ʻAbd al-Salām ibn Mashīsh al-ʻAlamī ( ar, عبد السلام بن مشيش العلمي) (b. ?–1227), was a Moroccan Sufi saint who lived during the reign of the Almohad Caliphate.

Biography

Virtually nothing is known about him except that he was assassinated in 1227/1228 by the anti-

Almohad The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the unity of God) was a North African Berber Muslim empire fou ...

rebel Ibn Abi Tawajin. His genealogy was traced through several ancestors—some of them with typically Berber names—all the way to the Prophet of Islam,

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

. It is said that he was born to the Banu Arus tribe in the neighbourhood of the Jabal al-'Alam, and that at the age of 16 he travelled to the east to study. On his return, in Bijaya (

Béjaïa Béjaïa (; ; ar, بجاية‎, Latn, ar, Bijāya, ; kab, Bgayet, Vgayet), formerly Bougie and Bugia, is a Mediterranean port city and commune on the Gulf of Béjaïa in Algeria; it is the capital of Béjaïa Province, Kabylia. Béjaïa is ...

), he followed the instructions of the Andalusian mystic

Abu Madyan Abu Madyan Shuʿayb ibn al-Husayn al-Ansari al-Andalusi ( ar, ابو مدين شعيب بن الحسين الأنصاري الأندلسي; c. 1126 – 1198 CE), commonly known as Abū Madyan, was an influential Andalusian mystic and a great Su ...

. He come back to stay in his native country, where he withdrew to the mountain to live an edifying life as an ascetic. He was the spiritual guide (

murshid ''Murshid'' ( ar, مرشد) is Arabic for "guide" or "teacher", derived from the root ''r-sh-d'', with the basic meaning of having integrity, being sensible, mature. Particularly in Sufism it refers to a spiritual guide. The term is frequently use ...

) of Abu-l-Hassan ash-Shadhili, his only disciple.

Works

He is the author of a collection of reflections about religious and political life in his time, and of a famous

eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person or persons, especially one who recently died or retired, or as ...

of the

Prophet Mohammed Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...

(''taṣliyah'') on which a commentary was written by Ahmad ibn Ajiba. He also wrote a metaphysical paraphrase of a widely known

prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified ...

, called ''al-Salat al-Mashishiyah'', in which the believer calls on God to bless the Prophet to thank him for having received Islam through him. In it, Ibn Mashish sees in the Prophet Muhammad as a person of the one Spirit from which all revelation comes and which is the eternal mediator between the ungraspable God and the world.

Notes

*Muhammad Bennani, Mulay Abd Es Selam El Machich, ed. by África Española – Madrid, 1913 (In Spanish) *

Titus Burckhardt Titus Burckhardt (24 October 1908 – 15 January 1984) was a Swiss writer and a leading member of the Perennialist or Traditionalist School. He was the author of numerous works on metaphysics, cosmology, anthropology, esoterism, alchemy, Sufism ...

, "The Prayer of Ibn Mashish", ''Studies in Comparative Religion'', Winter-Spring, 1978, Pates Manor, Bedfont, Middlesex *Titus Burckhardt, "The Prayer of Ibn Mashish (As-Salat al-Mashishiyah)", Translation and commentary, ''Islamic Quarterly'', London, 1978, vol. 20-21-22, no3, pp. 68–75

References

1227 deaths Shadhili order People from the Almohad Caliphate Moroccan Sufi writers 12th-century Moroccan writers 13th-century Moroccan writers Moroccan religious leaders Sufis Muslim saints Sufi saints {{Morocco-bio-stub