In Abu l-Abbass Neighbors, Ahmed Toufiq, the Moroccan Minister of Religious Affairs and a prominent figure in his countrys Sufi movements, presents his readers with a portrait of one of the countrys most significant historical Sufi figures, Abu l-Abbas as-Sabti, generally known as Si BelAbbas, with a renowned shrine in his name in the city of Marrakesh. Toufiq places his career in a fraught period of Moroccan history, as one Amazigh Muslim dynastythe Almoravidsis challenged and eventually replaced by a yet more conservative movementthe Almohads. From their base in the capital city of Marrakesh, both dynasties control not only the territories of Morocco itself but also large tracts of the land across the straits named after its Muslim conqueror, Tariq, namely Spain. The novel skillfully combines descriptions of the conflicts on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar with debates over the interpretation of Islamic doctrine and the development of a variety of sciences, all placed within a social and intellectual context imbued with Sufi thought.
Ahmed Toufiq (born 22 June 1943) is a Moroccan historian and novelist who has served as Minister for Islamic Affairs in the government of Morocco since 2002. Born in the Marigha Village in the High Atlas, he completed his primary and secondary studies in Marrakech, then enrolled at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at the University of Rabat where he obtained a bachelors degree in history in 1968, then a masters degree in history. The topic of his 1979 Ph.D was the social history of Moroccan rural areas in the 19th century. After teaching for several years, he joined the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences in Rabat. He was appointed director of the Institute for African Studies at the Mohammed V University in 1989 and held the position for six years until 1995. From 1995 to 2002, he worked as director of the National Library of Morocco. In 1989 Ahmed Toufiq received his first Moroccan Book Prize for his novel Shajarat Hinna Wa Qamar (translated into English as Moon and Henna Tree). In 2001 he served as a Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at Harvard Divinity School, affiliated with its Center for the Study of World Religions. Since November 2002, Toufiq has served as Moroccos Minister for Islamic Affairs. He is also a personal advocate of interfaith dialogue and currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for The Elijah Interfaith Institute. In June 2011 Roger Allen retired from his position as the Sascha Jane Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also served as Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations. He served as President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) for the year 2009-2010. He is Honorary President of the Banipal Trust and Sub-editor of the Encyclopedia of Islam 3rd edition for modern Arabic literature. He is a 2020 winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Shaikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding (Qatar).
Among his numerous published studies on Arabic literature are: The Arabic Novel: an historical and critical introduction(2nd edition 1995, 2nd Arabic edition 1998), and The Arabic Literary Heritage in 1998 (and in abbreviated paperback form in 2000, as Introduction to Arabic Literature; Arabic translation, Cairo, 2003).
He has translated a number of fictional works by modern Arab writers, including the Egyptian Nobel Laureate, Naguib Mahfouz: a collection of short stories, Gods World (1973), and the novels, Autumn Quail, Mirrors, Karnak Café, Khan al-Khalili, and One Hour Left. He has also translated novels and short stories by a number of other Arab authors, including Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Yusuf Idris, `Abd al-rahman Munif, Mayy Telmissany, Halim Barakat, BenSalim Himmich, Ahmad al-Tawfiq, and Hanan al-Shaykh.
Since retirement, he has published a number of translations: the first complete edition of the original episodes of Muhammad al-Muwaylihis Hadith `Isa ibn Hisham (What `Isa ibn Hisham Told Us, 2 vols., [ Library of Arabic Literature series], New York: New York University Press, 2015); a novel (The Elusive Fox) and short-story collection (Monarch of the Square) by the Moroccan author, Muhammad Zifzaf (with Mbarek Sryfi); `Abd al-karim Ghallabs novel, Dafan-na al-madi (We Have Buried the Past, London: Haus Publishing, 2018); Naguib Mahfouzs newly discovered collection of narratives (untitled in the original, The Quarter, London: Saqi Books, 2019); and Ameen Rihanis travelogue, The Heart of Lebanon (Syracuse University Press, 2021),. Currently in press are two other historical novels by Reem Bassiouney, Sons of the People (Syracuse University Press), and Al-Qatai` (Georgetown University Press).
