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Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Idrīs (1760–1837) was an influential Moroccan mystic and scholar, to whom more than fifty works are attributed. His students have established several Ṣūfī orders. 1. Biography Aḥmad b. Idrīs was born in Maysūr, near Fez, in Morocco, in 1173/1760. He studied at the university of al-Qarawiyyīn, in Fez, and later taught there, as may be inferred from a remark he made later in life. Although he does not mention his theology teachers by name, they are known to us from other sources, for instance, from his di…

Anti-Ṣūfī polemics have existed nearly as long as Ṣūfism itself. Ṣūfism has been an element of Islamic history almost from the beginning and forms an integral part of Islam, but it has also faced opposition throughout its history. That opposition has frequently been expressed in clichés, as, for instance, in the charge of antinomism. As Ṣūfism has evolved, so have the objects of criticism. Although little is known of the earliest history of Ṣūfism and little scholarly attention has been paid to it, the issues that were necessarily to upset mainstream Islam a…