The Enigmatic Imam: The Influence of Ahmad Ibn Idris

Author(s): Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

Source: International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2 (May, 1987), pp. 205-219
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/163354
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Int. J. Middle East Stud. 19 (1987), 205-220 Printed in the United States of America

Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

THE ENIGMATIC IMAM:

THE INFLUENCE OF AHMAD IBN IDRIS

THE LIFE OF AL-FASI IS AN ENIGMA1

Despite his importance, no substantial study has been devoted to the career of
Abui 'l-Abbas Ahmad b. Idris al-Hasani al-'Ara'ishi al-Fasi (d. 1837); most
accounts of him appear by way of a preface to studies of his pupils.2 And yet
through his teachings, pupils, and family, he was undoubtedly one of the key
religious figures of the early 19th century Arab Muslim world. Indeed, his
influence, direct and indirect, appears to have stretched from North Africa to
Indonesia. Three of his pupils from his immediate circle established major
brotherhoods, the Sanusiyya, Khatmiyya, and Rashidiyya, from which stemmed
several other orders. Of his descendants, one branch established a local dynasty
in southern Arabia that survived until 1933 when it was incorporated into the
Sa'udi state,3 while another branch, somewhat belatedly, established an Idrisiyya
tarTqain Upper Egypt and the northern Sudan. Also significant is the influence
exercised by Ibn Idris through those of his pupils who founded not major orders
but local schools propagating his teachings such as the Egyptian al-hdjj CAli
CAbdal-Haqq al-Qu.s1,or, who under his influence, founded or revitalized local
or family orders, such as the Majdhubiyya and Isma'iliyya in the northern and
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 texts, or corresponded with many scholars, including such figures
as Muhammad Hasan al-Madani (d. 1847) and Muhammad b. 'Al al-Shawkanl
(d. 1834).
Yet Ibn Idris 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 surviv-
ing 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-Sanisi, or the
much younger al-Mlrghanl, he writes as a wise and loving master guiding them
? 1987 Cambridge University Press 0020-7438/87 $5.00 -.00
206 Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

along the mystical path; to his humbler followers, he gives simple and authorita-
tive rulings on a variety of matters that were both great and small.

TOWARD A BIOGRAPHY

Ibn Idris was born into a holy family at Maysur in the district of al-'Ara'ish
(Larache) on Morocco's Atlantic coast; the date of his birth is given as either
Rajab 1173/February-March 1760 or 1163/1749-50, the latter date supported
by Idrisi family tradition.4 He was a descendant through the Imam Idris b. CAbd
Allah al-Mahd of the Sharifian Idrisi dynasty, sometime rulers of Fez (788-974).
After the usual Qur'anic studies, Ahmad went at the age of about 20 to study
at the Qarawiyyin mosque school in Fez. There he studied a wide range of sub-
jects under a number of teachers, who included Muhammad al-TawidTb. Suda
(d. 1216/1801-2), al-Majidri (or al-Mijaydri) al-Shinqiti, Abi 'l-Mawahib 'Abd
al-Wahhab al-Tazi, and Abu '1-Qasimal-Wazir. Other teachers referred to in the
sources include 'Abd al-Karim al-Yazighi (d. 1784) and Muhammad al-Tayyib b.
Kiran (d. 1812).5 Ibn Kiran was later to teach al-Sanusi.6 Among the texts Ibn
IdrTsstudied were the works of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 1499) and the asanTdof
Ibn Suda from the latter's period of study in Egypt.7
It was from among the same teachers that Ibn IdrTstook his Sufi affiliations;
he was initiated into the Khadiriyya by al-TazTand into the Nasiriyya Shadhiliyya
by al-Wazir, while al-Shinqiti taught him the famous prayer attributed to cAlI
b. Abi Talib, al-hizb al-sayfi.8 In other words, Ibn Idris received an education
that combined the formal religious sciences, apparently with an emphasis on
tafsTrand hadTth, with the mysticism of the brotherhoods. He soon began to
form a circle of students around him, to whom he inveighed against the popular
practice of saint worship, exhorting them to go back to the sources (usul) of
belief, the Qur'an and Sunna. This was to be the consistent theme of his
teaching throughout his life.9
Ibn Idris seems to have become a figure of controversy, becoming involved in
disputes with the ulama at the Qarawiyyin.10This may be the reason why, in the
middle of 1212/1797-98, Ahmad set out with an entourage from Fez on the
pilgrimage; he was never to return to Morocco. Traveling via Algiers, Tunis,
and Tripoli, he stopped at Benghazi, where he taught people from Jabal
al-Akhdar and Barqa. He then took a boat from Benghazi directly to Alexandria,
arriving apparently in early 1798, some few months before Bonaparte's inva-
sion.1 From Alexandria he traveled up to Cairo where he gave a series of public
lectures at al-Azhar which large 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 1214/1799-1800.12
Ahmad 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 b. Musa'ad, amir of Mecca between 1788 and 1814. It was the latter who
granted Ahmad the palace (saray) of al-Ja'fariyya in Mecca for the use of
himself and his followers."3
 The Enigmatic Imam 207

