afterwards, he adopted a new more sensitive and reflective style which would catapult him to international success during the 1970s. His hits included Wild World, Moon Shadow, Peace Train, Morning Has Broken, Oh Very Young, and Another Saturday Night. His fame increased when his songs were used on the soundtrack of Hal Ashby’s cult movie, “Harold and Maude.”
On December 23, 1977, Stevens formally embraced Islam and changed his name to Yusef Islam. He retired from the music business in 1979 citing a desire to follow a more spiritual path and later that year he married Fouzia Ali at Kensington Mosque in London.
In 1981, he financed the establishment of, and began to teach at, a Muslim school in North London. In this year, he also officially confirmed that he had left show business. He auctioned all the trappings of his pop career, including his gold records, and donated the money to his Islamic work.
In February of 1989, Yusef Islam sparked a controversy by concurring with the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie. In June of 1990, he was barred from entering Israel because he had become an “undesirable.” In November 1990, Yusef visited Iraq and successfully secured the release of a number of British Muslims held hostage during the Gulf War crisis.
In May of 1993, Yusef, then the President of the Islamic Association of North London, won a libel action over an article which claimed the misused charitable fundsto buy arms for Afghan rebels. Yusef subsequently donated his damage award to Islamic charities.
In September of 1995, after 18 years of musical silence, Yusef, living with his wife and five children at the Islamia School he founded in 1983 in the North London suburb of Kilburn, signed copies of his new album in London, the predominantly spoken word: The Life of the Last Prophet.
Yusef Islam has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award, the 2004 Man for Peace Award, and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. He also began to go professionally by the single name Yusuf.
Yusuf Islam see Yusef Islam
Cat Stevens see Yusef Islam
Stevens, Cat see Yusef Islam
Islam, Yusuf see Yusef Islam
Steven Demetri Georgiou see Yusef Islam
Georgiou, Steven Demetri see Yusef Islam
Yusef Islam (Yusuf Islam) (Cat Stevens) (Steven Demetri Georgiou) (b. July 21, 1947/1948). Pop musician who achieved notoriety during the 1970s under the name Cat Stevens. He was born in Soho, London, the son of a Greek London restaurateur and a Swedish mother. In July 1966, he began his musical career playing folk music at Hammersmith College. He contracted tuberculosis in 1968 and spent over a year recuperating. Afterwards, he adopted a new more sensitive and reflective style which would catapult him to international success during the 1970s. His hits included Wild World, Moon Shadow, Peace Train, Morning Has Broken, Oh Very Young, and Another Saturday Night. His fame increased when his songs were used on the soundtrack of Hal Ashby’s cult movie, “Harold and Maude.”
On December 23, 1977, Stevens formally embraced Islam and changed his name to Yusef Islam. He retired from the music business in 1979 citing a desire to follow a more spiritual path and later that year he married Fouzia Ali at Kensington Mosque in London.
In 1981, he financed the establishment of, and began to teach at, a Muslim school in North London. In this year, he also officially confirmed that he had left show business. He auctioned all the trappings of his pop career, including his gold records, and donated the money to his Islamic work.
In February of 1989, Yusef Islam sparked a controversy by concurring with the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie. In June of 1990, he was barred from entering Israel because he had become an “undesirable.” In November 1990, Yusef visited Iraq and successfully secured the release of a number of British Muslims held hostage during the Gulf War crisis.
In May of 1993, Yusef, then the President of the Islamic Association of North London, won a libel action over an article which claimed the misused charitable fundsto buy arms for Afghan rebels. Yusef subsequently donated his damage award to Islamic charities.
In September of 1995, after 18 years of musical silence, Yusef, living with his wife and five children at the Islamia School he founded in 1983 in the North London suburb of Kilburn, signed copies of his new album in London, the predominantly spoken word: The Life of the Last Prophet.
Yusef Islam has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award, the 2004 Man for Peace Award, and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. He also began to go professionally by the single name Yusuf.
Yusuf Islam see Yusef Islam
Cat Stevens see Yusef Islam
Stevens, Cat see Yusef Islam
Islam, Yusuf see Yusef Islam
Steven Demetri Georgiou see Yusef Islam
Georgiou, Steven Demetri see Yusef Islam
Yusuf ibn al-Hasan
Yusuf ibn al-Hasan (Dom Jeronimo-Chingulia) (c. 1606-c. 1638). Sultan of Mombasa when most of the East African coast was under nominal Portuguese rule.
When Yusuf was seven, his father was mysteriously murdered. The Portuguese apparently wished to atone by raising Yusuf as a Christian. He was sent to Goa, where he was educated by the Augustinians and baptized as a Dom Jeronimo. He returned to Mombasa in 1626 to assume the office of Sultan, but found himself despised by local Muslims and bullied by Portuguese officials.
After several years a rumor arose that Yusuf was observing Islamic prayers -- a capital offense to the Catholic Portuguese. Hearing of a Portuguese plan to arrest him, he seized the initiative. On a Catholic feast day in mid-1631 he entered the massive bastion of Fort Jesus with several hundred followers and massacred almost every Portuguese there. He then renounced Christianity.
Within days, he was the true master of the city. He attempted to raise a general coastal revolt, but lacking military resources he found little sympathy. The next year, the Portuguese muffed an attempt to retake Mombasa and retreated. Yusuf seems to have lost heart, for the fled to Arabia, abandoning Mombasa to the Portuguese. Over the next few years he conducted minor raids against coastal towns, until he was killed, apparently by pirates, in the Red Sea around 1638.
