The Hussainid dynasty was a family that ruled over much of East Africa during the Dark Ages. Descended from Husayn ibn Ali and the Arabs, the family went on to culturally identify as Somalis, and some family members became Afro-Arabs, marrying local Somali women and creating mixed societies. The rulers of the Berberan Empire were typically the white Arabs, but some of King Yusuf of Berbera's children and grandchildren were black-skinned due to his marriage with other races. The result was the growth of an Afro-Arab elite ruling over the empire, giving it the legitimacy of a Muslim empire through their descent from Muhammad. The Hussainids ruled Berbera from 769, and their small kingdom on the coast of Somalia would expand up to Sudan and the border of southern Egypt in Africa as well as Yemen in the southern Arabian Peninsula.