Ghalib was himself driven out of Mecca by the Wahhabis under SaCi'd b.
CAbdal-'Aziz in 1803, but the latter is said to have treated Ibn Idris with the
greatest respect, giving him a silk robe and protecting his followers.14 Interest-
ingly, Ahmad only left Mecca in 1813, the year that the Wahhabis were expelled
from the holy city by the forces of Muhammad CAll Pasha. Together with
al-Mlrghanl, he crossed the Red Sea to al-Zayniyya, a village near Luxor
(al-Uqsur) approximately half way between Qina and Isna. Al-Zayniyya was
apparently a religious center of some importance as well as being at the end of a
short desert crossing from the Nile to the Red Sea coast.'5 Ibn Idris may have
visited al-Zayniyya before; one source suggests that during his first stay in Egypt
he visited Upper Egypt where he was initiated into the Khalwatiyya by one
Hasan b. Hasan Bey al-Qina'l, a student of Mahmud al-Kurdi (d. 1780).16It was
during this apparent second visit, between 1813 and 1817, that al-Mlrghani was
permitted by Ibn Idris to undertake a missionary journey through the northern
and western Sudan, a journey that was to lay the foundations of the Khatmiyya
tariqa.17
Ahmad returned to Mecca in 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 Muhammad
'All. Ten years later, in 1243/1827-28, matters finally came to a head. Muham-
mad 'All transferred the position of amir from the Zayd to the 'Awn clan, while
the Meccan ulama seemed to have used the demarche to bring charges of heresy
against Ahmad.18 In the same year, Ahmad was forced to leave; he set out for
the Yemen with all his pupils except for al-Sanuis who stayed behind to act as
his master's agent in Mecca.
Ibn Idris' reputation was already known in the Yemen and the contrast
between his reception by the networks of scholarly clans there and the hostility
of the Meccans is striking.19Indeed, one recent study describes Ibn Idris' coming
as contributing to a Sufi revival in the Yemen.20But among the Yemeni scholars
were "ulama who had attained the highest rank of ijtihad";21in other words,
whose doctrinal position was very close to that of Ibn Idris. He went first to
Mukha in the far south where he stayed for four months, before moving to
Zabid where he was the guest for nearly a year of the town's Mufti, CAbd
al-Rahman b. Sulayman al-Ahdal (d. 1835).22From Zabid he traveled north via
Bayt al-Faqlh and al-Hudayda to al-Qutayc 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 "way" or gave ijazas for a
wide range of texts, mainly the canonical collections of hadith and Ibn Hajar.23
His position was undoubtedly enhanced by a warm recommendation from the
great Yemeni scholar, Muhammad al-Shawkanl, whom he did not actually meet
but with whom he corresponded.24Among those he taught was, for example, the
qadi of Bayt al-Faqih, 'Abd al-Rahman b. Ahmad al-Bahkall (d. 1836).25To the
young al-Hasan b. Ahmad 'Akish al-Damid! (d. 1872-73) he taught the Risala of
Abu 'l-Qasim al-Qushayri and Ibn 'Ata' Allah's al-Hikam; to Abu Bakr b. cAbd
Allah al-'Attas (d. 1866) his prayer, al-Salah al-'azimiyya.26But these were by no
means the only scholars he met; both Yemeni and Idrisi sources give many more
names.27
208 Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

There were, however, to be in the Yemen echoes of his disputes in Fez and
Mecca. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad Abl Tali'a al-Tihami (d. 1843-44), hearing
that Ibn Idris had rejected the exoteric (zdhir) interpretation of certain Qur'anic
verses, "since it did not conform to Sufi principles (qawd'id al-suCfiyya),"wrote a
refutation called Talbis Iblis, "The Devil's Deceit," the title recalling Ibn
al-Jawzi's scathing attack on Sufism in his time. To this, another Yemeni
scholar, Ibrahim b. Yahya al-Damidi, responded with a counter-blast. Harmony
prevailed in the end; al-Hasan 'Akish records,
(al-Tihami)cameinto contactwith our Shaykhthroughsome of his studentsand received
a pardon.The pardonwas both requestedand expectedby al-Tihami,sincehe was one of
the eminent,and slanderupon the reputationof the ulamais a lethalpoison.28
The doctrinal difference seems to have disappeared in the face of Ibn Idris'
spiritual status.
After nearly two years of travel, Ibn Idris came, in Sha'ban 1244/October-
November 1828, to the town of Sabya in the district of 'Asir. Asir's ruler, 'All
b. Mujaththil (d. 1834) welcomed him and gave him a grant upon which to live.
Now an old man, Ibn Idris seems to have decided to settle in Sabya. Once more,
as before in Fez and Mecca, his teaching began to provoke opposition, this time
from a group of Wahhabi-inspired ulama led by one Nasir al-Kubaybi. Matters
came to a head just over a year later, when in Jumada II 1245/November-
December 1829, Ibn Mujaththil ordered a public debate (mundzara) to be held
between al-Kubaybi and Ibn Idris, a debate recorded verbatim by al-Hasan
cAkish.29The debate is too long to be analyzed here, but characteristic is Ibn
Idris' criticism of Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab,
We do not deny his merit. His intentionwas righteousin what he did. He eliminated
innovationsand unfortunatepractices,but that missionwas sulliedby excess. He declared
those Muslimswho had a beliefin anythingotherthan God Most High to be unbelievers,
and moreover allowed them to be killed and their property to be seized without
justification.30
Ibn Idris died in Sabya on 21 Rajab 1253/21 October 1837.31Of his descen-
dants, one branch later emerged as the Idrisi dynasty of 'Asir, while another
branch, founded by his sons Muhammad and CAbd al-'Al (sic, for al-'Ali),
propagated what became the Idrisiyya tariqa in Upper Egypt, based on al-
Zayniyya, and around Dongola and Omdurman in the northern Sudan, where
they settled and still live.

IBN IDRIS' TEACHINGS: A PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION32

Ibn Idris' teachings fall within the parameters of two fundamental doctrinal
positions; as regardsfiqh, a rejection of taqlTdand the madhhabs, and a return
to the Quran, Sunna, and ijma' of the Companions; as regards Sufism, an
emphasis on the Prophet as the way to God. The two positions were, of course,
two sides of the same coin, a purer Islam emphasizing the believer's own
personal way to salvation and "intellectual honesty."33
 The Enigmatic Imam 209

In his rejection of taqlid, Ibn IdrTswas doctrinally very close to the Wahhabis
and al-ShawknL.34 He expounded his own distinctively mystical interpretation
of the Qur7an and hadith. This, naturally, brought him into conflict with the
Meccan ulama,
He was rejectedby the people of Meccaand the reasonfor theirrejection(inkdr)was his
reliance('amal) on the Sunna,inasmuchas he did not follow a madhhab,but reliedonly
on the Book of God and the Sunna.35
His assertion of ijtihad appears in all his scholarly encounters, with the Meccans,
with the Egyptian Ahmad al-SawT(d. 1825), or in the Yemen.36What is less clear
is whom he considered qualified to exercise ijtihad; certainly not every Muslim,
As for the ijtihad of the Companions and the successors (al-tabiTin)following the
exampleof the Messenger,it is not a matterwithinthe capacityof everyone.3
His rejection of taqlid seems to have been paralleled by a distaste for its
practitioners,
Bewareof those who ascribeto themselveslearning(ilm) without acting in accordance
with it. For they have madelearninga secularbusiness... and havetradedtheirfaith for
the world.38
Central to his mysticism was the concept of al-tariqa al-Muhammadiyya,
namely that there was only one "way," that of the Prophet, who alone could act
as intermediary between the seeker and God,
He, the teacher (al-ustadh) said, "The leaders of this tariqa took their way through
intermediaries(bi-wasa'it),but I took my tariqafrom the Messengerof God, May God
bless and granthim peace,withoutany intermediary; thus my way is the Muhammadiyya
Ahmadiyya;its beginningand end is fromthe Muhammadanlight.39
The idea of al-tariqa al-Muhammadiyya was not, of course, new, but it did lay
great stress on sanction by Prophetic revelation, an idea fundamental to Ibn
Idris and his students. As one example, a Sudanese holy man, Muhammad
al-Majdhub (d. 1832), was initiated into the Khatmiyya by al-MirghanTduring
the latter's journeys in the Sudan. Subsequently, he went to Mecca and studied
with Ibn Idr?s. While in Medina, the Prophet appeared to him, ordering him to
leave the Khatmiyya and return to the tariqa of his ancestors, the Shadhiliyya.
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
al-Muhammadiyya al-Shadhiliyya al-Majdhibiyya.40
Schimmel links the notion of al-tariqa al-Muhammadiyya to that of the
Muslim community being under threat,
It is Muhammadwho makesIslama distinctreligion,and it is typicalthat, in a time when
Islam was defeated everywherein the political field, and when the Western powers
encroachedpracticallyand spirituallyupon the Muslimworld,those mysticswho founded
new ordersand fraternitiescalledthemtariqaMuhammadiyya.41
However true this may be of such figures as Ahmad Brelwi (d. 1831) in India, in
the case of Ibn Idris, his students, and associates the reality was probably more
210 Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

