Sidi Mogdoul was a Moroccan

Wali The term ''wali'' is most commonly used by Muslims to refer to a saint, or literally a "friend of God".John Renard, ''Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008); John ...

and religious leader who lived in the 11th-century. He was buried in

Essaouira Essaouira ( ; ), known until the 1960s as Mogador (, or ), is a port city in the western Moroccan region of Marrakesh-Safi, on the Atlantic coast. It has 77,966 inhabitants as of 2014. The foundation of the city of Essaouira was the work of t ...

. Sidi Megdoul came from the noble Berber tribe of

Regraga The Regraga (plural for Aregrag) are a subgroup within the larger Masmuda Berber tribal confederacy of Morocco. They historically played a pivotal role in the cultural and religious landscape of the Chiadma region along the Atlantic coast, situa ...

, and was credited with renewing the

Ribat A ribāṭ (; hospice, hostel, base or retreat) is an Arabic term, initially designating a small fortification built along a frontier during the first years of the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb to house military volunteers, called ''murabitun' ...

of Sidi Chiker. From his base in Essaouira, he fought the Berghwata confederacy and later allied with the

Almoravids The Almoravid dynasty () was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almo ...

and participated in the propagation of their

Da'wa ' (, , "invitation", also spelt , , , or ) is the act of inviting people to Islam. The plural is () or (). Preachers who engage in dawah are known as da'i. Etymology literally means "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation". Gramma ...

. The saint also gave his name to the nearby lighthouse, 17 meter high, named the Sidi Mogdoul lighthouse.''NGA Sailing Directions-Enroute: 2008 West Coast of Europe and Northwest Africa'' Griffes, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency p.207
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Notes

{{Reflist 11th-century Berber people 11th-century Moroccan people Moroccan religious leaders Moroccan military leaders People from Essaouira People under the Almoravid dynasty