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Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss al-Fasi (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.” (Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss)

Despite his importance, no substantial study has been devoted to the career of Abul Abbas Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss al-Hassani al-Araichi al-Fasi (d. 1252/1837); most accounts of him appear by way of a preface lo studies or his pupils. And yet through his teachings, pupils, and family, he was undoubtedly one of the key religious figures of the 19th century Arab Muslim world. Indeed, his influence, direct and indirect, appears to have stretched from The Maghreb to Indonesia. Three of his pupils from his immediate circle established major brotherhoods, the Sanussiya, Khatmiya, and Rashidiya, from which stemmed several other orders. Of his descendants one branch established a local dynasty in southern Arabia that survived until 1351/1933 when it was incorporated into the Saudi stale, while another branch, somewhat belatedly, established an Idrissiya in Upper Egypt and the Southern Sudan. Also significant is the influence exercised by Ibn Idriss through those of his pupils who founded not major orders but local schools propagating his teachings such as the Egyptian Sidi Ali Abdelhaqq al-Qusi, or, who under his influence founded or revitalised local or family orders, such as the Majdhubiya and Ismailiya in the Northern or western Sudan respectively. Finally, his influence was not confined to his family and pupils; in the course of his travels, he initiated or gave ijazas, both general and for specific text, or corresponded with many scholars including such figures as Mohammed Hassan al-Madani (d. 1263/1847) and Mohammed ibn Ali Shawkani (d. 1249/1834).

Yet Ibn Idriss remains an enigma. That he was very influential is beyond doubt; why, is less easy to explain. His doctrinal position was not unique; others held the same or similar positions. He wrote relatively little; his teachings are known largely through the writings of his students and contemporaries, his few surviving letters, and through his litanies and prayers. The explanation must lie in his personality; not so much what he taught, but how he taught it. That, rather than doctrinal originality, best explains the enormous authority he exercised over his students and contemporaries and why established scholars so eagerly sought ijazas from him. While the several accounts we have of him simply take his spiritual authority for granted, his letters underscore its pastoral nature. In letters to his closest pupils, such as his near contemporary, al-Sanusi, or the much younger al-Uthman Mirghani (d. 1268/1852), he writes as a wise and loving master guiding them along the mystical path; to his humbler followers, he gives simple and authorita­tive rulings on a variety of matters that were both great and small.

Toward a biography

Ibn Idriss was born into a holy family at Maysur in the district of al-‘Araich (Larache) on Morocco's Atlantic coast; the date of his birth is given as either Rajah 1173/February-March 1760 or 1163/1749-50, the latter date supported by Idrissi family tradition. He was a descendant through the Imam Idriss b. 'Abdellah al-Mahdi of the Sharifian Idrissi dynasty, sometime rulers of Fez (788-974). After the usual Quranic studies, Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss went at the age of about 20 to study at the Qarawiyyin mosque school in Fez. There he studied a wide range of sub­jects under a number of teachers, who included Sidi Mohammed at-Tawdi ibn Souda (d. 1209/1794), al-Majidri (or al-Mijaydri) al-Shinqiti, Sidi Abul Mahawib Abdelwahhab Tazi (d. 1198/1783), and the Sidi Abul Qacem al-Wazir al-Fasi (d. 1214/1779). Other teachers referred to in the sources include Abdelkarim Yazghi (d. 1198/1784) and Mohammed Tayyeb ibn Kiran (d. 1812). Ibn Kiran was later to teach al-Sanusi. Among the texts Ibn Idriss studied were the works of Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani (d. 904/1499) and the Asanid of Ibn Suda from the latter's period of study in Egypt.

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

It was from among the same teachers that Ibn Idriss took his Sufi affiliations; he was initiated into the Khadiriya by Sidi Abul Mahawib Abdelwahhab Tazi and into the Nasiriya Shadhiliya by al-Wazir, while al-Shinqiti taught him the famous prayer attributed to Sidna Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-Hizb al-Sayfi. In other words, Ibn Idriss received an education that combined the formal religious sciences, apparently with an emphasis on tafsir and hadith, with the mysticism of the brotherhoods. He soon began to form a circle of students around him, to whom he inveighed against the innovations (bida’) of popular Sufism (Tasawwuf sha’abi), exhorting to go back to the sources (usul) of belief, the Quran and Sunna. This was to be the consistent theme of his teaching throughout his life.