complex. An emphasis on European encroachment risks undervaluing the

internal dynamic within the Muslim world. Although a number of his direct and
indirect students did lead movements in resistance to European aggression such
as al-Sanisi's successors, Muhammad 'Abd Allah Hasan of Somalia and pos-
sibly the Padri movement in Sumatra, this phase came after their initial mission-
ary or reformist enterprise. Although he had witnessed Bonaparte's occupation
of Egypt, there is nothing in his writings to suggest any direct preoccupation
with the threat of the infidel.
That he was animated by a conscious proselytizing spirit is better attested.
Already, some time before 1813, Ahmad sent a very young al-Mlrghani on a
missionary journey to Eritrea (see below). His students kept up the tradition;
al-Sanusi bought slaves, educated them, and sent them back as missionaries to
their homeland, Wadai (modern Chad).42 A Sudanese student, CAbdAllah al-
Mawarzi, undertook missionary work among the non-Muslim Nuba of southern
Kordofan.43The nomad connection may have been part of the missionary spirit.
Al-Saniisi's relationship with the nomads of Libya and the central Sahara is well
known through the work of Evans-Pritchard, as is that of Muhammad CAbd
Allah Hasan, a member of the Salihiyya tariqa, of Somalia.44 Further examples
are the links established between the Majdhubiyya and the Beja nomads of the
eastern Sudan and those between the Khatmiyya and the Bani 'Amir and
Shukriyya of the same area.45 Ibn IdrTshimself established close ties with the
nomads around Mecca and later around his final home at Sabya.46
Ibn Idris' 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 latters' age, learning, and status in
the mystical way. Thus, his letters to al-Sanusi seem much more as between
equals-relatively-than those to al-Mlrghani, which are written very much
from walid to walad. Indeed, in one letter to al-Mlrghanl, he urges him to be
guided by al-Sanuis, since the latter was "a true likeness of us," nuskha sahiha
minna.47 There was no formal hierarchy or distinctive dress, although he did
occasionally present the Sufi livery (khirqa) or send one of his gowns "as a
blessing and likeness (tashabbuh)."48 His form of teaching was the majlis or
open lecture,
Ibrahimal-Rashidrecordsthat on one occasion he held six majalisin threedays;two a
day, one afterthe eveningprayers,the otherafterthe morningprayers.49
The forty or so surviving letters to and from Ibn Idris confirm the impression
of extraordinary spiritual status; the series of letters to and from al-Mlrghani are
within the classic tradition of the spiritual master guiding a novice who oscillates
between exaltation and self-doubt.50To 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
diarrhea, on whether one should pray over the bier of one who has neglected
prayer (tarik al-salah), and on the leaning of a writing tablet (lawh) upon which
Qur'anic verses have been written against the wall. The latter point gives a good
illustration of his style of argument,
 The Enigmatic Imam 211

Thereis no objectionto this. Indeed,the tablet upon whichis writtenthe Qur'an has its
originfrom the earth.And the earthhas its originfrom the water.And the waterhas its
origin from the Light of our lord Muhammad,may the blessingsand peace of God be
upon him. And the originof everythingis pure,and leaningthe tablet againstthe wall is
likewise,and the Book likewise.51

IBN IDRIS AND HIS PUPILS

It is impossible within the compass of this article to discuss all of Ibn Idris'
pupils and the movements that stemmed from them. We shall confine ourselves
to those who regarded themselves as his pupils, or pupils of his pupils, rather
than those he met or whose ideas he shared, such as al-Shawkani or al-MadanL.52
One point that perhaps needs to be stressed is that there is no evidence that Ibn
Idris ever himself established a tariqa in any formal sense.
His pupils fall roughly into three categories; those who established major
brotherhoods; those who propagated his teachings but whose endeavors were
only consolidated into orders by the generation that followed them; and those
who established local schools or circles teaching Idrisiyya doctrines.
The first group, including al-Sanfisi, al-Mirghani, and his own family, the
Adarisa, are well known and have been much studied, although Ibn Idris' role
in their careers has tended to be undervalued.53The missionary impulse is well
illustrated in the career of al-Mirghani; as a young student of Ibn Idris in Mecca,
al-Mirghani was sent by his master to "Balgha" in the bilad al-Jabarta, probably
the Baqla region in Eritrea. He came up against the hostility of the local ruler
and prudently returned to Mecca.54 When he accompanied his master to al-
Zayniyya in 1813, the latter sent him to preach in al-Manfalut and Asyut,
apparently without great success. But it was al-MirghanTwho urged his teacher
to let him go to the Sudan; at first, Ibn IdrTswas reluctant,
As to what you have said aboutgoing to the Sudan,it will be veryinconvenient;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 bearingexcessive burdens,and they wish to lay them upon the shouldersof
others.55
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 be deduced from an
undated fatwa denouncing him written by the Egyptian scholar, Hasan al-'Attar
(d. 1853), in response to a request from a certain Muhammad b. Abi Sa'id
al-Karaksi of Shendi.56 Al-MTrghanialso began to initiate people into his own
order, the Khatmiyya, "the seal of the orders," khatim al-turuq, although a
Sudanese source, the Funj Chronicle, makes it clear that he was received as a
pupil of Ibn Idrls.57The 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, but since virtually none are dated and their
language obscure, and they are difficult to interpret, they have yet to be edited or
translated. A factor complicating their relationship may have been that of Ibn
Idris' closest students, al-Mirghani alone came from a Meccan Sharifian family.
212 Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