Dom Jeronimo-Chingulia see Yusuf ibn al-Hasan
Jeronimo-Chingulia, Dom see Yusuf ibn al-Hasan
Yusuf ibn al-Hasan (Dom Jeronimo-Chingulia) (c. 1606-c. 1638). Sultan of Mombasa when most of the East African coast was under nominal Portuguese rule.
When Yusuf was seven, his father was mysteriously murdered. The Portuguese apparently wished to atone by raising Yusuf as a Christian. He was sent to Goa, where he was educated by the Augustinians and baptized as a Dom Jeronimo. He returned to Mombasa in 1626 to assume the office of Sultan, but found himself despised by local Muslims and bullied by Portuguese officials.
After several years a rumor arose that Yusuf was observing Islamic prayers -- a capital offense to the Catholic Portuguese. Hearing of a Portuguese plan to arrest him, he seized the initiative. On a Catholic feast day in mid-1631 he entered the massive bastion of Fort Jesus with several hundred followers and massacred almost every Portuguese there. He then renounced Christianity.
Within days, he was the true master of the city. He attempted to raise a general coastal revolt, but lacking military resources he found little sympathy. The next year, the Portuguese muffed an attempt to retake Mombasa and retreated. Yusuf seems to have lost heart, for the fled to Arabia, abandoning Mombasa to the Portuguese. Over the next few years he conducted minor raids against coastal towns, until he was killed, apparently by pirates, in the Red Sea around 1638.
Dom Jeronimo-Chingulia see Yusuf ibn al-Hasan
Jeronimo-Chingulia, Dom see Yusuf ibn al-Hasan
Yusufi, Mawlana
Yusufi, Mawlana (Mawlana Yusufi). Secretary to the Mughal Emperor Humayun. He acquired a place in Indian literature with his epistolary manual.
Mawlana Yusufi see Yusufi, Mawlana
Yusufi, Mawlana (Mawlana Yusufi). Secretary to the Mughal Emperor Humayun. He acquired a place in Indian literature with his epistolary manual.
Mawlana Yusufi see Yusufi, Mawlana
Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yusuf Khass Hajib (Yusuf Balasaghuni) (Yusuf Khas Hajib Balasaghuni) (Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib Balasağuni) (Yusuf Has Hacip) (Yusuf Has Hajib). Turkish author of the eleventh century. He wrote a “Mirror of Princes” for the Ilek-Khanid prince of Kashghar Bughra-Khan (d. 1102). It is the first classic of Turkish poetry of Central Asia.
Yusuf Balasaghuni was an 11th century Uyghur scribe from the city of Balasaghun, the capital of the Karakhanid Empire. He wrote the Kutadgu Bilig and most of what is known about him comes from his own writings in this work.
Balasagun was located near present-day Tokmok in Kyrgyzstan. Yusuf Khas Hajib was about 50 years old when he completed the Kutadgu Bilig. After presenting the completed work to the prince of Kashgar he was awarded the title Khāṣṣ Ḥājib, an honorific similar to "Privy Chamberlain" or "Chancellor".
He is often referred to as either Yūsuf Balasaguni or Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib.
Some scholars suspect that the prologue to the Kutadgu Bilig, which is much more overtly Islamic than the rest of the text, was not written by Yūsuf, particularly the first prologue, which is in prose, unlike the rest of the text.
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2008)
Yusuf Khas Hajib died in 1085 at the age of 66 in the Uyghur city Kashgar, and was buried there. There is now a mausoleum erected on his gravesite. He is remembered as a prominent Uyghur scholar.
Hajib, Yusuf Khass see Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yusuf Balasaghuni see Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yusuf Khas Hajib Balasaghuni see Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib Balasağuni see Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yusuf Has Hacip see Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yusuf Khass Hajib (Yusuf Balasaghuni) (Yusuf Khas Hajib Balasaghuni) (Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib Balasağuni) (Yusuf Has Hacip) (Yusuf Has Hajib). Turkish author of the eleventh century. He wrote a “Mirror of Princes” for the Ilek-Khanid prince of Kashghar Bughra-Khan (d. 1102). It is the first classic of Turkish poetry of Central Asia.
Yusuf Balasaghuni was an 11th century Uyghur scribe from the city of Balasaghun, the capital of the Karakhanid Empire. He wrote the Kutadgu Bilig and most of what is known about him comes from his own writings in this work.
Balasagun was located near present-day Tokmok in Kyrgyzstan. Yusuf Khas Hajib was about 50 years old when he completed the Kutadgu Bilig. After presenting the completed work to the prince of Kashgar he was awarded the title Khāṣṣ Ḥājib, an honorific similar to "Privy Chamberlain" or "Chancellor".
He is often referred to as either Yūsuf Balasaguni or Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib.
Some scholars suspect that the prologue to the Kutadgu Bilig, which is much more overtly Islamic than the rest of the text, was not written by Yūsuf, particularly the first prologue, which is in prose, unlike the rest of the text.
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2008)
Yusuf Khas Hajib died in 1085 at the age of 66 in the Uyghur city Kashgar, and was buried there. There is now a mausoleum erected on his gravesite. He is remembered as a prominent Uyghur scholar.
Hajib, Yusuf Khass see Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yusuf Balasaghuni see Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yusuf Khas Hajib Balasaghuni see Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yūsuf Khāṣṣ Ḥājib Balasağuni see Yusuf Khass Hajib
Yusuf Has Hacip see Yusuf Khass Hajib
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