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 (1090-1132/1689-1720), and finally Sidi Abdellah ibn Abdeljalil al-Barnawi (d. 1116/1704-5), a scholar and Sufi from the central Sudani state of Borno.

Sidi Abul Mahawib Abdelwahhab Tazi, at the time when Sidi Mohammed Limjaydri ibn Habib Allah brought Ibn Idris to him, was head of the Khadiriya order–if order in any organizational sense it was - from within the Shadhili tradition which had been established in 1125/1713 by Shaykh al-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 Abul Mahawib 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, 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 al-Qinai, the later writings of the Idrissi tradition almost entirely forget these in favour of the simple "Mohammediya" chain through 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.”

The Tijani hagiographer Sidi Ahmed ibn al-Haj al-Iyyachi Skirej (d. 1363/1944) lists in his book, “Raf’a al-Niqab ba'ada Kashf al-Hijab 'Amman Talaaqa bi-Shaykh Tijani Mina-l As'hab” (Lifting the Curtain after Raising the Veil on the Direct Companions of Shaykh Tijani), a biographical dictionary of prominent Tijani companions, the Shaykh Abil Abbas Sidi Ahmed Tijani (d. 1230/1815) as a teacher of Ibn Idriss.

Shrine of Sidna Shaykh Abil Abbas Sidi Ahmed Tijani, Fez   

“Among of them: Shaykh Ahmed ibn Idriss al-Maghribi al-Makki. This master was among of the confidants of our Master (Tijani)—God be pleased with him. He behaved very well towards him, robed him with admiration, drew him near in the presences of proximity, and transmitted him some of his divine secrets that revived his heart amid the people of love. He took the Tariqa from him, and become conversant with the primal source of reality (‘ayn al-‘haqiqa), and attained from him abundant share of the divine secret. And after he took from his lights, he departed from Fez to the Holy City of Makkah where he stetted for 14 years.

(..) It has reached me that he said: ‘I met the Messenger—peace and blessing be upon him—in a direct visionary meeting, and al-Khadir—peace be on him—was with him. The Messenger—peace and blessing be upon him—asked al-Khadir to transmit to me the litanies (awrad), so he transmitted them to to me in his Presence—peace and blessing be upon him—and gave me permission to transmit them to seekers with their proper conditions.’

And he was before his meeting with the Shaykh—God be pleased with him—very anxious to meet with he who takes him by the hand and walks him through the path of the community. So he met with numerous shaykhs from among the Shadhili masters, including: Shaykh Moulay al-Arabi ibn Ahmed Zarwali Darqawi (d. 1239/1823), Shaykh Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi and others—God be pleased with them. 

And when he met with the Shaykh, his aspirations were completed and his eyes were solaced after he attained the divine secret which he had longed for years, and his chest achieved inner tranquility after so much suffering. A group of the people of good intention won at his hands and attained from his profitable business what they have thanked [God] for in their successful endeavors. And it came to pass that he transmitted the litanies of the Shadhili path before his path [was established]. As far as the Tijani litanies are concerned, he did not have permission to transmit them, standing with the feet of truth in the station of guidance (irshad).

(..) He is our subject in “Jannat al-Jani” (Garden of the Sinful),

Among of them: the Shaykh Ibn Idriss, the satisfied,

  Ahmed, of good deeds, the exalted.

He took from him (Shaykh Tijani) permission in some

  remembrances of wonderful divine secrets.  

He received a Tijani eye-glance from him,

  Through which he showed (him) pearls of gnosis.

His chest achieved tranquility therewith.

  and, accomplished, he won the affections of the people,

He showed himself as a teacher of a path

  reserved for him, and he is entitled to our praise!

For he is a shaykh of great illumination,

  and the owner of illumination is the source of success.

And it should not be said that this (Tijani) Path

  is solely taken by the possessor of reality!

For the possessor of illumination stands alone

  in whatever he authorizes the advocate.

And the Shaykh only forbids transmission of

  his Path with other paths simultaneously.

It is never transmitted to someone who is affiliated with

  another path through which he had been elevated. 

Yeah! It is only given to the seeker who abdicates

  other (paths) so as to obtain the divine secret.

And whoever among the shaykhs shows himself

  in another (path) amid the people of firmness,

He knows through insight what he is doing,

  So do not forsake any condition of the remembrance.   

