Abu Inan Faris al-Marini

Abu Inan Faris ibn Ali al-Marini, a sultan of the Marinids, the son of Abu al-Hasan al-Marini. Ibn Khaldun mentions him in "al-Ibar". He died in 759 AH; the Gregorian conversion is derived. ¹

According to Ibn Khaldun he seized the affair while his father was besieged in Qayrawan after the battle of the Arabs in 749 AH, claimed it for himself, and travelled to the Maghrib, and the matter ended with his father's deposition on his return. ²

He took Tlemcen in 753 AH and Ifriqiya in 758 AH, and held all that his predecessors had held. He built the well-known madrasas in Fez and Meknes, and Ibn Khaldun himself taught in them. ¹

His vizier killed him in 759 AH according to the common dates. He is among those to whom the Marinid state is attributed. ¹

• The page numbers for matters other than the account of the deposition need an additional source.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) entry describes Abu 'Inan Faris, the eleventh Marinid sultan of Fez, born in 729/1329. He had himself proclaimed at Tlemcen in 749/1349 when his father, Abu l-Hasan 'Ali, was returning to Morocco as a fugitive after the defeat at Kairouan. Ibn al-Ahmar describes him as very tall and fair, a fearless horseman, and learned in literature and law. Like his father he built extensively: he completed medersas at Fez, Meknes and Algiers, and the Bu 'Inaniyya at Fez is the most monumental of the Maghribi colleges. He took the caliphal title amir al-mu'minin, which his father had not borne, and seized Tlemcen from the 'Abd al-Wadids in 1352, and Bougie in the same year. ³