Saints and Tombs of Tunis

Saint

Aisha al-Manoubia

A Tunisian woman saint, known as Sayyida Aisha . Her full name is Aisha bint Imran b. Sulayman al-Mannubiyya. She pledged herself to Abu 'l-Hasan al-Shadhili, founding master of the Shadhiliyya, and was revered among the people as a saint. She was born in the village of Mannuba , 8 km west of the city of Tunis. The sources that describe the Hafsid dynasty ruling Tunis in her day and the village of Mannuba do not mention her; what is known of her life rests on a short hagiographical work compiled from the collection of legends written by the imam of the Mannuba Mosque. According to this work her inclination to Sufism was evident while she was still a child; she is said to have memorised the Qur'an at an early age. When her family sought to marry her to her paternal cousin she refused the match in an ascetic spirit; she fled to Tunis, took refuge in a caravanserai outside Bab al-Gorjani , and lived by the wool she spun and wove with her own hands. She pledged herself to Abu 'l-Hasan al-Shadhili. It is recorded that her spiritual life developed and deepened with time and that miracles began to be manifested through her. At about seventy-six years of age, on 16 Shawwal 653 (18 November 1255) or 21 Rajab 655 (4 August 1257), she died — according to the report, while reciting the verse "Truly God is with those who are God-fearing and those who do good" (al-Nahl 16/128) — and was buried in the Maqbarat al-Sharaf cemetery at Bab al-Gorjani. Her Circle of Influence — Many legends about her circulate among the people. The widespread giving of the names Sayyida and Aisha to girls and Mannubi to boys in Tunisia stems from her living fame; the shrine built over her grave became a place of visitation for the women of Tunis. Her Poetry and Sufi Line — Her line is one of asceticism and charity. It is related that she kept nothing for herself but distributed what she had to the poor, and that one night, having gone to bed without giving away a dirham she had with her, she said, "Today our servanthood is deficient." She is said to have completed 1520 recitations of the whole Qur'an in her lifetime. Her understanding of remembrance is summed up in her saying, "There is no good in remembrance made by the tongue alone unless the heart takes part." Her Tomb and Complex — In the early XX century one of those excessively devoted to her memory, claiming that al-Mannubiyya's grave had been revealed to him, built a wooden shrine over it, and the place became a site of visitation for the women of Tunis. Around the caravanserai where she took refuge after leaving her family and spent her life, a mosque, guest rooms, several houses and shops were built in time, and a small lodge came into being there. The house where she was born became a place held sacred in the reign of the Husaynid Muhammad al-Sadiq Bey (1859-1882), and with its zawiya, private apartments and a covered courtyard where the order's rites were performed collectively it turned into a full lodge. The source records that these buildings are in ruins.

TunusDied 665 AHView

Scholar

Ibn Arafa al-Warghami

The great Maliki jurist of Tunis, and one of the leading figures of the Maliki school in North Africa. His full name was Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. 'Arafa al-Warghammi al-Tunisi . He was born in the city of Tunis on 27 Rajab 716 (15 October 1316). He belonged to the Arabized Berber tribe of Warghamma. He received his first education from his father and from Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad b. Sa'd al-Ansari. He then read exegesis, law and legal theory with the qadi of Tunis Ibn 'Abd al-Salam al-Hawwari, hadith with the traditionist al-Wadi Ashi, and the rational sciences with Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad al-Abili and Abu 'Abd Allah Ibn al-Habbab. From scholars such as Ibn Salama, Ibn Harun al-Kinani, 'Umar b. Qaddah, Ibn al-Jabbab and Ibn 'Andaras he studied, alongside the Islamic sciences, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic and medicine. He travelled to Tlemcen and Tripoli in pursuit of learning. When scholars such as Ibn 'Abd al-Salam, al-Wadi Ashi and Ibn al-Habbab died in the plague that broke out in the middle of the VIII (XIV) century, he filled the gap they left with his learning in law, legal theory, exegesis, Qur'anic readings, hadith and theology. In 750 (1349) he was appointed imam of the Zaytuna Mosque , and in 772 (1370) its preacher; a year later he was charged with the office of chief mufti. In 792 (1390) he made the pilgrimage; in Egypt, where he stayed for a time on the journey, he met Sultan Barquq. He declined the offers of judgeship made to him. He taught, especially exegesis and law, in various institutions, above all the Zaytuna Mosque and the Tawfiq Madrasa; as his fame spread beyond Tunis, people began to come to him from many regions to seek his legal opinions and study with him. He was a man of asceticism and piety; apart from prayer and his teaching circle he was seldom seen in public, and he did not meet statesmen except for official appointments and invitations to give his opinion on certain scholarly questions. He founded endowments for charitable works and for the freeing of slaves, and gave material support to many people, his students first of all. He died in Tunis on 24 Jumada al-Akhira 803 (9 February 1401) and was buried in the Jellaz Cemetery , near the tomb of Sharif Husayn. His Circle of Influence — Through his legal opinions, his works and his pupils he contributed significantly to the development of Islamic thought in the Islamic world, and especially in North Africa. His best-known pupils include Ibn al-Jazari, Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani , Ibn Naji, al-Mujari, al-Burzuli, Abu Hamid Ibn Zahira, al-Ubbi, Ibn Marzuq al-Hafid, Burhan al-Din Ibn Farhun and Ibn Qunfudh. His opinions were preserved, besides his own works, especially in collections by his pupils such as al-Burzuli's al-Nawazil and al-Wansharisi's al-Mi'yar , and have been compiled and prepared for publication by Sa'd Ghurab. His Poetry and Sufi Line — His line was law and theology: in matters of creed he upheld the views of the Ash'ariyya. His Works — ① al-Mukhtasar fi'l-fiqh ( al-Mukhtasar al-kabir , al-Mukhtasar al-fiqhi ): his most important work, on which his fame rests; on Maliki law, in five large volumes, composed between 772-786 (1370-1384), with manuscript copies in the libraries of Fez and Marrakesh. ② Hudud Ibn 'Arafa ( Kitab al-Hudud ): compiled from the definitions of legal terms in the Mukhtasar , and published with the commentary of Muhammad b. Qasim al-Rassa'. ③ al-Mukhtasar fi usul al-fiqh : a work of about 500 pages written to complete Ibn al-Hajib's Mukhtasar , drawing especially on al-Amidi's al-Ihkam ; completed in 799 (1397). ④ Mukhtasar al-Hawfi fi'l-fara'id : an abridgement and commentary of al-Hawfi's Fara'id . ⑤ al-Mukhtasar al-shamil fi usul al-din : it treats theological questions in the arrangement of al-Baydawi's Tawali' al-anwar ; completed on 27 Ramadan 789 (11 October 1387). ⑥ al-Mukhtasar fi'l-mantiq : completed before 789 (1387), small in size but important. ⑦ Tafsir Ibn 'Arafa : notes taken by his pupils in his exegesis lessons, the most famous being those of al-Ubbi. The sources also mention other works such as al-Mabsut fi'l-fiqh , Manzuma fi qira'at Ya'qub , al-Tusa'iyyat and al-'Ushariyyat fi'l-hadith .

TunusDied 803 AHView

Saints and Tombs of Tunis

Map of Tunis

Records in Tunis

Sidi Mahrez

Aisha al-Manoubia

Nearby cities

Ibn Arafa al-Warghami