For it is never recited along with another,

  Its spirit appears to that of illumination.

Do not take it from other than him,

  and be careful not to abdicate it.

And be careful not to mix up the remembrances,

  if you want to obtain the divine secrets. 

I have summarized the path to the seeker

  who asks for good approach through correct opinion!”          

يقول الشيخ سيدي أحمد بن الحاج العياشي سكيرج رضي الله عنه في الربع الاول من رفع النقاب بعد كشف الحجاب عمن تلاقى مع الشيخ التجاني من الاصحاب: ومنهم الشيخ احمد بن ادريس المغربي المكي هذا السيد من احباب سيدنا رضي الله عنه الملحوظين عنده بعين التعظيم المشمولين برداء التكريم ادناه منه في حضرات قربه ولقنه من اسراره ما احيى به قلبه بين اهل حبه وتلقى عنه الاذن في الطريقة وسناه فيها من عين الحقيقة ففاز منه بحظ وافر من السر وارتحل بعد ما اقتبس من انواره عن مدينة فاس واستوطن مكة المشرفة فأقام بها نحو اربعة عشر عاما وفتح له في التعبير فصار يتكلم في علوم القوم والتفسير والحديث بما يبهر العقول وفاضت على لسانه فيوضات العرفان واملى من الصلاة على النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم صيغا حلوة المذاق جمع منها بعض ملازميه جزءا لطيفا وظهرت له هناك كرامات ومناقب وفتوحات ثم تظاهر بتلقين طريقته الخصوصية المعروفة بالادريسية وقد بلغني عنه انه قال اجتمعت بالنبي صلى الله عليه وسلم اجتماعا صوريا ومعه الخضر عليه السلام فأمر النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم الخضر ان يلقنني الاوراد فلقننيها بحضرته صلى الله عليه وسلم واذن لي في تلقينها للمريدين بشروطها. وقد كان قبل الاجتماع بالشيخ رضي الله عنه في تلهف شديد في الاجتماع بمن يأخذ بيده في سلوك طريق القوم فاجتمع بعدة شيوخ من السادة الشاذلية فاجتمع بالشيخ مولاي العربي بن احمد الزروالي الدرقاوي وبالشيخ سيدي عبد الوهاب التازي وغيرهما رضي الله عنهم ولما اجتمع بالشيخ تمت امانيه وقرت عينه بنيل السر الذي كان مهتما بالحصول عليه واطمأن صدره بالراحة مما كان يعانيه  وقد فاز على يده جماعة من اهل النية الصالحة ونالوا من تجارته الرابحة ما حمدوه في مساعيهم الناجحة وقد كان الغالب عليه تلقين اوراد الطريقة الشاذلية قبل طريقته اما الاوراد التجانية فلم يكن له اذن في تلقينها وقوفا مع قدم الصدق في مقام الارشاد . وقد اعتنى بعض مريديه بجمع الاجوبة عن المسائل التي كانت تلقى عليه في مجالس درسه وغيرها وابرز ذلك في توليف سماه العقد النفيس في نظم جواهر التدريس لسيدي احمد بن ادريس.

Little is known about Abul Qasim, who was known as al-wazir  "the minister", save that he was a shaykh of the Nasiriya Shadhiliya, one of the most influential Shadhili affiliations in Morocco that had been established by Sidi Mohammed b. Nasir al-Dar’i (d. 1085/1674) with its main centre at Tamagrout in the Wadi Dar’a. In Kunuz al-Jawahir, Ibn Idriss gives in detail his Shadhili chain from Abul Qasim, who took from the noted Fez saint, Sidi Ali al-Amrani, known as al-Jamal (d. 1193/1779). A second Shadhili affiliation that Abul Qasim took, but which is not referred to by Ibn Idriss, derived from Sidi Abu Hamid al-^cArabi al-Darqawi (1760-1823), also an initiate of al-Jamal, that was only institutionalized in various branches across the Maghreb after his death.  

