Al-Suhaili

Who was Al-Suhaili?

Sidi Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman b. Abd Allah al-Suhayli, was born in Al-Andalus, Fuengirola and died in Marrakesh. He is one of the seven saints of that city. Al-Suhayli wrote books on grammar and Islamic law. He is especially well known as an Islamic scholar by his commentary on the sira of Ibn Hisham. Al-Suhayli came to Marrakesh around 1182 at the call of the Almohad sultan Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur. He died here three years later, and his zaouia, in a cemetery just outside Bab er Robb, hides a former gate in the wall called Bab el Charia. His tomb is visited yearly by many pilgrims. The cemetery Bab Ech Charia, walled today, is built at the place where the Almohad troops of Abd El Moumen defeated the Almoravids in 1147.