[4][5] According to some others, his mother was Qamar or Qamra, surnamed Fadl al-Hasan,[3][6] a Christian captive from al-Andalus who became Yusuf's concubine.

The decade from 1120-1130 involved the bitter struggle with Alfonso I of Aragon known as the Battler, the border with Castile and Portugal remained stable however therein except with the loss of some notable forts near Toledo captured in the 1109 campaign like Zorita and Siguenza.

During this period, many Almoravid troops would be recalled across the straits to defend against the newly-founded movement of Ibn Tumart, the Almohads.

From 1138 onwards definitively the impetus was on the side of the Christians and the Muslims suffered major losses in raids and the capture of important fortresses (Oreja in 1139, Coria in 1142).

[16] He also established an irrigation system in Marrakesh, a project managed by Obeyd Allah ibn Younous al-Muhandes.

[17] According to the Muslim cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi, the Mugharrarin (also translated as "the adventurers") sent by Ali ibn Yusuf, led by his admiral Ahmad ibn Umar, better known under the name of Raqsh al-Auzz reached a part of the ocean covered by seaweed, identified by some as the Sargasso Sea,[19] which stretches into the Atlantic from Bermuda.