The ambiguity of al-Mirghanl's relations with his sheikh contrast with the
straightforwardness of al-Sanusi. The latter, after studying with Ahmad in
Mecca, spent two years with him in the Yemen, and it was not until after
Ahmad's death that he formally established his tariqa with its first zawiya at Abi
Qubays just outside Mecca.58
Among those orders that stemmed directly or indirectly from the generation
following al-Sanusi and al-Mlrghanl were the Isma'iliyya, Majdhubiyya (known
as mujaddada, "renewed," since it had existed before), and Rashldiyya; from the
latter came the Salihiyya and Dandarawiyya. Isma'1l al-Wall never met Ibn
Idris, being initiated into the Khatmiyya by al-Mlrghanl 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
Idris-inspired orders, the Isma'lliyya were keen missionaries; Isma'il and his son,
Muhammad al-Makki (d. 1906), undertook combined slave-raiding/proselytizing
expeditions into the Nuba Mountains of southern Kordofan.59 Like Isma'il
al-WalT, Muhammad al-Majdhub was first initiated by al-Mirghan?, but later
went and studied with Ibn IdrTsin Mecca. As we have seen, he also broke away
from the Khatmiyya.
Ibrahim al-Rashid (d. 1874) joined Ibn IdrTs'circle at a later date than al-
MirghanTor al-Sanius.60 Born into a family living near Karima in the northern
Sudan that claimed 'Alid descent, IbrahTmwas said to descend from Ahmad b.
Yusuf al-Rashidi (d. 1524-25), founder of the Rashidiyya or Yusufiyya order in
Morocco. After a traditional education, Ibrahim went first to Mecca and then to
Sabya in 1248/1832-33, staying with Ibn IdrTsuntil the latter's death. Most
accounts suggest that Ibrahim was closest, both personally and spiritually, of all
his students to Ibn Idris, if not his acknowledged successor.61 Ibrahim then
moved across the Red Sea to al-Zayniyya; after a lengthy and successful mis-
sionary journey in the northern Sudan, where he initiated followers into the
tariqa Muhammadiyya Ahmadiyya, he returned to Mecca.62 Here, he again
became involved in the continuing dispute over the spiritual succession to Ibn
Idris 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.63It was his
nephew, al-Shaykh b. Muhammad Salih al-Rashidi (d. 1919) who was respon-
sible for organizing the Rashidiyya into an independent order, although for
reasons that are unclear, al-Shaykh broke away in 1887 to form his own order,
the Salihiyya. The Salihiyya soon spread widely in Somalia; one of those
initiated by al-Shaykh was the Somali leader, Muhammad 'Abd Allah (Abdille)
64
Hasan.4
The eastern dimension of Ibn Idr1s'influence has yet to be fully explored. It is
Rinn who links the Padri or kaum puteh movement in Minangkabau in central
Sumatra to three pilgrims who had encountered Ibn IdrTsin Mecca before their
return to Sumatra in 1803.65This has yet to be confirmed by any Indonesian
source, but accounts of their teaching sound very close to that of Ibn Idris.66
Coincidental, but suggestive, is the fact that the Padri movement was to be
drawn into a struggle against European encroachment, this time against the
Dutch.
 The Enigmatic Imam 213

A final category of Ibn Idris' students are those who founded not orders, but
local schools propagating his teachings. There are several examples; one from
Egypt is 'All CAbdal-Haqq al-Qusl (d. 1877) who studied with Ibn Idris and then
spent five years with al-SanisT in Cyrenaica before returning to settle at Asyut.
He established a local school and, like his teachers, affirmed that "The gate of
ijtihad is always open," and wrote two works on the subject.67Our first Sudanese
example is al-hdjj Muhammad Balol al-Sunni, a Bidayri from Kirtl in the
northern Sudan, who stayed with Ibn Idris for seven years. It was his master
who bestowed upon him the laqab, al-Sunni. On his return to the Sudan, he
undertook a series of missionary journeys before settling at Qarri, just north of
Khartoum. His school still (1982) flourishes under his grandson, al-Sadiq al-
SunnY,and still teaches the doctrines of Ibn Idris.68Another Sudanese example
was also a BidayrT,but a student of al-Rashld; 'Abdullahi (sic) al-Dufari studied
with al-Rash-d in the Hijaz before returning to the Sudan. After a period of
traveling, he finally settled at al-Kawa on the White Nile. It was al-Dufanr who
provided a link between Ibn Idris and the Sudanese Mahdiyya, since one of
those to whom he taught the awrad and ahzab of Ibn Idris was Muhammad
Ahmad, the future Mahdi. The only two mortal figures, apart from the Prophet,
that the Mahdi refers to by name in his formal proclamation on his Mahdi-ship
are Ibn al-'Arab?and Ibn Idrls; from the latter,
SheikhAhmadb. Idrissaid, "Fourteengenerationsof the peopleof God (ahl Alldh) have
deniedthe comingof the Mahdi."He then said, "He(the Mahdi)will appearfrom a place
unknownto themand in a conditionthat they will deny."69

CONCLUSION

Trimingham attempts a number of generalizations concerning the main char-

acteristics of the reform movements led by the two Ahmads, al-Tijanl and Ibn
Idrls.70Some of Trimingham's points need modification or should be discarded
in the light of new evidence. Ibn Idrls was not responding to a Wahhabi
challenge, since his fundamental ideas were already formed before he left
Morocco. There is no evidence either in his writings or those of his close students
or contemporaries that Ibn Idrls was consciously Pan-Islamist or ever expressed
concern about the European threat.7' Those IdrisT-inspiredmovements that did
become involved in resisting the Europeans did so because the latter forced their
attentions upon them, not vice versa.
Trimingham's assertion that tariqa Muhammadiyya meant that "The purpose
of dhikr was union with the spirit of the Prophet, rather than union with God,"
needs qualification, "since the Prophet is a manifestation of the divine essence."72
On another level, the tariqa Muhammadiyya seems to have served two purposes,
as being the Sufi counterpart to a return to usul al-dTn, and through the
Prophetic vision or injunction, a sanction for the creation of hierarchic and
relatively centralized tariqas animated not only by a spiritual but also a quasi-
political loyalty to the founder and his order.73Although it was true that these
orders, "maintained established liturgical and ethical Sufism," it is untrue that
they eschewed mysticism, did not guide the neophytes, or rejected esoteric
teaching.74It was a question of one's place in the hierarchy.
214 Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

