Hagiography Bank by Date | Tariqa | Chain | Patron Saints | Female Saints | Tijani Companions |

Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi (d. 1252/1837)

Abul Abbas Sidi al-Kahdir | Sidi Abdellaziz Dabbagh | Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi | Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss

“We took the Way from the succor of his time and imam of his age, the exalted shaykh, our lord and master, Abdelwahhab Tazi, then al-Fasi, where he was born and grew up. He took it from the succor of his time and imam of his age, the Hasani Sharif, our lord and mas­ter, Sidi Abdellaziz, known as Dabbagh (and) al-Fasi, where he was born and grew up. He took it from the shaykh of shaykhs, die universal sage (al-fard al-jami’), Sidi Abul Abbas Ahmed al-Khadir.” (Shaykh Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss)

The knower of Allah, the baraka of Fez, Abul Mawhabi Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi al-Fasi, the son of Sidi Abdellaziz Dabbagh (1090-1132/1689-1720) through breastfeeding. As his name implies, al-Tazi's family came from Taza in eastern Morocco, being part of a Sharifian clan called Rashida, although he himself was born and grew up in Fez. Among al-Tazi's teachers and initiators are several interesting names. Makhluf lists them; first, in the Maghrib, Sidi Mohammed b. Buzayyan al-Ghandusi (d. 1146/1733-4)," then Mawlay Ahmed Siqilli (d. 1177/1762), Sidi Abdellaziz Dabbagh, and finally Sidi Abdellah ibn Abdeljalil al-Barnawi (d. 1116/1704-5), a scholar and Sufi from the central Sudani state of Borno. Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss al-Fasi (d. 1252/1837) was initiated into the Khadiriya by our subject.

“Among of those that he had met in his beginnings is the Renowned Pole, Mawlana Abdellaziz Dabbagh, may Allah be pleased with him; he had been privileged to encounter him frequently, seek his blessing, take from him, and attain many acts of grace from him. One day, he met him in al-‘Aqba al-Zarqa in Fez, he kissed his hand and bowed his head to earth in silence. The Shaykh said to him: ‘O son Abdelwahhab—for he was his son through breastfeeding; his wife breastfed him when he was young—do you want to see the Messenger—peace and blessing be upon him? ‘Yes,’ he replied. Then he said to him, ‘Raise your head and have a look!’ And there was the Messenger—peace and blessing be upon him—and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq—may Allah be pleased with him—with him!” (Salwat al-Anfas)  

Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi (under renovation), Bab al-Futuh, Fez

Sidi Abdellaziz Dabbagh (right) and Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi (left), Bab al-Futuh, Fez

Sidi Abdellaziz Dabbagh (left), Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi (right), Bab al-Futuh, Fez

Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi (left), Sidi al-'Aydi al-Kabir (right), Bab al-Futuh, Fez

Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi made the pilgrimage in 1166/1753 together with a fellow Moroccan, Mohammed al-Manali al-Zabadi, and while in Egypt was initiated into the Khalwatiya by two key figures, Sidi Mohammed al-Hifni (d. 1181/1767) and Sidi Mahmoud al-Kurdi (d. 1186/1780), both students of Sidi Mustafa al-Bakri (d. 1162/1749). It is interesting that the only Sufi affiliation that Ibn Idriss is reported to have taken in the East was from Sidi Hassan ibn Hassan Bey al-Qina'i, a student of Mahmud al-Kurdi (see below). Al-Tazi seems also to have taken the Naqshabandiya while in the East; al-Sanusi gives two names for al-Tazi's Naqshabandi affiliations, al-Kamal al-Sindi and Abul Baqa al-Makki. The point is of some importance because much later al-Mirghani chose to emphasize Ibn Idriss' Naqshabandi affiliation through Shaykh al-Tazi rather than his Shadhili as his other students did.

Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi, at the time when Sidi Mohammed Limjaydri ibn Habib Allah brought Ibn Idriss to him, was head of the Khadiriya order from within the Shadhili tradition which had been established in 1125/1713 by Sidi Abdellaziz Dabbagh, an Idrissi Sharif like Ibn Idriss, who was initiated by al-Khadir, "A servant of Ours" (Quran, 17:59-81). Dabbagh's life and miracles were written down by his student, Shaykh Ahmed al-Mubarak al-Sijilmasi al-Lamati (1090-1156/1679-80 -1743), in Al-Ibriz min Kalam Sayyidi Abdellaziz Dabbagh” (The Pure Gold in the Sayings of Sayyidi Abdellaziz Dabbagh), in which he gives a vivid picture of Sufism in early eighteenth-century Fez centered around the figure of Shaykh Dabbagh.  

Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss took the Ibriz from Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi and transmitted it to Sidi Mohammed Sanusi, Sidi Uthman Mirghani and Sidi Ibrahim al-Rashid; it has since remained an important work for their branches in Lybia, Arabia, Somalia, the Sudan, Malay and many parts of Asia . It has also remained an important text for Shadhilis, Khalwatis, Naqshabandis, and Tijanis, being placed fourth on their list of all-time Sufi classics by most contemporary Sufis, after only Sidi Ahmed Ibn Ata'Allah al-Iskandari's (d. 709/1294) Hikam (Spiritual Aphorisms), Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's (d. 526/1111) Ihya ’Ulum ad-Din, and Sidi al-Haj Ali Harazem Berrada al-Fasi’s (d. 1218/1803) “Jawahir al-Ma'ani” (Gems of Indications).

According to one source, Shaykah al-Tazi had attended some of Ibn Idriss' lectures - which would imply that Ibn Idriss' initiation as a Sufi came towards the end of or after his formal study as a jurist - before Limjaydri brought the latter to him as a murid. At their first meeting, al-Tazi is said to have exclaimed,

“Where is that worthless man (hadra), Ahmed? By that he was referring to the worthless man of learning, meaning that Ibn Idriss' "book-learning" still left him worthless in the Sufi sense.”

Ibn Idriss himself states clearly the significance of al-Tazi for his own spiritual development,

“We took the Way from the succor of his time and imam of his age, the exalted shaykh, our lord and master, Abdelwahhab Tazi, then al-Fasi, where he was born and grew up. He took it from the succor of his time and imam of his age, the Hasani Sharif, our lord and mas­ter, Sidi Abdellaziz, known as Dabbagh (and) al-Fasi, where he was born and grew up. He took it from the shaykh of shaykhs, die universal sage (al-fard al-jami’), Sidi Abul Abbas Ahmed al-Khadir.” (Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss)

Although in his Kunz al-Jawahir, he lays the greatest emphasis on his Shadhili affiliation through Abul Qasim al-Wazir and his Khalwati master Sidi Hassan ibn Hassan Bey al-Qina'i, the later writings of the Idrissi tradition almost entirely forget these in favour of the simple "Mohammediya" chain through Shaykh al-Tazi, al-Dabbagh, al-Khadir to the Holy Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him. Al-Sanusi explains why.

“This is among the most exalted of the short sanads because al-Khadir, on whom be peace, met the Prophet, may God bless and grant him peace, during his lifetime in the same way as all the Companions took from the Prophet. Likewise Sayyid Abdellaziz (Dabbagh) took from the Prophet in (the same way as all the successors (at-Tabi’un of the Companions) took on the authority of the Companions who were contemporaries of the Prophet, may God bless and grant him peace, and so on. Thus the intermediaries between us and the Prophet, may God bless and grant him peace, are four.”