Ibn Idriss seems to have become a figure of controversy, becoming involved in disputes with the ulama at the Qarawiyyin. This may be the reason why, in the middle of 1212/1797-98, Sidi Ahmed set out with an entourage from Fez on the pilgrimage; he was never to return to Morocco. Travelling via Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, he stopped at Benghazi, where he taught people from Jabal al-Akdar and Barqa. He then took a boat from Benghazi directly to Alexandria, arriving apparently in early 1798, some few months before Bonaparte's inva­sion From Alexandria he travelled up to Cairo where he gave a series of public lectures at al-Azhar which huge audiences attended, a number of whom went with him when he continued on to Mecca at the end of 1213/1798-99 or the beginning of 1214/1799-1800.

Sidi Ahmed was to stay in Mecca, except for the years spent on his two, possibly three, extended visits to Upper Egypt, until his enforced departure for the Yemen in 1243/1827-28. From the outset, he appears to have encountered hostility from the Meccan ulama, but to have enjoyed the support and patronage of the Sharif Ghalib ibn Musa, emir of Mecca between 1202/1788 and 1229/1814. It was the latter who granted Sidi Ahmed the palace (saray) of al-Jaafariya in Mecca for the use of himself and his followers.

Emir Ghalib was himself driven out of Mecca by the Wahhabis under Sa'ud ibn Abdellaziz in 1803, but the latter is said to have treated Ibn Idriss with the greatest respect, giving him a silk robe and protecting his followers. Interest­ingly, Sidi Ahmed only left Mecca in 1227/1813, the year that the Wahhabis were expelled from the holy city by the forces of Mohammed Ali Pasha. Together with Sidi al-Uthman Mirghani, he crossed the Red Sea to al-Zayniya, a village near Luxor (al-Uqsur) approximately half way between Qina and Isna. Al-Zayniya was apparently a religious centre of some importance as well as being at the end of some short desert crossing from the Nile to the Red Sea coast. Ibn Idriss may have visited al-Zayniya before; in his Bulaq, Mohammed Hijrasi suggests that during his first stay m Egypt he visited Upper Egypt where he was initiated into the Khalwatiya by Sidi Hassan ibn Hassan Bey al-Qina'i, a student of the Qutb Mahmoud al-Kurdi (d. 1186/1771). This latter is credited to have initiated his master Sidi Abdelwahhab Tazi as he initiated our Shaykh Abul Abbas Sidi Ahmed Tijani (d. 1230/1815) earlier. It was during this apparent second visit, between 1813 and 1817, that al-Uthman Mirghani was permitted by In Ibn to undertake a dissemination journey (nashr) through the northern and western Sudan, a journey that was lo lay the foundations of the Khatmiya tariqa.

Sidi Ahmed returned to Mecca in 1232/1817. But conditions there were beginning to turn against him; there was continuing tension between the Sharifian Zayd clan, to which his patron Ghalib belonged, and the occupying forces of Mohammed Ali. Ten years later, in 1243/1827, matters finally came to a head. Mohammed Ali transferred the position of emir from the Zayd to the 'Awn clan, while the Meccan ulama seemed to have used the demarche to bring charges of heresy against Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss. In the same year, Sidi Ahmed was forced to leave; he set out for the Yemen with all his pupils except for al-Sanusi who stayed behind to act as his master's agent in Mecca.

Ibn Idriss’ reputation was already known in the Yemen and the contrast between his reception by the networks of scholarly clans there and hostility of the Meccans is striking. Indeed, one recent study, describes Ibn Idriss coming as contributing to a Sufi revival in the Yemen. But among the Yemeni scholars were ulama who had attained the highest rank of ijtihad; in other words, whose doctrinal position was very close to that of Ibn Idriss. He went first to Mukha in the far south where he stayed for four months, before moving to Zahn: where he was the guest for nearly a year of the town’s mufti Abderrahman ibn Sulayman al-Ahdal (d. 1250/1835). From Zabid he travelled north via Bayt al-Faqih and al-Hudayda to al-Qutay and Bajil. His progress along the coastal region of the Yemen seems to have been marked by extraordinary enthusiasm; wherever he went, he initiated into his order or gave ijazas for a wide range of texts, mainly the canonical collection of hadith and Ibn Hajar. His position was undoubtedly enhanced by a warm recommendation from the great Yemeni scholar, Mohammed Shawkani, whom he did not actually meet but with whom he corresponded. Among those he taught was, for example, the Qadi of Bait al-Faqih, Abderrahman ibn Ahmed al-Bahkali (d. 1251/1836). To the young al-Hassan b. Ahmed Akish Damidi (d. 1288/1872), he taught the Risala (Letters) of Abul Qacem al-Qushayri (d. 467/1052) and Ibn Ata’Allah Sakandari’s (d. 709/1294) Hikam (Spiritual Aphorisms); to Abu Bakr ibn Abdellah al-‘Attas (d. 1866) his prayer, as-Salat al-A’adhamiya. But these were by no means the only scholars he met; both Yemeni and Idrissi sources give many more.

