Abu Yahya ibn al-Sakkak

Abu Yahya ibn al-Sakkak al-Miknasi, full name Abu Yahya or Abu Abd Allah Mohammed ibn Abu Galib ibn Ahmad ibn Mohammed ibn Abu-l-Hasan Ali ibn Mohammed ibn as-Sakkak al-Miknasi. (died 818 AH-1415/6 AD), was a Moroccan Sufi mystic, Maliki scholar, historian and genealogist of great repute, from Tadla, friend of Ibn Khaldun and especially well known as author of an advice to Muslim kings, Nush muluk al-islam bi-al-tarif bi-ma yajibu alay-him min huquq ila bayt al-kiram.^[1] In his advice Ibn Sakkak expressed skepticism about the divine right claimed by some rulers in his time.^[2]

Ibn Sakkak is also the author of Kitab al-Uslub min-al-kalam ‘ala la hawla wa-la quwwata illa billah (known as Kitab al-Asalib), the first book about the Tariqa Shadhiliyya in Morocco, in which he used the name "Shadhili" for Ibn Abbad al-Rundi (d. 792/1377).^[3]

References

1. M. Ben Chekroun, La Vie intellectuelle marocaine sous les Mérinides et les Wattasides, 1974, pp. 368-72
2. Saida, Sqalli Houssini, Thesis, Contribution à l'Étude du discours politico-réligieux sous les derniers Mérinides: les Lettres d'Ibn Abbad de Ronda au Sultan Abu Faris et le Nush Muluk al-Islam d'Ibn As-Sakkak., 1992
3. Éric Geoffroy, Une voie soufie dans le monde:la Shâdhiliyya, p.75