Abdallah ibn Yasin

Abdallah ibn Yasin was a Maliki religious scholar and preacher who founded the Almoravid movement among the Sanhaja Berbers of the western Sahara around the mid-eleventh century. He was brought to the desert after the Gudala chieftain Yahya ibn Ibrahim sought a teacher on the advice of Abu Imran al-Fasi. His strict reformist teaching and organisation of followers laid the foundation of the Almoravid Empire.