There were, however, to be in the Yemen echoes of his deputes it Fez and Mecca. Abu Bakr ibn Mohammed Tihami (d. 1258/1843), hearing that Ibn Idriss had rejected the exoteric (dhahir) interpretation of certain Quranic verses, "since it did not concern to Sufi principles (qawa’d as-sufiya),'' wrote a refutation called Talbis Iblis, "The Devil's Deceit," the title recalling Ibn al-Jawzi's teaching mocking attack on Sufism in his lime. To this, another Yemeni scholar, Ibrahim ibn Yahya Damidi, responded with a counter-blast. Harmony prevailed in the end; al-Hassan Akish records,

(Tihami) came into contact with our Shaykh through some of his students and received a pardon. The pardon was both requested and expected by Tihami, since he was one of the eminent, and slander upon the reputation of the ulama is a mortal poison.

The doctrinal difference seems to have disappeared in the face of Ibn Idriss' spiritual status. After nearly two years of travel, Ibn Idriss came, in 1244/1828, to the town of Sabya in the district of ‘Asir. 'Asir's ruler, Ali ibn Mujathlhil (d. 1249/1834) welcomed him and gave him a grant upon which to live. Now an old man, Ibn Idriss seems to have decided to settle in Sabya. Once more, as before in Fez and Mecca, his teaching begin to provoke opposition, this lime from a group or Wahhabi-inspired ulama led by one Nasir al-Kubaybi. Matters, came to a head just over a year later, when in Jumada 11 1245/November 1829, Ibn Mujathlhil ordered a public debate (munazara) to be held between al- Kubaybi and Ibn Idriss, a debate recorded verbatim by al-Hassan Akish. The debate is too long to be analyzed here, but characteristic is Ibn ldriss' criticism to Mohammed ibn Abdelwahhab,

We do not deny his merit. His intention was righteous in what he did. He eliminated innovations and unfortunate practices, but that mission was smeared by excess. He declared those Muslims who had a belief in anything other than God Most High to be unbelievers, and moreover allowed them to be killed and their property to he seized without justification.

Ibn Idriss died in Sabya on 21 Rajab 1253/21 October I837. Of his descendents, one branch later emerged as the Idrissi dynasty of ‘Asir, while another branch, founded by his sons Mohammed and Abd al-‘Ali propagated what became the Idrissiya Tariqa in Upper Egypt, based on al-Zayniya, and around Dongola and Omdurman in the northern Sudan, where they settled and still live.

Ibn ldriss' teachings

Ibn ldriss’ teachings fall within the parameters of two fundamental doctrinal positions: as regards fiqh; a rejection of taqlid and the madhabs, and a return to the Quran, the Sunna, and the ijma’a of the Companions; as regards Sufism, an emphasis on the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) as the way to God. The two positions were, of course, two sides of the same coin; a purer Islam emphasising the believer's own personal way to salvation and "intellectual honesty."

In his rejection of taqlid, Ibn Idriss was doctrinally very close to the Wahhabis and Shawkani. He expounded his own distinctively mystical interpretation of the Quran and hadith. This, naturally, brought him into conflict with the Meccan ulama. According to his disciple Sidi al-Uthman Mirghani, “He was rejected by the people of Mecca and the reason for their rejection (inkar) was reliance (‘amal) on the Sunna in a much as he did not follow a madhab, but relied only on the Book of God and the Sunna.”

His assertion of ijtihad appears in all his scholarly encounters, with the Meccans, with the Egyptian Ahmed al-Sawi (d. 1240/1825), or in the Yemen. What is less clear is whom he considered qualified to exercise ijtihad; certainly not every Muslim. Shaykh Ibn Idrissi points out, “As for the ijtihad of the Companions and the successors (at-tabi’in) following the example of the Messenger (peace and blessing be upon him), it is not a matter within the capacity of everyone.'' His rejection of taqlid seems to have been paralleled by a distaste for its experts. He states, “Beware of those who ascribe to themselves learning (ilm) without acting in accordance with it…and have traded their faith for the world.”

