ʿAlī ibn Maymūn ibn Abī Bakr al-Idrīsī al-Mag̲h̲ribī (; 1450–1511) (full name: Abu al-Hasan ʿAli ibn Maymūn ibn Abī Bakr ibn ʿAli ibn Maymūn al-Hashimi al-Qurashi al-Maghribi al-Ghumari al-Fasi Al-Maliki), also known as Shaykh 'Ali ibn Maymun, was a Moroccan '' ālim'' and Sufi mystic of

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

origin, but he pretended to be from an

Alid The Alids are those who claim descent from the '' rāshidūn'' caliph and Imam ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (656–661)—cousin, son-in-law, and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad—through all his wives. The main branches are the (inc ...

origin, which increased his reputation.

Biography

Early life

He was born in the region of Ghumara (north Morocco) around 1450, he studied Islamic sciences locally, then in Fez, from 1471. He held the office of ''

qāḍī A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...

'' in Chefchaouen for a period of ten years (890–900). In his youth he is said to have been the ''amīr'' of the Banu Rashid tribe in the Jabal Ghumara, but to have relinquished that position because he was unable to enforce among his people the prohibition on wine-drinking.

Religious life

In 901/1495-6 he left Fez, visited Damascus, Mecca, Aleppo, and Bursa, and finally settled at Damascus where he died in 917/1511.

Works

His mysticism was of a moderate character; in his ''Bayān ghurbat al-Islām bi-wāsiṭat ṣinfayn min al-mutafaqqihah wa 'l-Mutafaqqirah min Ahl Miṣr wa 'l-Shām wa-mā yalīhumā min bilād al-a‘jām'' (Elucidation of the Abandonment of Islam on the Part of those who Claim to be Legal Scholars and those who Claim to be Sufis, from among the People of Egypt and Syria and those Foreign Lands around them), he inveighed against the religious and social abuses which he had noticed in the east. He wrote this work at an advanced age (he commenced it on 19 Muharram 916).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maymun, Ali ibn 1450 births 1511 deaths 15th-century Moroccan people 16th-century Moroccan people 15th-century Berber people 16th-century Berber people