The latter point leads to a consideration of the social and economic implica-
tions of Ibn Idris' teachings and the activities of his students. The Sanusiyya,
Khatmiyya, and the others brought to the areas in which they proselytized new
institutions-zdwiyyas, madrasas, and khalwas-new levels of learning and a
new type of mass organization. Can these innovations be linked to forces of
socioeconomic change in the societies that received them? To take two geo-
graphically widely separated areas, in both Minangkabau and the Funj Sultanate
of Sinnar, the early 19th century, for a complex of reasons, saw the emergence of
a new quasi-urban Muslim trading class within an essentially non-Muslim polit-
ical order.75 It was to these groups that the Padri and Khatmiyya had their
greatest appeal. But this type of argument should not be taken too far; else-
where, it was mainly nomads and agriculturalists who joined the Sanisiyya,
Salihiyya, or Majdhubiyya. We still know far too little of the history of the
regions involved to essay a profile of those who were attracted to these orders.
Was there, in fact, a Sufi revival in the early 19th century and if so, what
distinguished it from the 18th? And what was Ibn Idris' role within it? The
present article does not pretend to have answered these questions. Although the
dimensions of the influence of Ibn Idris are beginning to emerge more clearly, he
himself, like a true imam, remains an enigma.

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY NATIONAL RECORDS OFFICE

UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN, NORWAY KHARTOUM, THE SUDAN

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The present article is the first preliminary result of the research on Ibn Idr?s,
his teachings and students being undertaken by a working group at the Faculty
of Arts, University of Bergen. The present authors wish to thank our colleagues
in the group, Professor Joseph N. Bell, Dr. Einar Thomassen, and Mr. Knut
Vikor. In their turn, Bell, O'Fahey, Thomassen, and Vikor wish to thank Ali
Salih Karrarfor introducing them to Ibn Idris.
We are grateful to Professors P. M. Holt, F. De Jong, B. G. Martin, and J. 0.
Voll for additional information and comments on an earlier draft. We refer the
reader to B. G. Martin, "A Short Note on Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Fasi," Islam et
societe en Afrique subsaharien (forthcoming), for a fuller account than we have
given here of Ibn Idris' teachings.

NOTES

'B. G. Martin, Muslim Brotherhoods in 19th-Century Africa (Cambridge, 1976), p. 217, n. 22.
2For example, J. S. Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford, 1971), pp. 117-21. Although
most Western writers call him "al-FasT,"he always referred to himself simply as Ahmad b. Idris,
while some of his students and associates such as al-SanusTand al-Ahdal called him, "Abu 'l-'Abbas
al-cAra'ishL."
3For a recent study, see Johannes Reissner, "Die Idrisiden in 'Asir. Ein historischer Oberblick,"
Die Welt des Islams, 21 (1981), 164-92.
 The Enigmatic Imam 215

4Both dates are given in Salih Muhammad al-JaCfari al-Husayni, ACtdrazhar aghsan hazirat
al-taqdTsff kardmat al-'alim . . al-sayyid Ahmad b. IdrTs(Cairo, 1394/1974), pp. 55 and 34. The
date, 1163, is preferred by the descendants of Ibn Idris in Omdurman (The Sudan); interview,
Sheikh Idris Muhammad 'Abd al-'Al/Karrar, May 1977.
50n his teachers, see L. Rinn, Marabouts et khouan (Algiers, 1884), pp. 402-3; an anonymous
glossator on the margins of MajmCuasharffa (Awrdd wa-ahzab wa-qasa'id) (Cairo, n.d.), p. 125;
Salih al-Madani, ed., al-Muntaqd al-nafis ... al-sayyid Ahmad b. IdrTs(Cairo, 1380/1960), pp. 2-3,
and J. O. Voll, "Two Biographies of Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi (1760-1837)," International Journal of
African Historical Studies, 6 (1973), p. 644.
6Muhammad b. CAlIal-Sanusi, Iqaz al-wasnan bi 'l-hadTthwa 'l-Quradn(Beirut, 1968), introduc-
tion, p. 8, and N. A. Ziadeh, SanusTyah:A Study of a Revivalist Movement in Islam (Leiden, 1958),
p. 36. On Ibn KTran,see CUmar Kahhala, Mu'jam al-Mu'allifTn, 15 vols. (Beirut, 1957), vol. 10,
p. 109.
7Al-Madani, ed., al-Muntaqa al-nafTs, p. 3.
8Ibid., 11; al-Ja'fari, ed., Adtr, pp. 9-10, and Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 641 (n. 33) and 644. On
the Khadiriyya, see Trimingham, Sufi Orders, pp. 114 and 277.
9Further research is obviously needed on the milieu at the Qarawiyyln that produced such figures
as al-Sanius, Ahmad al-Tijani, and Ibn Idrfs. Certainly, in the case of the latter, the sources give the
impression that his ideas were formed before he left Morocco.
'0Ibn Idris alludes to this in al-Hasan b. Ahmad CAkish, Mundzara sayyidT Ahmad ibn IdrTs,
radiya Allah canhu, wa-fuqaha' al-Najdiyya, Cairo, n.d., p. 22 (on this work, see below, n. 29).
"Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 645 says that he arrived in Egypt in 1213/1798-99. One of Ibn Idris'
karama or miracles was to bring about the French invasion of Egypt because the Alexandria customs
damaged his books; see al-JaCfari, ed., Atadr, p. 37. The story may not be too apocryphal in that
Ahmad while traveling along the North African coast could well have heard rumors of the impending
French invasion force assembling at Toulon.
'2Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 636 and n. 18.
3Interview, Sheikh Idris Muhammad CAbdal-'Al/Karrar, May 1977, Omdurman. On the wider
background, see M. Abir, "The 'Arab Rebellion' of Amir Ghalib of Mecca (1788-1813)," Middle
Eastern Studies, 3 (1971), 185-200.
14Al-Jacfari, ed., Actdr, pp. 39-40. Ibn Idris says that in Mecca he became acquainted with three of
the sons of Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab, cAbd Allah, Husayn, and Sulayman, as well as with
Sacid b. 'Abd al-CAziz;cAkish, Mandzara, p. 11.
'5See cAll Pasha Mubarak, al-Khitat al-jadTda(Bulaq, 1304-6/1886-88), vol. 11, p. 9.
16Muhammad KhalTl al-Hijrisi, al-Jawhar al-nafrs cala salawat Ibn IdrTs(Bulaq, 1310/1892-93),
p. 6.
'7Ibn Idris' ties with Upper Egypt need further investigation. G. Baer, Fellah and Townsmen in the
Middle East (London, 1982), p. 293 reports an uprising in the Isna area in 1824 led by, "A Maghribl
called Ahmad b. Dris (Idris), who had become involved with the customs at Qusayr [compare with
the Alexandria story] on his way back to Mecca [and who] declared that he had been sent by God
('se disait inspirait,' according to Clot Bey)." According to Mubarak, al-Khitat, vol. 14, p. 76 (not
cited by Baer), the insurgent, whom he calls simply "al-shaykh Ahmad," after being defeated by
Ahmad Pasha b. Tahir Pasha, fled back to the Hijaz, after which no more was heard of him. IdrisT
sources repeat that Ibn Idris visited Upper Egypt more than once: "twice or three times," al-Ja'fari,
ed., Atar, p. 37. Is this insurgent Ibn Idris our Ibn Idris? If they are the same person, there is a
politically activist dimension to Ibn Idris that has yet to be discovered.
"8Muhammad cUthman al-Mlrghanl, Mandqib ... al-sayyid Ahmad ibn IdrTs (Wad Madani,
1391/1971), pp. 31-32.
19CAlb. Muhammad b. 'All, an alim from al-Mikhlaf al-Sulaymanl just north of 'Asir, met Ibn
Idris in Mecca in 1236/1820-21; 'Akish, Munazara, p. 7. Al-Ahdal (see below, 22) is said not only to
have met Ibn Idris in Mecca but also to have invited him to the Yemen; see Amln al-Rlhanl, Muluk
al-cArab (Beirut, 1925), vol. 1, p. 260.
216 Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

