Abd al-Rahman al-Tha'alibi

Abdul-Rahman al-Tha'alibi (Arabic: أبو زيد عـبـد الـرحـمـن بن مـخـلـوف الـثـعـالـبـي, romanized: Abū Zayd ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Makhlūf ath-Tha‘ālibī) (1384 CE/785 AH – 1479 CE/875 AH) was an Arab Scholar, Imam and Sufi wali.

[1] He had great interpersonal skills and devoted his entire life in service of the most deprived, to dhikr of Allah, and to writing of over 100 books and treatises.

Abdul-Rahman al-Tha'alibi was born in the year 1384 CE/785 AH in Isser in modern-day Boumerdès Province into a pious family with a lineage going back to Ja'far ibn Abi Talib.

In 1392, he made another trip to Bejaia (200 km east of Algiers) seeking knowledge where his father died.

He met the sheikhs Mohammed Ibn Khalf al-Ubay and Abû al-Mahdi al-Ghabrînî (d. 1413 CE) who introduced him to Sufism and tafsir.

[5] Abdul-Rahman taught several murids and tolbas in Algiers, as: The zawiya contains his tomb, though it is a misnomer since it does not contain any Sufi order in the building.

In his lifetime (1384-1479 CE) the region was split into three states whose legal schools stood out: Tunis, Tlemcen and Fez.