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The Moroccan city Fes, like the other early cities of the Maghreb, was founded as a place of refuge for the Ahl al-Bayt, the Family of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Shaykh Umair Haseeb, who spent several years studying in Fes, joins Omar Rais to discuss the history of the city and the intentions with which it was founded by Idriss I, a descendent of the Prophet ﷺ.
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE
- Learning from the past to create communities in the present
- What the Qur’an says about previous peoples / civilisations
- The Maghreb as the ‘Greater West’
- What the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said about the Maghreb
- What is ‘The West’?
- Islam in Morocco is ‘built from the edges’
- Moulay Idris and his arrival in the Maghreb
- Zerhoun, the first city
- Refuge for the Ahl al-Bayt
- Shurafa – descendants of the Prophet ﷺ
- Tarim, Yemen and similarities with the Maghreb as a place of refuge for the Ahl al-Bayt
- Moulay Idris II and his intentions in founding Fes
- The Zawiyas of Fes
- Ilm al-Rijal and the reverence of the people of Fes towards its founders
- Arrival of the Andalusians
- The building of the Qarrawiyyin and Andulusian Mosque by Fatima and Maryam al-Fihriya
- The Madhabs of Fes
- Laying foundations of localised knowledge
- Guilds through the spiritual tradition
- ‘The Healing Barber’
- Significant figures of Fes
- The spatial hierarchy of Fes as a reflection of a metaphysical reality
- Markings of colonialism on Fes
- What intentions travellers should make when visiting Fes
- Visiting tombs and the adab of travel
- Mozaic’s annual Morocco retreat
PEOPLE / THINGS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- Richard Bullet
- Moulay Idris I
- Moulay Idris II
- Titus Burckhardt
- Idrisid Dynasty
- Imam al-Tiridi
- Tariq ibn Ziyad
- Hakim I
- Fatima and Maryam al-Fihriya
- The Risala of Imam Ibn Zayd al-Qarawayni
- Sidi Bouzida
- Ibn al-Arif
- Abu Ghalib
Shaykh Umair Haseeb is a graduate of Al-Qarawiyyin University in Fes, Morocco, where he completed the traditional ʿĀlimiyyah program with a focus on Maliki jurisprudence and Arabic studies. He is currently engaged in postgraduate studies at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, focusing on Islamic legal theory and law. Shaykh Umair presently serves as the co-founder and resident scholar of Mozaic in Chicago, a nonprofit ‘third space’.
