Abu al-Abbas al-Azafi () or in full Abu al-Abbas Ahmad abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Lakhmi al-Sabti (1162–1236) was a religious and legal scholar and member of the
Banu al-Azafi
The Banu al-ʿAzafi (), or the ʿAzafids, was a noble family in the North African city of Ceuta ( ar, Sabta, today part of Spain).
In 654 AH (1256/57 CE) Abu al-Qasim al-Azafi, a member of the dynasty, became the ruler of the city after expelli ...
who ruled
Ceuta
Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa.
Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
in the 13th century. Al-Azafi was an expert in the analysis of oral tradition (riwaya wa diraya). He wrote a biography of the Berber saint
Sidi Abu Yaaza Yalnour ibn Maymun ibn Abdallah Dukkali Hazmiri al-Gharbi (d. 1177): ''Di'amat al-yaqin fi za'amat al-muttaqin'' (The Pillar of certainty in the leadership of the God-conscious). His most important work is ''Kitab ad-durr al-munazzam fi i ‘l-mawlid al-mu’azzam''. It was completed, after his death, by his son Abu l’Qasim. Al-Azafi established the custom of celebrating
Mawlid in
Ceuta
Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa.
Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
. His son Abu'l-Qasim propagated it throughout the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
.
[Marion Holmes Katz, ''The birth of the prophet Muḥammad: devotional piety in Sunni Islam'', Routledge, 2007, p. 10 and throughout]
References
Moroccan writers
12th-century Moroccan writers
13th-century Moroccan writers
Moroccan Maliki scholars
Moroccan biographers
People from Ceuta
12th-century jurists
13th-century jurists
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