Central to his mysticism was the concept of Tariqa Mohammediya, namely that there was only one "way," that of the Prophet, who alone could act as intermediary between the seeker and God. Sidi Ahmed Akish Damidi reports,

He, the teacher (at-ustadh) said, "The leaders of this tariqa took their way through intermediaries (bi-wasita), but I took my tariqa from the Messenger (peace and blessing be upon him), without any intermediary;   thus my way is the Mohammediya Ahmediya; its beginning and its end is the Mohammedian light."

The dogma of Tariqa Mohammediya was not, of course, new, but it did lay great stress on sanction by Prophetic revelation, a dogma fundamental to Ibn Idriss and his students. As one example, a Sudanese saint, Sidi Mohammed al-Majdhub (d. 1247/1832) was initiated into the Khatmiya by al-Uthman Mirghani during the latter's journeys in the Sudan. Subsequently, he went to Mecca and studied with Ibn Idriss. While in the Medina, the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) appeared to him, ordering him to leave the Khatmiya and return to the tariqa of his ancestors, the Shadhiliya (after the Moroccan Sidi Abul Hassan Shadhili; d. 656/1241). He returned to the Sudan, settling at Sawakin on the Red Sea coast, where he established a zawiya from which he propagated his own order, known as the Mohammediya Shadhiliya Majdhubiya.

Ibn Idriss’ method of teaching seems to have been essentially informal. A circle grew up around him, be it in Fez, Mecca, or Sabya; his relationship with his students varied no doubt in proportion to the latter' age, learning, and status in the mystical way. Thus, his letters to Sidi Mohammed ibn Ali Sanusi seem much more as between equals relatively than those to Sidi Uthman Mirghani, which are written very much from walid to walad (a father to son). Indeed, in one letter to Sidi Mirghani, he urges him to be guided by Sanusi, since the latter was “a true likeness of us" (nuskha shabiha minna). There was no formal hierarchy or distinctive dress, although he did occasionally present the Sufi liver (khirqa) or send one of his gowns "as a blessing and likeness (tahabbub).” His form of teaching was the majlis or open lecture. Sidi Ibrahim ar-Rashid (d. 1290/1874) records that on one occasion he held six majalis in three days; two a day, one after the evening prayers, the other after the morning prayers.

The forty or so surviving letters to and from Sidi Ibn Idriss conform the impression of extraordinary spiritual status; the series of letters to and from Sidi Uthman Mirghani are within the classical tradition of the spiritual master guiding a novice who oscillates between exaltation and self-doubt. To others he writes on more prosaic matters. Thus in two letters to a student in Sudanese Nubia, he rules on the admissibility of amputating an otiose finger, on the use of burnt date stones as a cure for diarrhoea, on whether one should pray ever the bier or one who has neglected virtue (tariq salah), and on the leaning of a writing tablet (law’h), upon which Quranic verses have been written against the wall. The latter point gives a good illustration of his style of argument.

There is no objection to this. Indeed, the tablet upon which is written the Quran has, its origin from the earth. And the earth has its origin from the water. And the earth has its origin from the Light of our Lord Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him). And the origin of everything is pure, and leaning the tablet against the wall is likewise, and the Book likewise."

Ibn Idriss and his disciples

It is difficult to discuss all of Ibn Idriss' disciples and the movements that stemmed from them. His pupils fall roughly into three categories; those who established major brotherhoods; those who propagated his teachings but whose endeavours were only consolidated into orders by the generation that followed them; and those who established local schools and or circles teaching Idrissiya doctrines.

The first group; including Sidi Mohammed ibn Ali Sanusi, Sidi Uthman Mirghani, Sidi Ibrahim al-Rashid (d. 1290/1874), and his own family, the Adarisa. The transmission impulse is well illustrated in the career of al-Mirghani; as a young student of Ibn Idriss in Mecca, al-Mirghani was sent by his master "Balgha" in the bilad Jabarata, probably the Baqla region in Eritrea. He came up against the hostility of the local ruler and prudently returned to Mecca. When he accompanied his master to al-Zayniya in 1813, the latter sent him to preach in al-Manfalut and Asyut, apparently without great success. But it was al-Mirghani who urged his teacher to let him go to the Sudan; at first, Ibn Idriss was reluctant:

As to what you have said about going to the Sudan, it will be very inconvenient; it will be a very long journey. If you can avoid it, do so. As for the holy men of the Sudan, they have been bearing extreme burdens, and they wish to lay them upon the shoulders of others.

