Massufa in the context of "Almoravid"

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 Banu Ghaniya were a Massufa Sanhaja Berber dynasty and a branch of the Almoravids. Their first leader, Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf, a son of Ali ibn Yusuf al-Massufi and the Almoravid Princess Ghaniya, was appointed as governor of the Balearic Islands in 1126. Following the collapse of the Almoravid power at the hand of the Almohads in the 1140s, the Banu Ghaniya continued to govern the Balearic Islands as independent emirs until about 1203, with a brief interruption in the 1180s. Later leaders (Ali ibn Ishaq and Yahya) made a determined attempt to reconquer the Maghreb (and in particular Ifriqiya), taking Bougie, Constantine and Algiers, and conquering most of modern Tunisia from about 1180 onwards.

They were influential in the downfall of the Almohad Empire in Eastern Maghrib. In Tunisia, Ali ibn Ishaq adhered to the Abbasid Caliphate and was formally appointed by Al-Mustadi with the title of "heir of the Almoravids".