Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi

Who is Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi?

Abdelwahid al-Marrakushi was a Moroccan historian who lived during the Almohad period.

Abdelwahid was born in Marrakech in 1185 during the reign of Yaqub al-Mansur, in 1194 he moved to Fes to pursue his studies, but continued traveling back and forth between the two cities for academic purposes. In 1206 he left for al-Andalus where he stayed for nine years before returning to Morocco. In 1224 he completed Kitab al-mujib fi talkhis akhbar ahl al-Maghrib, a history of the Almohad dynasty as well as the preceding dynasty of the Almoravids coupled with a summary of Al Andalus history from the Muslim conquest until 1224. The book was written in a lighthearted spirit with many anecdotes; Abdelwahid explained that his intention was to inform and entertain the students in a summarized way since academic history books tend to be overly lengthy which can sometimes bore the reader. The book contains valuable information about Ibn Rushd as well as information directly taken from the Almohad archives, various princes and accounts of events that the author personally witnessed.