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

. 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 {{Morocco-writer-stub