20'Abd Allah Muhammad al-Hibshi, al-Sufiyya wa 'l-fuqahd'ff 'l-Yaman (San'a', 1396/1976),

pp. 38-39, citing two works in manuscript, al-Ahdal (see below, n. 22), al-Nafas al- YamdnTwa 'l-ruh
al-r.hdnrft ijazdt al-quddt BanTal-Shawkani, and Lutf Allah Jahhaf, Kitdb durar nuhuiral-huiral-CTn.
2'cAkish, Mundzara, p. 8.
22Onal-Ahdal, see Encyclopaedia of Islam (new edition, Leiden, 1960-), vol. 1, pp. 255-56, and
Kahhala, Mu'jam, vol. 5, p. 140. For a biography of Ibn Idris allegedly written by al-Ahdal, see Voll,
"Two Biographies," pp. 640-45.
23Alist is given in Siddiq Hasan Khan, al-Tdj al-mukallal minjawdhir ma'thir al-tirdz al-dkhir wa
'l-awwal, CAbdal-Hakim Sharaf al-Din, ed., 2nd ed. (Bombay, 1383/1963), p. 436.
2A letter from al-Shawkani to al-Ahdal praising Ibn Idris is cited in 'Akish, Mundzara, p. 8. Ibn
Idris is not mentioned in a recent study of al-Shawkam, Husayn b. Abdullah al-Amri, The Yemen in
the 18th & 19th Centuries (London, 1985).
25Onal-BahkalT,see Kahhala, Mu'jam, vol. 5, p. 117.
26Muhammad Zubara al-Sanac', Nayl al-watar min tardjim rijdl al-Yaman fi 'I-qarn al-thdlith
'ashar (Cairo, 1348/1929-30), vol. 1, pp. 314-18 (cAkish), and p. 46 ('Attas). On 'Akish, see
Kahhala, Mu'jam, vol. 3, pp. 201-2.
27See, for example, Zubara, Nayl al-watar, vol. 1, pp. 308-9 (al-HashimT) and pp. 385-86
(al-Mufti); see also, al-Madani, ed., al-Muntaqd al-nafis, pp. 16-17 and passim.
28Zubara,Nayl al-watar, vol. 1, p. 192.
29Thisis Akish's Mundzara (see above, n. 10). 'Akish says he wrote it at the request of one of the
sons of al-Ahdal, Muhammad b. CAbdal-Rahman, and that he read a first draft to Ibn Idris. The
work is not listed in the standard accounts of 'Akish's writings and no manuscript has yet been
located. The printed text is not entirely satisfactory; pp. 2-23 comprise the actual debate, followed by
four pages of commentary in the form of answers by Ibn Idris to some of the issues that arose in the
debate. This breaks off in mid-sentence. Bell and O'Fahey are preparing a translation.
3Ibid., pp. 10-11.
31Al-MadanT, ed., al-Muntaqd al-nafis, p. 17, and al-Ja'fari, A'tdr, p. 41.
32Thefollowing pages should be read in conjunction with Martin, "Short Note," unpublished ms.
The principal source for Ibn Idris' teachings is al-'lqd al-nafTsft nazm jawdhir al-tadrTssayyid
Ahmad ibn IdrTs(many printings;the most recent being Cairo, Mustafa al-Bab?al-Halabl, 1399/1979).
It was compiled by an Indian scholar, Ismac'l al-Nawwab, from Ibn Idris' lectures as recounted by
one of the latter's Sudanese students, 'Abd Allah al-Mawarzi (interview, Shaykh Idfrs Muhammad
'Abd al-'Al, Omdurman, May 1977). Al-Ciqdal-nafis also contains some of Ibn Idris' other writings
such as his Ruh al-sunna and Risalat al-qawd'id. But a complete study of Ibn Idris' teachings cannot
be undertaken until all of his writings have been located.
33Martin,"Short Note."
34For a concise statement of the Wahhabi position, see 'Abd al-Rahim CAbdal-Rahman CAbd
al-Rahim, Min ta'rTkhshibh al-jazfra al-'Arabiyya f 'l-asr al-hadTth,2nd ed. (Cairo, 1979), vol. 1,
pp. 41-42. On al-Shawkani, see al-Amri, The Yemen, pp. 140-71.
35Al-Mirghan?,Mandqib, p. 31; see also, Zubara, Nayl al-watar, vol. 1, p. 223.
36On al-Sawi, see Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 637, and G. Delanoue, Moralistes et politiques
musulmans dans l'Egypte du XIXe siecle (Cairo, 1982), pp. 210-11. For some of the taqlid versus
ijtihad arguments of this period, see R. Peters, "Idjtihdd and taqlTdin 18th and 19th Century Islam,"
Die Welt des Islams, 20 (1980), 131-45.
37Al-Iqd al-nafJs, p. 20; see also, Martin, "Short Note."
38Froman undated letter to a Sudanese student, MakkTb. 'Abd al-'Aziz, in al-Madani, ed., Atdr,
pp. 52-54.
39Al-Hasan 'Akish, Uqud al-durar fT tardjim rijdl al-qarn al-thdlith 'ashar, apud al-Ja'fari, ed.,
al-Muntaqd al-nafis, p. 26. By "this tariqa," Ibn Idris apparently means the Shadhiliyya; Ahmadiyya
refers to the Prophet, not Ibn Idris.
40Makhtutakdtib al-shana, al-Shatir Busayll 'Abd al-Jalil, ed. (Cairo, 1963), p. 111.
4'Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, 1975), p. 227; see also,
pp. 373-74 and 403-4. The tariqa Muhammadiyya concept obviously requires further research. Peter
Gran's promised (1979) article on the subject has not appeared, as far as we know, nor are his
 The Enigmatic Imam 217

