Abu Imran al-Fasi


Abu Imran Musa ibn Isa ibn abi hajj al-Fasi was a Moroccan Maliki faqīh born at Fez to a Berber or Arab family whose nisba is impossible to reconstruct.

Biography

Abu Imran al-Fasi was probably born between 975 and 978 at Fes. He went to Ifriqiya, where he settled in Kairouan and studied under al-Kabisi. Some time later, he stayed in Cordova with Ibn Abd al-Barr and followed the lectures of various scholars there, which his biographers list. He is regarded a saint by later Sufi mystics. He played an important role in the history of the Almoravid dynasty. It was his teaching in Qayrawan that first stirred Yahya ibn Ibrahim, who was returning from the Pilgrimage and attended Abu Imran's courses. This inspired the foundation of the Almoravids. He wrote a commentary on the Mudawana of Sahnun.
Qadi Ayyad, author of the Kitab Shifa bitarif huquq al-Mustapha, hagiographied Abu Imran al-Fasi in his Tadrib a-Madarik, an encyclopaedia of Maliki scholars.