Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Fasi

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Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Fasi (1760-1837) was a Neo-Sufi reformer, active in Morocco, North Africa, and Yemen, who opposed the Ulema and tried to bring a more vibrant form of Islam directly to the people.

Ahmad Ibn Idris was the founder of the Idrisi order (Idrisiyya) and travelled extensively in North Africa and Yemen, instructing the ordinary people in their dialect, and teaching them how to perform such basic as the salat. He rejected the following of legal schools (madhhabs) and criticised the ideology of wahabbism on many points.^[1] He came to Cairo in 1799 and, in 1818, went to Mecca for a second time and settled there. He was one of the most eminent teachers in the holy city. Due to opposition from the Ulema he had to flee to Zabid in Yemen in 1827.

After Ahmad’s death the Idrisiyya split into new lines and his more influential pupils embarked upon independent courses. The most important of these was the influential Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi, founder of the Sufi order of the Sanusiyya.

Ahmad Ibn Idris was born near Fez in Morocco.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Scott Alan Kugle, Sufis & Saints' Bodies: Mysticism, Corporeality, & Sacred Power, 2007, ISBN 080783081X, p. 269-270

[edit] Bibliography

• Thomassen, Einar & Radtke, Bernd, eds, The Letters of Ahmad ibn Idris. London: Christopher Hurst. A collective volume containing the texts and translations of 35 letters to and from Ibn Idris. The contributors are Albrecht Hofheinz, Ali Salih Karrar, R.S. O’Fahey, B. Radtke & Einar Thomassen. ISBN 978-0810110700
• Enigmatic Saint, Ahmad Ibn Idris and the Idrisi Tradition, by R. S. O'Fahey. 1994 This book details his early life and travels. The book also examines his relationships with his students, including Muhammad al-Sanusi and Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani (founder of the Khatmiyya in the Sudan and Eritrea) and traces the influence of his ideas. ISBN 0-8101-0910-7
• The Exoteric Ahmad Ibn Idris: A Sufi's Critique of the Madhahib and the Wahhabis : Four Arabic Texts With Translation and Commentary (Islamic History and Civilization) by Bernd Radtke, John O'Kane, Knut S. Vikor and R. S. O'Fahey, ed. Brill, Leiden, 1999, ISBN 978-9004113756

[edit] External Links

• Article by R.S. O'Fahey: Ahmad ibn Idris, recent and forthcoming publications. [1]