His great-great-grandfather Abu ʾl-Qāsim is said to have come to Tunis after it was conquered by the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min in 1159.
[2] Al-Tijānī entered the Hafsid chancery during the reign of Abū ʿAṣīda Muḥammad II (1295–1309).
It is an account of al-Tijānī's 32-month journey from Tunis to Tripoli and back, first published with a French translation in 1852–1853 and in a critical edition by Hassan Husni Abd al-Wahhab in 1958.
[2] The original plan behind the journey was that al-Liḥyānī would conduct military operations and then meet a caravan returning from Morocco and travel with it to Egypt before continuing on to Mecca.
Because of an outbreak of disease at Gabès, al-Liḥyānī accepted the invitation of the chief of the Mahāmīd to host them at Ghomrassen, a four days' journey away.
They first followed the coastal road for two days through Teboulbou and Mareth to a place called Ajāss near Metameur.
They were also informed that the Moroccan sultan, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, had been assassinated, almost certainly delaying the return of the diplomatic caravan.
[3] At Zanzūr, al-Liḥyānī was informed by the chief of the Banū Sālim that his safety could not be guaranteed through his territory on account of rebellions.
He decided to move his party to Tripoli, where it stayed in the dilapidated citadel for the next eighteen months.