[4] When his father was deposed by al-Mu'tadid (1042–1069) of the ruler of Taifa of Seville, he then moved to Córdoba, where he studied with the geographer al-Udri and the historian Ibn Hayyan.
This was composed in 1068, based on literature and the reports of merchants and travellers, including Muhammad ibn Yūsuf al-Warrāq (904–973) and Abraham ben Jacob.
[6] Al-Bakri mentions the earliest urban centres in the trans-Saharan trade to embrace Islam, late in the 10th century, Gao was one of the very few along the Niger River to have native Muslim inhabitants.
Other centres along the serpentine bends of the great river eventually followed: Takrur (Mauritania, Senegal); Songhay (Mali); Kanem-Bornu (Chad); and Hausa territories (Nigeria).
By the 11th century, reports on these and other flourishing Islamic cities made their way north to Al-Andalus in southern Iberia, enabling Al-Bakri to write in his Kitab al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik (Book of Highways and Kingdoms): "The city of Ghana consists of two towns situated on a plain" and that "One of these towns, which is inhabited by Muslims, is large and possesses twelve mosques in one of which they assemble for the Friday prayer.