Al-Qutb al-Kamil, Al-Imam Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Abdur Rahman Ibn Abi Bakr Ibn Suleiman Al-Jazuli Simlali al-Hassani al-Maghribi (d. 869/1454). Referred to his grandfather, he is called shortly Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Suleiman al-Jazuli. He belonged to the Berber tribe of Jazula which is settled in the Sus area of Morocco between the Atlantic and the Atlas Mountains. Although the date of Imam al-Jazouli’s birth is not known, enough information exists to provide a rough outline of his origins and background. His nisba (Attributional Name) tells us the he came from the Simlala tribe, one of the most important Sanhaja Berber groups in Jazula. The turbulent political environment of Simlala in the fifteenth century forced the Shaykh to leave his homeland because its culture of violence made serious scholarship impossible. As it turned out, the young sharif had to travel all the way to Fez to get an education, since the insufficient intellectual resources of Marrakech (Morocco), the usual destination for students from central and southern-Saharan Morocco, made study in that city impossible as well.
He studied locally and then travelled to the Madrasat AS-Saffareen in Fés, the spiritual capital of Morocco where his room is still pointed out to visitors. In Fes, He memorised the four volumes Mudawwana of Imam Malik and met scholars of his time such as Ahmad Zarruq, and Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah Amghar, who became his Shaykh in the Tariqa or Sufi path. After setting a tribal feud he left the area and spent the next forty years in Makkah Mukarrama, Madina Munawwarah and Jerusalem. After this, he returned to Fez where he completed Dala’il al-Khayrat. Read the rest of this entry »
