Yusuf is an effective general and administrator,…

Yusuf is an effective general and administrator, as 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, crossing the Atlas Mountains onto the plains of Morocco, reaching the Mediterranean and capturing Fez in 1075.

The city had been contested in the tenth century by the Caliphate of Córdoba and the Fatimids of Tunisia, who ruled the city through a host of Zenata clients.

The Fatimids had taken the city in 927 and expelled the Idrissids, after which their Miknasa were installed there.

The Miknasa had been driven out of Fes in 980 by the Maghrawa, their fellow Zenata, allies of the Caliphate of Córdoba.

It was in this period that the great Andalusian ruler Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir had commissioned the Maghrawa to rebuild and refurnish the Al-Kairouan mosque, giving it much of its current appearance.

According to the Rawd al-Qirtas and other Marinid era sources, the Maghrawi emir Dunas Al-Maghrawi filled up the open spaces between the two medinas and the banks of the river dividing them with new constructions.

Thus, the two cities had grown into each other, being now only separated by their city walls and the river flowing through them.

His sons have fortified the city to a great extent.

This does not keep the Almoravid emir Yusuf bn Tashfin from conquering the city in 1070, after more than a decade of battling the Zenata warriors in the area and constant besieging of the city.

Madinat Fas and Al-'Aliya are united in 1070 by the Almoravids: the walls dividing them are destroyed, bridges connecting the two parts are built and connecting walls are constructed that unify the medinas.