The Most Prominent Moroccan Scholars in Egypt.. A Spirituality Connecting The East to The West

Some people always say that “if the East is the land of the prophets, then Morocco is the land of the Pious.” Almost no city or village in Morocco is devoid of a shrine or memorial for one of the “good people.” Rather, the presence of the “Moroccan pious” extended outside the country in the east and south of the Sahara.

As researcher Aisha Abdel Rahman says in her study, “popular communication between Egypt and Morocco is not only the result of arts,” but before that, it was linked to “the Egyptians’ popular love for several Moroccan pious,” who preferred to settle in Egypt, and they became “good people” famous, Simple people come from different parts of El-Mahrousa to visit their decorated shrines, seeking blessings. In this report, we list the most famous of them:

1. Sayyidi Ahmad Al-Badawiyy

His shrine is located in Tanta, the capital of the middle of the Delta. He was born in the city of Fez in the year 596 AH. He grew up there, memorized the Qur’an, and learned some Maliki jurisprudence there. He went with his father to Hajj while he was in the prime of his youth, and on his return, he settled with his father in Egypt after they visited Iraq, and Ahmad Al-Badawiyy stayed in Tanta from the year 637 AH until he died in 675 AH.

The shrine of “Sayyidi Ahmad al-Badawiyy” is one of the most famous shrines in all of Egypt, frequented by people on holidays and seasons, and they believe in its dignity and blessings. In his name, he founded the “Ahmadi Institute” in Tanta, one of the oldest religious institutes of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif.

2. Sayyidi Abu Al-Hasan Al-Shathiliyy

About 150 km from the city of Marsa Alam, and in the far south of Egypt, there is “Wadi Hamithara”, where a small village called “Abu al-Hasan al-Shathiliyy” is located, about the shrine of one of the Sufi “Salaah” who is located in it, Abu al-Hasan Ali bin Abdullah bin Abd al-Jabbar al-Shadhili al-Maghribi, to whom the Shadhili order is attributed.

Abu al-Hasan al-Shathiliyy was a student in his youth at the hands of Imam Abd al-Salam bin Mishish in Morocco, then he left for Tunisia and rose there to high homes in worship and mysticism, before he traveled again to Egypt, where he married and resided in Alexandria, and passed away in “Wadi Hamithara” on his way To the pilgrimage, then his place of death turned into a famous shrine by the devotees and all the popular groups in Egypt.

3. The Pious Sheikha Fatima

It is interesting that the phenomenon of “guardians” in Morocco was not limited to men only, but also included the female component, and the “good Sheikha Fatima” was only one of the “good” women who visited, and she is the mother of Abdul Karim Fatima, the daughter of Sheikh Abi Al-Hassan Saad Al-Khair bin Muhammad bin Sahel Al-Ansari Al-Balance, her father took her on his journey to the East, and took her to Iraq, before settling in Egypt, and her tomb is located in “Zakaria Village” in Egypt.

4. Imam Al-Bousiriyy

He is Imam Sharaf al-Din Muhammad bin Saeed bin Hammad al-Sinhaji al-Busairi, who was named al-Busairi after his birth in Busir in Upper Egypt, and it is from the villages of Beni Suef, but his family’s roots extend to the Berber Sanhaja tribe in Morocco, where his father moved to Egypt to receive Arabic sciences and literature.

Al-Busairi was born in the year 608 AH. The most wonderful eloquent prophetic praises poems.

5. Sheikh Abi Al-Abbas Al-Mursi

Imam Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi was born in the city of Murcia in the year 616 AH corresponding to (1219 AD), which is one of the cities of Andalusia. His parents, while he and his brother survived, and Abu al-Abbas settled in Tunisia and accompanied Sheikh Abu al-Hasan al-Shathiliyy there, where he married his daughter, and they traveled together to Alexandria.

When his sheik Al-Shazly died, Abu Al-Abbas succeeded him in providing his religious lessons until he died, and the mosque of Al-Mursi Abu Al-Abbas was named after him, which is one of the oldest and most famous mosques built in Alexandria, famous for its distinctive shaped domes, which is a destination for Islamic religious tourism. The time of the birth of “Morsi Abu al-Abbas”

6. The Greatest Sheikh Muhyi Al-Deen Ibn Arabiyy

He is the great mystic, Imam Muhyi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Arabi, one of the mystical fighters in the Islamic world. He was born in Murcia in Andalucia in the year 558 AH corresponding to 1164, from a Berber mother and an Andalusian father. He studied religious sciences in Seville and took Greek philosophies and Indian knowledge, which were popular at that time in Andalusia.

Then he moved to the Orient, where he toured Iraq, Damascus, and Egypt. He is known for his religious ideas deep into mysticism and symbolism, influenced by Platonic philosophy. He is one of the few clerics in the Islamic world who reserved a place for them in Western thought, where his remaining works have been translated into many languages. foreign.

Although the Sufi mystic Muhyiddeen Ibn Arabi died in Damascus, he still enjoyed a special place in the guarded country, where many Sufis and devotees accepted his thought and method there in Egypt.