ِAbu Bakr was born in
Tortosa in 1059 in the northern region of
Al-Andalus at the
Ebro Delta, at a time when the region had become increasingly fragmented and was divided into various
taifa kingdoms. He first traveled to
Zaragoza, where he became a student under
Abu al-Walid al-Baji, a famous scholar and poet. While in Spain, he also familiarised himself with the philosophical and political treatises of the Andalusian polymath
Ibn Hazm. He travelled for knowledge, seeking to educate himself from various scholars in different part of the Muslim world and went as far east as
Baghdad. On his way he also stopped at
Damascus,
Aleppo,
Cairo, and
Alexandria. He eventually settled in
Fatimid Alexandria, where he taught at a
madrassa. Al-Turtushi strongly opposed the
Ismaili ideology of the
Fatimid dynasty in Egypt. He also issued a
fatwa for
Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, the
Almoravid ruler of al-Andulus (Muslim Spain) that allowed him to invade Spain and depose of the divided
Taifa kingdoms. His most famous work was
Siraj al-Muluk (سراج الملوك) (The Lamp of Kings) an important treatise on political theory. ==See also==