After receiving a Prophetic vision, the master relented. But here follows an ambiguity; during his travels in the Sudan al-Mirghani, 25 or 26 years old, appears to have claimed to have been a mujtahid. This may he deduced from an undated fatwa denouncing him written by the Egyptian scholar, Hassan al-Attar (d. 1269/1853), in response to a request from a certain Mohammed ibn Said al-Karaksi of Shendi. Al-Mirghani also began to initiate people into his own order, the Khatmiya (literally, the seal of the orders). The ambiguity is reinforced by the letters exchanged between the two; they suggest a difficult relationship with the master constantly needing to reprove or restrain his student. A factor complicating their relationship may have been that of Ibn Idriss’ closest students, al-Mirghani alone came from a Meccan Sharifian family. The ambiguity of al-Mirghani's relations with his Shaykh contrast with the straightforwardness of Sanusi. The latter, after studying with Sidi Ahmed ibn Idriss in Mecca, spent two years with him in the Yemen, and it was not until after Sidi Ahmed's death that he formally established its tariqa with its first zawiya at Abu Qubays just outside Mecca.

Among those orders that stemmed directly or indirectly from the generation following the Sidi Mohammed Sanusi and Sidi Uthman al-Mirghani were the Ismailiya, the Majdhubiya, and the Rashidiya; from the latter came the Salihiya and Dandarawiya. Sidi Ismail al-Wali never met Shaykh Ibn Idriss, being initiated into the Khatmiya by al-Mirghani when the latter visited al-Ubayyid in Kordofan in 1816. He subsequently broke away on the basis of divine and prophetic injunctions and formed his own order. Like most of the Ibn Idriss-inspired orders, the Ismailiya were keen lecturers: Sidi Ismail and his son, Sidi Mohammed al-Makki (d. 1323/1906), undertook combined slave-raiding/proselytizing expeditions into the Nuba Mountains of southern Kordofan. Like Sidi Ismail al-Wali, Sidi Mohammed al-Majdhub was first initiated by Shaykh al-Mirghani, but later went and took from Ibn Idriss in Mecca. As we have seen, he also broke away from the Khatmiya.

Sidi Ibrahim al-Rashid (d. 1290/1874) joined Ibn Idriss' circle at a later date than al-Mirghani or al-Sanusi. Born into a family living near Karima in the northern Sudan of sharifian descent, Sidi Ibrahim was said to descend from Sidi Ahmed ibn Yusuf al-Rashid (d. 930/1524), founder of the Rashidiya or Yusufiya order in Morocco. After a traditional education, Ibrahim went first to Mecca and then to Sabya in 1248/1832, staying with Ibn Idriss until the latter's death. Most accounts suggest that Ibrahim was closest, both personally and spiritually, of all his students to Ibn Idriss, if not his acknowledged successor. Sidi Ibrahim al-Rashid then moved across the Red Sea to al-Zayniya; after a lengthy and successful propagation journey in the northern Sudan, where he initiated followers into the Tariqa Mohammediya Ahmediya, he returned to Mecca. Here, he again became involved in the continuing dispute over spiritual succession to Ibn Idriss and was twice accused of heresy before the council of ulama (the first occasion was in 1273/1856-57). He rebutted the charges so successfully that he won many followers from among the pilgrims from Syria and India. It was his nephew, Sidi Ibn Mohammed Salih al-Rashidi (d. 1337/1919) who was respon­sible for organising the Rashidiya into an independent order, although for reasons that are unclear, Ibn Mohammed Salih broke away in 1887 to form his own order, the Salihiya. The Salihiya soon spread widely in Somalia; one of those initiated by Ibn Mohammed Salih was the Somali leader, Sidi Mohammed Abdellah (Abdille) Hassan.

The eastern dimension of Ibn Idriss' influence has yet to be fully explored. The Idrissi tradition was taken to Minagkbeau in central Sumatra by Shaykh Padri who had encountered Ibn Idriss in Mecca before his return to Sumatra in 1217/1803.