Ali ibn Maymun


ʿAlī ibn Maymūn ibn abī bakr al-idrīsī al-mag̲h̲ribī , also known as Shaykh 'Ali ibn Maymun, was a Moroccan ālim and Sufi mystic of Berber origin, but he pretended to be from an Alid origin, which increased his reputation.

Biography

Early life

He was born in the region of Ghumara around 1450, he studied Islamic sciences locally, then in Fez, from 1471. He held the office of qāḍī in Chefchaouen for a period of ten years. 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, he inveighed against the religious and social abuses which he had noticed in the east. He wrote this work at an advanced age.