Reverter de La Guardia

Reverter I de La Guardia (died 1142 or 1144), viscount of Barcelona, was a Catalan adventurer and military leader who defended the Almoravid caliphate in North Africa against the Almohad onslaught.

As a feudatory of the count of Barcelona, he is believed to have been captured by the Almoravids during a battle along the Ebro river in the 1120s, probably 1126.

He remained a prisoner of war in North Africa for about a decade until the emergence of the Almohad threat in the Maghrib al-Aqsa induced the emir, Ali ibn Yusuf, to levy a troop of mercenaries among the captive Spanish soldiers (c.1132).

The Catalan knight may even have been entrusted with the command of the entire Almoravid army but he was killed in battle in 1142 or 1144, possibly near Tlemcen, and his corpse was crucified by the Zenatas.

Berenguer became the new viscount at the death of his father and returned in Spain and Abu-l-Hasan who took the command of the Christian contingent before converting to Islam.