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).