Lamtuna in the context of Nafusa Mountains

The Almoravid dynasty (Arabic: المرابطون, romanized: Al-Murābiṭūn, lit. 'those from the ribats') was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almohads in 1147.

The Almoravids emerged from a coalition of the Lamtuna, Gudala, and Massufa, nomadic Berber tribes living in what is now Mauritania and the Western Sahara, traversing the territory between the Draa, the Niger, and the Senegal rivers. During their expansion into the Maghreb, they founded the city of Marrakesh as a capital, c. 1070. Shortly after this, the empire was divided into two branches: a northern one centered in the Maghreb, led by Yusuf ibn Tashfin and his descendants, and a southern one based in the Sahara, led by Abu Bakr ibn Umar and his descendants.

The Massufa are a Berber tribe whom belong to the Sanhaja. The ancestor of the Massufa, Adjana, had settled near the Chelif river in the central Maghreb. The Massufa are identifiable with the Masofi (Massufa) and their territory, known as “Bilad Massufa” (country of the Massufa) was located in the eastern region of Jebel Titteri during the Severan era (3rd century AD). This important tribal confederation were ruled by the Talkata branch, that of the Zirids in the 10th century.

A number of Berber tribes fled southward during the Arab invasion. The Massufa are listed among the Sanhaja tribes who were displaced from the north. Ibn Khaldun commented on these tribes and stated that the Sanhaja are indigenous people of the region and placed the kings of the Lamtuna and Massufa in the meeting of the middle Maghreb, he also mentioned that the Massufa were present in the Gourara.

Abu Bakr ibn Umar ibn Ibrahim ibn Turgut, sometimes suffixed al-Sanhaji or al-Lamtuni (died 1087; Arabic: أبو بكر بن عمر اللمتوني, romanized: Abū Bakr ibn 'Umar al Lamtūnī) was a chieftain of the Lamtuna Berber Tribe and Amir of the Almoravids from 1056 until his death. He is credited to have founded the Moroccan city of Marrakesh, and under his rule the heretic Barghawatas were destroyed. His campaigns may have included attacking the Ghana Empire, although the Almoravid impact on and relationship with sub-Saharan states is disputed amongst historians. In November of 1087, Abu Bakr died of a poisoned arrow in what is now Mauritania.

The Char Bouba war (variously transliterated as Sharr Bubba, Shar Buba), also known as the Mauritanian Thirty Years' War or the Marabout War, took place between 1644 and 1674 in the tribal areas of what is today Mauritania and Western Sahara as well as in the Senegal river valley. It was fought between the Sanhadja Berber tribes and Muslim populations in the river valley, led by Lamtuna Imam Nasr ad-Din, on one hand; and the Maqil Arab immigrant tribes, foremost of which was the Beni Hassan, as well as the traditional aristocracies of the Wolof states on the other, supported by the French.

The war was led by Sidi Ibrahim Al Aroussi, son of the famous Cheikh Sidi Ahmed Al Aroussi (died in 1593, near to Smara, in Western Sahara). Al Aroussi, with his two sons Shanan Al Aroussi and Sidi Tounsi Al Aroussi, led a powerful force of the Hassani tribe, the Aroussi Army, to conquer the Berber Imarat in current Mauritania and gain access to Bilad as-Sudan ("the Land of the Blacks", in Senegal and Mali).