Salih I ibn Mansur ( ar, صالح ابن منصور الأول) (ca. 710), was the founder of the
Kingdom of Nekor
The Emirate of Nekor ( ar, إمارة بني صالح ''ʾImārat Banī Ṣāliḥ'') was an emirate centered in the Rif area of present-day Morocco. Its capital was initially located at Temsaman, and then moved to Nekor. The dynasty was of Hi ...
, located in the
Rif Mountains
The Rif or Riff (, ), also called Rif Mountains, is a geographic region in northern Morocco. This mountainous and fertile area is bordered by Cape Spartel and Tangier to the west, by Berkane and the Moulouya River to the east, by the Mediterra ...
of
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
. It is widely accepted that he was a Himyarite immigrant from
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and sha ...
. But according to
Ya'qubi
ʾAbū l-ʿAbbās ʾAḥmad bin ʾAbī Yaʿqūb bin Ǧaʿfar bin Wahb bin Waḍīḥ al-Yaʿqūbī (died 897/8), commonly referred to simply by his nisba al-Yaʿqūbī, was an Arab Muslim geographer and perhaps the first historian of world cultu ...
who is citing local opinion, denied this and asserted that Ibn Mansur was instead a Berber of the Nafzawah tribe.
His dynasty was responsible for converting the local
Berber tribes to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
. Initially the local tribes resisted the restrictions of the new religion and soon deposed their ruler but he was later asked to return and assume power again. His dynasty, the
Banu Salih, ruled the region until 1019.
References
8th-century monarchs in Africa
8th-century Berber people
People from Nekor
Berber rulers
8th-century Arabs
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