Battle of Tabfarilla

Battle of Tabfarilla
Date	21 March to 19 April 1056
Location	Tabfarilla, near Azougui, present day Mauritania21°3′N 13°6′W / 21.050°N 13.100°W / 21.050; -13.100
Result	Godala victory
Belligerents
Almoravids (Lamtuna); Takrurs	Godala
Commanders and leaders
	Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni †
	class=notpageimage\| Location of the battle of Tabfarilla

The Battle of Tabfarilla was a military conflict between the Lamtuna and the Godala. Both of them Muslim Berber Sanhaja tribes of the Sahara Desert and one time allies, the Lamtuna formed the core of the Almoravids after the Godala broke away. The Almoravid Emir Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni was sent against the Godala.^[1]

The battle took place in the Sahara between 21 March and 19 April of 448 AH/1056 AD at a spot called Tabfarilla near Azougui in present-day central Mauritania. The battle continued until night. The Almoravids, although reinforced by the Takrurs, were defeated and Yahya ibn Umar was killed in the battlefield.^[2]

The geographer Abu Abdullah al-Bakri relates in his Book of Roads and Kingdoms a legend indicating that the battlefield of Tabfarilla was haunted by the calls of ghostly muezzin frightening looters and passerbys as nightfall approached.

Notes

^ Humphrey Fischer, The Western and Central Sudan and East Africa, in The Cambridge History of Islam, volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1970, ISBN 0-521-07601-3.
^ The Muraabitoon Of Andalusia And Africa Retrieved 25 February 2020.

[1] Humphrey Fischer, The Western and Central Sudan and East Africa, in The Cambridge History of Islam, volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1970, ISBN 0-521-07601-3.

[2] The Muraabitoon Of Andalusia And Africa Retrieved 25 February 2020.