Mohammed El Ifrani

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Mohammed el Ifrani (1670-1747) was a Moroccan historian.

Little is known about the life of Muhammad al-Saghir b. al-hajj Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah al-Ifrani al-Marakkushi, as his full name is. He was born in Marrakesh 1669/1670, studied there and in Fez, and may have held a post in the entourage of Mulay Ismael Alawi sultan of Morocco (1645-1727), on whose reign he wrote a now lost chronicle. Later in life, he became imam and khatib of the Ben Youssef Medrassa (also known as al-Yusufiyya) in Marrakesh. Certain sultans like Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah (1757-1790), were very strict in what the content of the education should be and even gave out manuals with regulations and works to be treated, but the teachers did as they pleased and that is how El Ifrani in the beginning of the 17th century wrote a work on the life of Ibn Sahl of Sevilla, an Andalousian poet of the 12th century while pretending to be teaching law and the hadith. El Ifrani died either in 1743 or 1745. A number of his works have survived, the most important of which is his biographical dictionary of men of the eleventh century of the hijra: Safwat man intashar min Akhbar Sulaha Al Qarn Al Hadi Ashar, briefly called "Safwat man intashar". It contains the biographies of saints who lived in 17th century Morocco. It is the classic biographical dictionary of that time. Also famous is his history of the Saadi Dynasty, Nuzhat al-hadi bi-akhbar muluk al-qarn al-hadi, written shortly before 1724. The work, among others, relates the conquest of the Songhai Empire by the Saadian sultans and has been published thrice. A lithographed edition was published at Fez in 1889-90, just after Octave Houdas had published an edition and translation in Paris .(O. Houdas, Nozhet-elhâdi, histoire de la dynastie saadienne au Maroc (1511-1670)). Another edition was published in Casablanca, ed. 'Abd al-Latif al-Shadhili, 1998.