comments in his Islamic Roots of Capitalism: Egypt, 1760-1840 (Austin, 1979), pp. 134-35, very
helpful since he gives no references (as far as we are aware, neither Ibn Idrns nor his pupils ever
evinced "strong feelings about coined money," which Gran asserts was one of the hallmarks of the
tariqa Muhammadiyya movement). But, as Gran notes, a seminal work on the subject is Muhammad
al-Birkawi (d. 1573), al-TarTqaal-Muhammadiyya (see C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen
Literatur [Leiden, 1937-49], vol. 2, p. 585, and Supplement, vol. 2, p. 655). Among the several
commentaries of al-Birkawi's work is one by 'Abd al-GhanT al-NabulsT (d. 1731). There exists a
precis of both al-Nabulsi's commentary and the original text by Ahmad b. Nasir al-Salawi, Kitib
minah al-samadiyyaft ikhtisdr al-hadTqaal-nadiyya (ms., Cairo, Dar al-Kutub, tasawwuf, 171).
The significance of this is that al-Salawi was born in 1206/1791-92 in Sale in Morocco and studied
in Fez. He made the pilgrimage and settled in Egypt, ending his life as grand qadi of the Turco-
Egyptian Sudan. He made many friends among the Sudanese religious class and wrote several works,
including a commentary on the celebrated Mawlid of Ahmad al-Dardayr (see Brockelmann, supple-
ment, vol. 2, p. 480). In other words, he was yet another North African, along with al-Tijanii, Ibn
Idris, and al-Sanius, who had studied in Fez around the turn of the 18th/ 19th centuries and who was
preoccupied with the tariqa Muhammadiyya idea; on al-Salawi, see Karrar and O'Fahey, "Al-Salawi
and the Sudan," Sudan Notes and Records (forthcoming).
42H. Duveyrier, La confrerie musulmane de Sfdi Mohammed ben -Ali es-Senousi (Paris, 1884),
pp. 18-19.
43CAliSalih Karrar, Athar al-ta'alHm al-IdrTsiyyafi 'l-turuq al-sufivya ft 'l-Stddn, unpublished
M.A. thesis, University of Khartoum, 1977, p. 69.
44E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (Oxford, 1949); on Muhammad CAbd Allah
Hasan, see Martin, Muslim Brotherhoods, pp. 177-201.
45P. M. Holt, The Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1881-1898, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1970), pp. 82-83.
46A.le Chatelier, Les confreries musulmanes du Hedjaz (Paris, 1887), p. 15.
47Al-Jacfarn,ed., A'tar, p. 83.
48Ibid.,63; see also, Zubara, Nayl al-watar, vol. 1, pp. 314-18.
49AI-Madani,ed., al-Muntaqd al-nafts, p. 35; see also, Voll, "Two Biographies," p. 637.
5?Texts and translations of the letters are being prepared for publication by the working group at
the University of Bergen.
5"Al-Jacfari,ed., AC'tr,pp. 49-52.
52OnIbn Idris' impact on al-MadanT,see M. Lings, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh
Ahmad al-cAlawi, 2nd ed. (London, 1973), p. 71. See also, F. De Jong, "Madaniyya," Encyclopaedia
of Islam (new ed.), vol. 5, pp. 948-49.
53Studiesof the Sanusiyya are numerous: on al-Saniusi's teachings, see C. A. Nallino, "Le dottrine
del fondatore della confraternita senussita," in Raccolta di scritti, editi ed inediti (Rome, 1940), vol.
2, pp. 395-410. On the Khatmiyya, see J. 0. Voll, A History of the Khatmiyyah in the Sudan,
unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1969. On the Idrisiyya in Egypt, see F. De Jong,
Turuq and Turuq-Linked Institutions in Egypt (Leiden, 1978), p. 111 and passim, and in the Sudan,
Karrar, Athar al-tacalTm,pp. 82-95.
54Ahmad b. Idris b. al-Nasayh, Kitab al-ibdna al-nturiyyaft shdan sahib al-tar'qa al-Khatmiyya,
ms., ff. 5-6 (Bergen collection, accession no. 240). This important source on the history of the
Khatmiyya is being edited for publication by Karrar and Dr. M. I. Abu Salim and translated by the
present writers.
"5Al-Jacfari,ed., Actdr,p. 96.
56Wefollow here Delanoue, Moralistes et politiques, pp. 350-52 (especially p. 350, n. 12) and 615.
Al-'Attar's fatwa appears to be the same work as described by Gran, Islamic Roots, pp. 139-43 and
199. There are, however, certain differences between Delanoue and Gran; Delanoue reasonably
identifies the unnamed mujtahid as al-Mlrghani because his Sudanese enquirer says that the former,
while in the Sudan, called himself khdtim al-awliyd', "the seal of the saints"; Gran states that the
fatwa which he entitles Risalat al-'alldma al-cAttdrfT 'l-ijtihddwas directed against al-Saniusi who, as
far as is known, never visited the Sudan. In an appendix (p. 199) Gran says that al-Sanius, "was a
student or acquaintance of al-'Attar when he came to al-Azhar around 1832." "Around 1832,"
al-Sanfisi was either with his master in Sabya or acting as his agent in Mecca. Delanoue gives the
218 Rex S. O'Fahey and Ali Salih Karrar

