Yusuf ibn Tashfin takes command of Almoravids

1056

The Berber general began leading Almoravid forces north from the Senegal River into what is now Morocco. Over the next decade he would capture Sijilmasa, Fez, and Meknes, founding a new capital at Marrakesh and preparing the eventual invasion of Muslim Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar. Marrakesh, built from red clay on a barren plain, would grow into one of the great cities of the Islamic west.