Circa 1025-1087
Almoravid Leader

Invader of Ghana. Abu Bakr was governor of Wadi Da'ra and the brother of Yahya ibn Umar, military commander of the Almoravids, who seized the oasis of Audaghost from the Empire of Ghana in 1054. After his brother's death in 1059, Abu Bakr became the primary commander of the army, invading and sacking Kumbi Saleh, which served as the center of Ghana's governmental and commercial operations, in 1076. Abu Bakr's military campaigns in Ghana seriously disrupted the economic stability of the empire, as well as its significance to the trans-Saharan caravan trade.

Source:

J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder, eds., The History of West Africa, second edition, 2 volumes (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976, 1987).