Ibn Machich

ʻAbd al-Salām ibn Mashīsh al-ʻAlamī (Arabic: عبد السلام بن مشيش العلمي‎‎) (also spelled Ibn Bashīsh, Ibn Manish, Ibn Machich, Ben Mshish) was a Sufi saint who lived during the reign of the Almohad dynasty. He was born in the region of Beni Aross near Tanger and lived from 1140 to 1227 AD. At one point in his life he withdrew to the mountain Jabal al-ʻAlam, near Larache, where his mausoleum now is situated. He was the spiritual guide of Abu-l-Hassan ash-Shadhili, his only disciple. His own spiritual legacy was connected with that of Abu Madyan, the great formulator of Moroccan Sufism. He is the ancestor of Ali ibn Rashid, founder of Chefchaouen.

He is the author of a collection of reflections about religious and political life in his time and of a famous eulogy of the prophet Mohammed (taṣliyah) on which a commentary was written by Ahmad ibn Ajiba. He also wrote a metaphysical paraphrase of a widely known prayer, called al-Salat al-Mashishiyah, in which the believer calls on God to bless the Prophet to thank him for having received Islam through him. In it, Ibn Mashish sees in the prophet Muhammad as an expression of the one Spirit from which all revelation comes and which is the eternal mediator between the ungraspable Godhead and the world. He also gave the Islamic world a prayer of salawat called Salawat al-Nariyah. It is still recited today by Muslims around the globe.

Mashish means 'little cat' in the Berber language, and was given to his father as a nickname by the tribesmen of the Beni Aros.

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