Yaghmurasen Ibn Zyan

Yaghmurasen Ibn Zyan (lived: 1206-1283, Berber: Yaɣmurasen ben Zayan, ⵢⴰⵖⵎⵓⵔⴰⵙⴻⵏ ⴱⴻⵏ ⵣⴰⵢⴰⵏ, Arabic: يغمراسن إبن زيان‎‎, long name:Yaghmurasan ben Ziyan ben Thabet ben Mohamed ben Zegraz ben Tiddugues ben Taa Allah ben Ali ben Abd al-Qasem ben Abd al-Wad), was the founder of the Abdelwadid dynasty. Under his reign the Abdelwadid Kingdom of Tlemcen extended over present-day north-western Algeria and eastern Morocco. He was of the Zenata Berber tribe.

He was successful in his military campaigns against the Merinids and the Maqil Arab tribe.

The proponents of the Abdalwadids claimed that Yaghmurasen descended from Idris II, the son of Idris I and founder of the Idrisid dynasty which would have made him a Sharif, i.e. a descendent of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. He commented about this claim and famously said in his native Berber language:

"If this is true, it will benefit us in God's heaven. But we conquered this low earth by our swords "

Name

In his commentary on the hagiographic book of Ibn al-Zayyat al-Tadili (Attashawof), Ahmed Toufiq explains that Yaghmur in Berber means "the virile/Stallion" whereas the prefix asen means "to them". Thereby giving "Yaghmurasen" a meaning close to "To prevail over them"

See also

• Abd Al Wadid dynasty