name as we have given it; Gran gives it as "Muhammad b. Abi SaCid al-KirkasTal-Sannawl" (the
latter is probably al-Sinnari, i.e., from Sinnar, occasionally spelled with .sad), from al-Shind7
(obviously Shendi or Shandi), living at al-Shaki (a town unknown to us). The differences continue;
according to Delanoue (p. 615), the manuscript of the fatwa is to be found in the Dar al-Kutub
(Cairo), majmfcTaymfir, 343, ff. 44-81, having been copied in Jumada II 1266/April-May 1850 by
one 'All Abui Futuih.According to Gran (p. 199), it is to be found in majami'Taymuir, 323, ff. 45-81,
being copied in 1841/1264 (but 1264 = 1847-48) by 'All b. Futuih.
57Isma'll al-Wall (d. 1863) says this clearly in his Kitab al-'uhud al-wafiya al-jaliyya ff kayfiyyat
sifat al-tarTqa al-lsmdCiliyya (completed Ramadan 1239/May 1824), ms. f. 5 (Bergen collection,
accession no. 197; there are printed versions), "I took the tariqa from him, that is his tariqa known as
the Khatmiyya." Trimingham's assertion that al-MTrghanlinaugurated his order after Ibn Idris' death
is unfounded, Sufi Orders in Islam, p. 117. For the Funj Chronicle, see Makhtuta katib al-shina,
Busayll, ed., p. 73.
58Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi, p. 12. It is, perhaps, indicative of al-Mlrghanm'srelationship with
his own class-the Meccan ulama-that his first zawiya was established at Dar al-Khayzaran in the
heart of Mecca; Chatelier, Confreries, p. 14.
59Seefurther, Abdalla Mahmoud Ibrahim, A History of the Ismaciliyya Tariqa, unpublished Ph.D.
thesis, University of London, 1980. A qasTdaon one of the Nuba Mountains expeditions by a son of
IsmaCll al-Wali, Ahmad al-Azhari (d. 1882), is given in Muhammad CAbd al-Rahlm, Nafathat
al-yara'Jf 'l-adab wa 'l-tarfTkhwa 'l-ijtimda(Khartoum, 1932), vol. 1, pp. 104-6.
60What follows is based on Ali Salih Karrar, The Sufi Brotherhoods in the Sudan until 1900,
unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Bergen, 1985, pp. 111-24. This thesis provides a detailed
account of those tariqas in the Sudan derived, directly or indirectly, from Ibn Idrls.
6'This is underscored in a letter from Ibn Idrls' sons to al-Rashld, dated Shawwal 1273/May-June
1857, expressing their support for him in his time of troubles, i.e., the heresy charges; al-Jacfarl,
A'tdr, pp. 65-66.
62The name is given thus in an autograph sanad issued by al-Rashid in 1272/1855-56; Bergen
collection, KH327.15/34.
63Chatelier,Confrries, pp. 94-95.
64Martin, Muslim Brotherhoods, pp. 177-201. "Al-Shaykh" was his name and not a title, as most
sources state. On another student of al-Rashld, Muhammad al-Dandarawl and his order, see Karrar,
Sufi Brotherhoods, pp. 122-24. The extent of Ibn Idrls' influence in northeast Africa has yet to be
fully charted; on the Salihiyya, Ahmadiyya, and Dandarawiyya in Somalia and East Africa, see
E. Cerulli, Somalia (Rome, 1957), vol. 1, pp. 189-95; I. M. Lewis, "Sufism in Somaliland: a Study in
Tribal Islam," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 17 (1955), 581-602 and 18
(1956), 145-60, and A. H. Nimtz, Jr., Islam and Politics in East Africa (Minneapolis, 1980),
pp. 61-62.
65Rinn,Marabouts, p. 46.
66Themost recent study of the Padri movement, but based largely on Dutch sources, is C. Dobbin,
Islamic Revivalism in a Changing Peasant Economy: Central Sumatra, 1784-1847 (London, 1983).
Professor Anthony Johns of the Australian National University points out (personal communication)
that no study of the religious writings generated by the movement has yet been made; this he hopes
to undertake.
67Delanoue, Moralistes et politiques, p. 128, n. 64a.
68Karrar,personal observation, 1982; see also, Karrar, Athar al-taCdllm,pp. 67-69.
69Muhammad Ibrahim Abi Salim, ed., Manshiurt al-Mahdiyya (Beirut, 1969), p. 25. See also,
Holt, Mahdist State, pp. 105-6 for an analysis of the proclamation. On al-Dufarl, see Karrar, Sufi
Brotherhoods, pp. 118-21. There is a Mahdist thread to the Ibn Idrls story, although he himself
denied any claims to be the Mahdi; see Martin, Muslim Brotherhoods, p. 116. Both al-Sanius and
al-Mlrghanl were preoccupied with the Mahdist idea; for the former, see Martin, op. cit., pp. 116-18,
and for the latter, Ibn al-Nasayh, Kitab al-ibana, ms., ff. 55 and 71-76.
70Trimingham,Sufi Orders, pp. 106-7. A major question to be answered is the relationship, if any,
between al-Tijafii and Ibn Idrls; al-Nabhinl, for example, describes the former as a khalffa of the
latter, see Yusuf al-Nabhanl, Jami' karamdt al-awliyad(Cairo, n.d.), vol. 1, p. 349.
 The Enigmatic Imam 219

7"Trimingham,Sufi Orders, pp. 115, who in the question of Pan-Islamism cites a brief biography
by a grandson, Shams al-Din b. 'Abd al-Muta'al, Kanz al-sacdda wa 'l-rashad (Khartoum, 1939),
pp. 9-18. By the 20th century, the IdrisTfamily in both the Yemen and the Sudan were involved in
both secular and religious politics; see, Reissner, "Die IdrTsiden,"passim, and Karrar, Athar al-
ta'alTm,pp. 121-42.
72DeJong, Turuq and Turuq-Linked Institutions, p. 151, n. 120.
73TheMahdi used the Prophetic vision (hadra) to justify the overthrow of an entire political order.
74See further, Karrar, Sufi Brotherhoods, pp. 133-73. Nor is it true to say that these orders were
less concerned with silsilas (Trimingham, Sufi Orders, pp. 106-7). The literature abounds with them;
one example is al-Sanuisl, al-SalsabTl al-marn ff 'l-tardiq al-arba'Tn(there are several editions; one
may be found on the margins of the same author's al-Masa'il al-'ashar, Cairo, 1353/1953).
75See Dobbin, Islamic Revivalism, passim; for Sinnar, see Jay Spaulding, The Heroic Age of
Sinndr (East Lansing, 1985).